Indigenous Ice Nucleation Active Bacteria-Based Strategy Alleviating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Permafrost Thaw Subsidence

Abstract

Thaw subsidence resulting from climatic warming and anthropogenic activities doubles the greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost and thus aggravates global warming. The loss of ice content is responsible for releasing previously frozen carbon and nitrogen. Considering that ice nucleation active (INA) bacteria can result in a 27% increase in ice content and 113% increase in the ice cementation strength, a new insight of using indigenous INA bacteria to frost the dissolved organic matter is proposed in this Perspective. Therefore, we analyze the feasibility of using INA bacteria in permafrost and elaborate the strategy of exerting ice nucleation activity of indigenous INA bacteria and the corresponding implementation methods. The details of using an INA bacteria-based strategy to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost are then investigated, and the reduction of 30.33% dissolved carbon and nitrogen is found. We end with the future research focuses and challenges of the applications of the INA bacteria-based strategy. Indigenous INA bacteria are expected to be sustainable and environmentally friendly biomaterials to deal with thaw subsidence issues and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions and further regulate the future climate change.