New NASA-funded research has discovered that Arctic permafrost’s expected gradual thawing and the associated release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere may actually be sped up by instances of a relatively little known process called abrupt thawing. Abrupt thawing takes place under a certain type of Arctic lake, known as a thermokarst lake that forms […]
Dear Editor, In response to the recently published article entitled “Thawing Permafrost Microbiomes Fuel Climate Change,” it is increasingly evident that a bold and swift transition to renewable energy, and away from fossil fuels, is essential for maintaining a livable planet. Unforeseen variables, such as thawing permafrost carbon sinks, are only accelerating the rate of […]
When botanist Janet Jorgenson first visited a patch of tundra east of Kaktovik in 1988, it was flat, dry and thick with 29 species of lichens and mosses. Now, Tapkaurak is wet, gullied and fragrant with sedges and grasses. And, like other parts of Alaska’s North Slope, it is a few feet farther from the […]