New Research Reveals Soil Microbes Accelerate Global Warming

July 2011

More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes soil to release the potent greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, new research published in this week’s edition of Nature reveals. “This feedback to our changing atmosphere means that nature is not as efficient in slowing global warming as we previously thought,” said Dr Kees Jan van Groenigen, Research Fellow at the Botany department at the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, and lead author of the study.

Van Groenigen, along with colleagues from Northern Arizona University and the University of Florida, gathered all published research to date from 49 different experiments mostly from North America, Europe and Asia, and conducted in forests, grasslands, wetlands, and agricultural fields, including rice paddies. The common theme in the experiments was that they all measured how extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affects how soils take up or release the gases methane and nitrous oxide.

The research team used a statistical technique called meta-analysis, or quantitative data synthesis, a powerful tool for finding general patterns in a sea of conflicting results. “Until now, there was no consensus on this topic, because results varied from one study to the next,” explained Professor Craig Osenberg of the University of Florida and co-author of the study. “However, two strong patterns emerged when we analysed all the data:  firstly more CO2 boosted soil emissions of nitrous oxide in all the ecosystems, and secondly, in rice paddies and wetlands, extra CO2 caused soils to release more methane.” Wetlands and rice fields are two major sources of methane emissions to the atmosphere.