Birth and death

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1184
• Subjects: permafrost
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.366.6972; http://www.weizmann.ac.il/mcb/UriAlon/nurturing/LabFamilyFeud.pdf

of cosmic rays to tease apart the distinction between intrinsic and apparent temperature sensitivities (1). However, they omitted the soil carbon stocks most vulnerable to climate change—northern permafrost and most wetlands were excluded from the data (2). In his related Perspective “The carbon dioxide exchange ” (13 August, p. 774), P. B. Reich concludes that Mahecha et al.’s study “reduces fears ” that biotic feedbacks to climate change will amplify the effects of temperature increase. Yet Mahecha et al.’s analysis of data from mostly upland forests, grasslands, and croplands cannot represent the temperature sensitivity of decomposition during the phase change from frozen to liquid water in thawing permafrost (3). Similarly, large stocks of relatively labile carbon become exposed to aerobic decomposition