Why might melting permafrost be important for future climate change?

What will be an ideal response?


Melting permafrost results in lakes and water-logged soil with anaerobic (low oxygen levels) conditions that create an environment in which methane producing organisms can flourish. As we will see in Chapter 15, methane is an important greenhouse gas and the atmospheric concentration has more than doubled over pre-industrial levels. Chapter 15 also shows that the rate of increase in atmospheric concentration has slowed or stopped in recent years. This is potentially good news for greenhouse warming, but meting permafrost could change this outlook. Methane emission form regions of melting permafrost could double to over 100 million metric tons per year. However, there is considerable uncertainty in these numbers and some estimates put the potential for methane emissions much higher. .

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

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A flammable vapor concentration that is too rich to ignite is _____.

a. Below the lower explosive limit b. Above the upper explosive limit c. Between the lower explosive limit and the upper explosive limit d. Below the upper explosive limit

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

The physical property of cleavage, the tendency of certain minerals to split along certain planar surfaces, is conspicuous in

A. mica. B. chalk. C. quartz. D. sapphire.

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

Based on the eruptive materials, volcanic hazards, and violence of eruptions, which type of volcano would be the most dangerous to live near? Cite specific hazards and how they could affect nearby residents

What will be an ideal response?

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

If you wanted to make a persistence forecast of minimum and maximum temperatures for a particular city, which type of chart would be most helpful?

a. surface chart b. meteogram c. 500 mb chart d. adiabatic chart e. Doppler radar display

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences