The car­bon cycle is spee­ding up

First author Kathiravan Meeran conducts measurements at the Icelandic test site near a geothermal rift line. Soil is the largest natural carbon storage in the world. In Northern ecosystems particularly large amounts of carbon are stored, but they are also particularly strongly affected by global warming. A recently published study by an international team led by Michael Bahn of the University of Innsbruck investigated how ongoing warming affects the uptake and release of carbon dioxide in subarctic grassland. The researchers used a geothermally active area in Iceland as a natural ,,climate chamber". Subarctic ecosystems store large amounts of carbon. As the climate continues to warm, more and more carbon is being released into the atmosphere.