Enhanced nitrous oxide emissions found in field warming experiment in the Arctic

The Arctic is warming rapidly, with projected temperature increases larger than anywhere else in the world. The Arctic regions are particularly important with respect to climate change, as permafrost soils store huge amounts of the Earth’s soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). Warming of arctic soils and thawing of permafrost thus can have substantial consequences for the global climate, as the large C and N stores could be released to the atmosphere as the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The release of these heat-trapping gases, in turn, has the potential to further enhance climate warming.