Negative Climate Feedbacks Above and Below!

The amount of CO2 released from soils worldwide each year is estimated to be about 8-10 times greater than the amount released by humans. _WUWT

WattsupWithThat?!?!
Most people look to the sky for negative climate feedbacks -- clouds, water vapour, aerosols, etc. -- but new research suggests they should also be looking underneath their feet. UC Irvine researchers are suggesting that soil microbes react to temperature increases with a negative feedback of reduced CO2 release into the atmosphere.

Researchers at UC Irvine, Colorado State University and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies found that as global temperatures increase, microbes in soil become less efficient over time at converting carbon in soil into carbon dioxide, a key contributor to climate warming.

Microbes, in the form of bacteria and fungi, use carbon for energy to breathe, or respire, and to grow in size and in number. A model developed by the researchers shows microbes exhaling carbon dioxide furiously for a short period of time in a warmer environment, leaving less carbon to grow on. As warmer temperatures are maintained, the less efficient use of carbon by the microbes causes them to decrease in number, eventually resulting in less carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere.

...“When we developed a model based on the actual biology of soil microbes, we found that soil carbon may not be lost to the atmosphere as the climate warms,” said Matthew Wallenstein of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. “Conventional ecosystem models that didn’t include enzymes did not make the same predictions.”

Mark Bradford, assistant professor of terrestrial ecosystem ecology at Yale, said there is intense debate in the scientific community over whether the loss of soil carbon will contribute to global warming. “The challenge we have in predicting this is that the microbial processes causing this loss are poorly understood,” he said. “More research in this area will help reduce uncertainties in climate prediction.” _WUWT

Climate modelers know virtually nothing about the mechanisms of climate. But that does not stop them from creating intricate climate models that rest upon a house of cards of faulty assumptions.

It may take us another 20 years to learn enough about the climate to model it halfway reliably. If we are good, lucky, and fast. In the meantime we would do well to chase the climate alarmist hoaxters off the stage before they do us all in.

The world cannot afford to humour the climate grifters any longer.