sfairfield's blog

I think one of the most important parts of the biological world to conserve is the carbon sinks of the Arctic. A recent expert assessment by scientists from the Permafrost Carbon Network, published in Nature, concluded that as much as 5%-15% of the terrestrial permafrost carbon pool is vulnerable to release in the form of greenhouse gases during this century. Stored over millennia in the Earth’s high latitudes, permafrost contains twice as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere. As that region warms, permafrost will become vulnerable to a heightened rate of decomposition, resulting in a potentially enormous release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. It has been estimated that with continued warming, releases of carbon from microbial decay and other sources will overwhelm the capacity for plant carbon uptake in the Arctic, leading to a switch to net carbon emissions from permafrost ecosystems to the atmosphere possibly by the middle of the 21st century. Strengthening the northern carbon sink could help to curb rising air temperatures. A weakening of the sink would only worsen the global warming already taking place. The Arctic switching from a sink to a source would cause warming increases to become more rapid, which will further increase emissions, accelerating climate change in a self-reinforcing warming cycle. Though increased carbon emissions are the most pressing issue, there is also the threat of abnormally high temperatures thawing permafrost containing long dormant microbes, which could cause disease. Some researchers cite the concern of the diseases from thawing human and animal remains getting into groundwater that people then drink, or spreading through other ways.

Water is essential to all life on Earth and is vital to both human survival and the survival of larger ecosystems. It also possesses unique properties. For instance, it has both a high boiling point and a high heat of vaporization, due to the high amount of energy needed to break the strong hydrogen bonds present in the compound. In addition, water exhibits high surface tension and cohesion due to the polarity present within its molecules, caused by the partial positive and partial negative charge on the hydrogen and oxygen atoms respectively, which attract each other and result in the molecules sticking together more so than most liquids. Water also has low viscosity, also known as a low resistance to flow, which is important in its role in things like blood circulation or acting as a solvent for biochemical reactions. Another property unique to water is that its solid form has a lower density than its liquid form, resulting in the phenomenon of ice floating in water.

The organism has an elongated, beige body, which is approximately one inch in length and includes ten segments.The body displays bilateral symmetry, and is narrower at one end and wider at the other. It achieves movement by extending and contracting its body in a manner similar to a worm. The organism has black markings on its narrower, anterior end and two brown dots on its posterior end. There is also a long dark mark extending down the midline of the body. The exterior of the body reflects light and appears opaque. The organism generally moves in a circle around the outer perimeter of the plastic container, and occasionally rears its anterior end. It seems to struggle more to move over the wood chips than it does the plastic, and I observed it attempt to push wood chips out of its path.

The organism has an elongated, beige body approximately one inch in length, that includes ten segments. It also displays bilateral symmetry. It achieves movement by extending and contracting its body in a manner similar to a worm, with its narrower, end facing forward, and its wider end at the rear. The organism has black markings on its anterior end and two brown dots on its posterior end. There is also a long dark mark extending down the midline of the body. The exterior of the body reflects light and appears opaque. The organism generally moves in a circle around the outer perimeter of the plastic container, and occasionally rears its anterior end. It seems to struggle more to move over the wood chips than the plastic, and I observed it attempt to push wood chips out of its path.