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How microbes in permafrost could trigger a massive carbon bomb

Genomics studies are helping to reveal how bacteria and archaea influence one of Earth’s largest carbon stores as it begins to thaw.
  1. Monique Brouillette

    1. Monique Brouillette is a science journalist in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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In a boggy landscape a line of boardwalk stretches into the distance as the near end is submerged in permafrost meltwater

A boardwalk for traversing Sweden’s Stordalen Mire sinks in the thawing landscape. Credit: Moira Hough

In May, as the temperatures in northern Sweden begin to creep to several degrees above freezing, scientists will once again descend on the squelchy peat of Stordalen Mire. They’ll tread across sagging wooden boardwalks, past clusters of clear plexiglass boxes placed among the cotton grass.

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Nature 591, 360-362 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00659-y

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