First Soil Atlas of the Northern Circumpolar Region
28 May The Institute for Environment and Sustainability of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, published the first Soil Atlas of the Northern Circumpolar Region. The 144 pages that constitute the atlas are the result of a three-year collaborative project with different partners from northern EU countries. The Atlas gives a detailed overview of circumpolar soil resources and describes clearly the origin and the major characteristics of the different soil types that can be found in this environment. Even if representing only the 16% of global land surface, the world's northernmost regions store more than half the carbon stored in the Earth's soils, that is about twice the amount of carbon stored in the atmosphere. So far, the public perception focuses on the melting of arctic ice as one of the indicators for climate change, however 1,700 billion tonnes of organic carbon are kept in the soils of the northern permafrost region and their thawing could lead to substantial release of greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2, CH4, N2O) into the atmosphere and would further increase global warming.