Arctic Permafrost Thaw Mostly Traps Carbon in Seabed as Microbes Favor Fresh Ocean Carbon

A study near Herschel Island shows that most carbon released from thawing Arctic permafrost is stored in seabed sediments rather than released back to the atmosphere; microbes mainly remineralize about 10% of the sedimentary carbon into CO2, preferring fresh marine carbon over old permafrost carbon, a finding that helps refine climate models, though more research is needed.