Warmer, drier climate may slow the release of carbon dioxide by fungi that produce mushrooms.
Click on image for full size
Image Courtesy of Steve Allison, UCI
In Alaska's Forests, Dried Mushrooms to the Rescue?
News story originally written on November 2, 2008
A group of scientists is trying to learn more about how forests cycle carbon so they can more accurately predict climate change and global warming. To do this, they conducted a study in a northern forest because these regions will probably be hit harder by global warming. Northern forests are located in Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and other northern regions.
When the soil in these forests is warmed, fungi that feed on dead plant material, such as mushrooms, dry out and produce significantly less climate-warming carbon dioxide than fungi in cooler, wetter soil.
Steven Allison and Kathleen Treseder, ecologists at the University of California at Irvine (UCI) researched what happens to carbon dioxide levels when soil from a northern forest is warmed. The scientists conducted their experiment in a spruce forest near Fairbanks, Alaska. They compared soil from a greenhouse they could warm with soil in nearby unheated plots. They took measurements from May through August, and they found that by the end of the growing season in mid-August, the soil in the warmed greenhouses produced about half as much carbon dioxide as soil in cooler control plots. This is because the soil in the greenhouse had about half as much active fungi. When fungi dry out, they either die or become inactive and stop producing carbon dioxide, the scientists said.
The finding came as a surprise to scientists, who expected warmer soil to emit larger amounts of carbon dioxide; extreme cold is believed to slow down the process by which fungi convert soil carbon into carbon dioxide.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
Our
online store includes
issues of NESTA's quarterly journal, The Earth Scientist, full of classroom activities on different topics in Earth and space science, as well as
books on science education!
You might also be interested in:
Over 100 years ago, people worldwide began burning more coal and oil for homes, factories, and transportation. Burning these fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
...more
Earth’s climate is warming. During the 20th Century Earth’s average temperature rose 0.6° Celsius (1.1°F). Scientists are finding that the change in temperature has been causing other aspects of our planet
...more
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a kind of gas. There isn't that much carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, but it is still very important. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. That means it helps trap heat coming
...more
Scientists have learned that Mount Hood, Oregon's tallest mountain, has erupted in the past due to the mixing of two different types of magma. "The data will help give us a better road map to what a future
...more
The Earth's mantle is a rocky, solid shell that is between the Earth's crust and the outer core, and makes up about 84 percent of the Earth's volume. The mantle is made up of many distinct portions or
...more
Some geologic faults that appear strong and stable, slip and slide like weak faults, causing earthquakes. Scientists have been looking at one of these faults in a new way to figure out why. In theory,
...more
The sun goes through cycles that last approximately 11 years. These solar cycle include phases with more magnetic activity, sunspots, and solar flares. They also include phases with less activity. The
...more
