CARBON that has been locked up in soils for millennia is starting to escape
and may hasten global warming, a biologist has claimed. He warns that rising
temperatures may be triggering the release of carbon from peat bogs across the
northern hemisphere in a positive feedback loop that could dramatically increase
the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Earlier this year, Chris Freeman of the University of Wales in Bangor
reported that as bogs dried out in a warmer climate, they would probably trigger
an enzyme called phenol oxidase to decompose their organic carbon. Now he has
found that…
