Rising sea levels are the catastrophic image of global warming
But the threat of melting ice at high latitudes goes much deeper
Locked within the frozen soil in these regions are vast pools of prehistoric carbon
Once freed, this carbon has the potential to accelerate the current rate at which the earth is heating up thanks in large part to microbes in the soil
A new study shows that 5 years’ worth of warming is enough to seriously alter communities of bacteria priming them to convert newly thawed carbon into greenhouse gases like methane
Experiments in Alaska revealed dramatic changes to the composition and functional structure of microbial communities which suggested an evolving sensitivity to warming over time
The findings contrast those obtained from a similar experiment conducted over only 1.5 years and therefore serve as a critical warning
Left unchecked, global warming could wake a sleeping army of hungry microbes