Arctic Seabed Found to Capture Most Ancient Carbon Released from Thawing Permafrost

Contrary to fears that thawing Arctic permafrost would significantly accelerate climate change by releasing ancient carbon into the ocean, new research indicates that most of this land-based carbon becomes buried in the seafloor. A study of sediment cores near Canada's Herschel Island, published in Nature Geoscience, found that marine microorganisms preferentially consume fresh carbon from the ocean, with only about 10 percent of the older permafrost carbon being converted into greenhouse gases.