EAST LANSING, Mich., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Rising atmospheric temperatures are accelerating rates of permafrost thaw in parts of North America, a Michigan scientist said.

Permafrost serves as a platform underneath vast expanses of northern forests and wetlands, Michigan State University researcher Merritt Turetsky said Friday in a release.

The report, published in the online edition of Global Change Biology, examined whether melting permafrost can lead to a vicious feedback cycle of carbon exchange that actually fuels future climate change.

"The loss of permafrost usually means the loss of terra firma in an otherwise often boggy landscape," Turetsky said. "Roads, buildings and whole communities will have to cope with this aspect of climate change. What this means for ecosystems and humans residing in the North remains one of the most pressing issues in the climate change arena."

Turetsky found that permafrost degradation has complex impacts on greenhouse gas fluxes from northern wetlands.

He said it appears permafrost degradation initially causes increased soil carbon sequestration, rather than the large releases of carbon to the atmosphere originally predicted. Over time, however, high methane emissions will balance -- or even outweigh -- the reduction of carbon in the atmosphere, he said.