Assamese in pioneer work RAJIV KONWAR Guwahati, Oct. 25: A scientist from Assam is among the group of scientists who have for the first time mapped potential greenhouse gas emission hotspots caused by thawing grounds in the northern hemisphere.
Santonu Goswami Santonu Goswami, a climate scientist who hails from Jorhat in Upper Assam, worked as the mapping lead for the study. Goswami, a senior scientist with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has co-authored a research paper with several other scientists from Canada, the US, Germany and Sweden as part of International Permafrost Carbon Network. The paper was published in Nature Commutations, a top journal in multidisciplinary science, this month. "In the study, for the first time we mapped the potential greenhouse gas emission hotspots due to thawing grounds in perennially frozen permafrost landscapes for the entire northern hemisphere," Goswami said. Permafrost refers to a layer of soil or rock that is frozen all the year round. When this layer thaws because of climate warming, it releases greenhouses gases such as carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb heat, which makes the earth warmer. Goswami said the global mapping project has pinpointed regions where owing to climate warming the risk is high for permafrost thaw to release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Northern permafrost soils store twice as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere. "When the soil organic matter in the permafrost thaws due to warming, they decompose to release greenhouse gases. The most dramatic changes are likely to occur where permafrost thaw is accompanied by land surface collapse, known as thermokarst," he said. Thermokarst occurs when the thawing soil contains a large amount of ice. It can lead to more than two dozen distinct collapse landforms, including gullies, slumps, wetlands and lakes. Each type affects emission of greenhouse gases in its own way. Until now, no one had been able to account for all of them at the global scale. Goswami was the mapping lead for the study during his research in the Climate Change Science Institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a US department of energy lab. He said scientists were hindered by both the diversity of the thermokarst landforms and a lack of information on where these thermokarst landforms were most likely to occur in a warming world. Goswami and scientists from the Permafrost Carbon Network linked their occurrence to certain landscape characteristics for which information is available. By layering available maps of topography, soil type and permafrost conditions, they created a new map that shows which regions may have lots of thermokarst landforms. "Now, scientists can look to these areas to test assumptions about how fast the soil organic matter will turn into greenhouse gases. Accelerated thermokarst due to climate change will damage infrastructure in addition to its impact on hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry. The Himalayan region also contains deep permafrost and hence can potentially pose threat to local infrastructure and overall ecosystem due to warming climate and degrading permafrost," Goswami said. (The Telegraph ,26.10.2016) http://www.telegraphindia.com/1161026/jsp/frontpage/story_115641.jsp#.WBA3LNJ97IU ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ সমাজৰ কাৰণে ভাল কাম কৰাজনৰ পৰিচয় ৰাইজৰ আগত দাঙি ধৰিব লাগে আৰু ভাল খবৰবোৰ যিমান পাৰি ৰাইজৰ মাজত বিলাব লাগে। ---- বুলজিৎ বুঢ়াগোহাঁই _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [email protected] http://lists.assamnet.org/listinfo.cgi/assam-assamnet.org
