Very interesting. Where, in that whole article, does it say that the source of the 10,000 year old sample was a layer of permafrost made up of a single layer of that age? Seems to me you are making an assumption for which there is no base. Not only that, it also states in the highlighted sentence that there were other samples taken from layers that were 20,000 and 300,000 to 400,000 years old.
Beringian Paleoecology Inferred from Permafrost-Preserved Fungal DNA
The abstract speaks of the protocals to avoid contamination during drilling for the samples. Would not be surprised if many of the samples of various ages were from one drill hole.
So when you whine and carry on about the permafrost melting in Alaska --- Where is YOUR LINK as to the AGE of what is OBSERVED to be melting?? Seems to me --- It never occurred to you before that the last 10,000 year layer is probably pretty thick and the first to go...
Promise us that next time you well up in tears about melting permafrost --- that you will DATE IT for us so that we can worry when the melt levels pass the 1900s ......
I read it takes hundreds even thousands of years to melt. So how exactly is climate change causing this?
excerpt from Weather Underground:
"The Effect of Climate Change on Permafrost
Climate change will significantly affect the complex interactions between above- and below-ground climate regimes. However, even changes in temperature at the surface take time to impact permafrost at depth; According to the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), "
for thick permafrost this lag may be on the order of hundreds to thousands of years, for thin permafrost, years to decades" (GSC, 2007).
In a recent study using freezing/thawing index, trend analysis of spatial data since 1970 indicates that in recent decades, there has been a decrease in freezing during the cold season throughout North America's permafrost regions. Additionally, coastal areas and eastern Canada have started to see "significant" increases in warm season thawing of permafrost (Frauenfeld et al., 2007). Overall, this means there has been a decrease in freeze depths and in the amount of permanent permafrost. Conversely, there has been an increase in seasonal permafrost. This increase in seasonal permafrost is not due to increases in acres frozen, but to the decrease in permanent permafrost which is not remaining frozen all year anymore. Since it is no longer perennially frozen, it loses its distinction as 'permanent' and becomes 'seasonal'.