Changing climate in the Arctic leads to a shorter snow season but deeper snow in the depths of winter. Under the insulating snow, biological processes are accelerated leading to higher nutrient availability and carbon losses.
Alaska
Posted inEditors' Vox
Landfast Sea Ice: The Most Important Ice You’ve Never Heard Of
Landfast sea ice, sea ice that is held stationary against the Antarctic continent, links firmly with many key climate processes, but its importance is only being fully realized as its extent dwindles.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Beavers Are Remaking Microbial Ecosystems in the Arctic
As beavers expand their range northward into the Arctic tundra, changes in bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities appear to be following.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Frozen Riverbanks May Erode Faster in a Warming Arctic
Frozen flume experiments reveal the sensitivity of permafrost riverbank erosion to water temperature, bank roughness, and pore-ice content.
Posted inFeatures
Hig Higman: Trekking Across the Last Frontier on the Hunt for Geohazards
Higman specializes in human-powered research expeditions in Alaska’s epic landscape.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Machine Learning Helps Constrain the Thickness of Ancient Crust
A machine learning model trained using data on the chemical composition of magmatic rocks yields comparable, if not better, results to previously developed geochemical proxies.
Posted inFeatures
Hunting for Methane Hot Spots at the Top of the World
A visit to an Alaskan wetland with some of the world’s highest lake marsh methane emissions brings scientists one step closer to understanding the phenomenon.
Posted inNews
As the Arctic Warms, These Rivers Are Slowing Down
The Arctic is warming up, but instead of large rivers migrating faster, they’re actually slowing down because of shrubification.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Neural Networks Map the Ebb and Flow of Tiny Ponds
Ponds play an outsized role in carbon emissions, but their size makes them hard to track. Enter machine learning.