How much methane is hidden in the Arctic’s frozen soil?

There are frozen masses of soil below the shallow Arctic Ocean, in a state called subsea permafrost. These masses contain huge amounts of organic material and methane, but no one knows exactly how much. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Birgit Wild will explore how much methane could be released into the atmosphere as the oceans warm and permafrost thaws. 

The permafrost below the Arctic formed during the last ice age and now functions like a lid, holding in large amounts of methane and organic material. However, as the climate warms, the permafrost will thaw and methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, will seep into the atmosphere. 

Because underwater permafrost can thaw rapidly it is a “tipping point” that may drastically change the climate, but we do not know exactly how much methane could be released into the atmosphere. To find out, Dr Birgit Wild from Stockholm University will investigate how much methane gas is encapsulated in the underwater permafrost in a project called SuPerTip. 

As the subsea permafrost thaws, microbes can also start to produce new methane from the organic material, although there are microbes that oxidize methane gas into carbon dioxide, a milder form of greenhouse gas. An important element of Birgits Wild’s project is thus to find out how much methane there may be in the thawing soil. The knowledge she obtains will be important to the UN’s climate forecasts.

Photo Patrik Lundin