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Recently, scientists said that ancient permafrost gets transformed quickly into carbon dioxide when it thaws out, according to HNGN.

The permafrost contains massive stores of carbon that have got collected in the "coldest regions of the world" over thousands of years, reported the University of Colorado at Boulder. They have remained cut off from today's carbon cycle, but were they to melt, they would release greenhouse gas that would influence the environment.

"Many scientists worldwide are now investigating the complicated potential end results of thawing permafrost," said Rob Striegl, USGS scientist and study co-author. "There are critical questions to consider, such as: How much of the stored permafrost carbon might thaw in a future climate? Where will it go? And, what are the consequences for our climate and our aquatic ecosystems?"

A group of researchers examined the manner in which dissolved organic carbon from 35,000-year-old permafrost "decomposed" and recorded the amount of carbon-dioxide it generated. One kind of permafrost called Yedoma is found in Alaska and Siberia, composing the "permafrost soil carbon pool".

"It had previously been assumed that permafrost soil carbon this old was already degraded and not susceptible to rapid decomposition upon thaw," said Kim Wickland, the USGS scientist who led the team.

Scientists found that half the dissolved organic carbon in yedoma permafrost got decomposed in just one week, even as half the carbon got transformed into carbon dioxide, in the "fastest carbon conversion rates" to be recorded by scientists.

"What this study adds is that we show what makes permafrost so biodegradable," said Travis Drake, the lead author of the research. "Immediately upon thaw, microbes start using the carbon and then it is sent back into the atmosphere."

The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.