Tundra News

June 15, 2024

Top Headlines

Giant Viruses Found on Greenland Ice Sheet

June 4, 2024 — Giant viruses found on the Greenland ice sheet probably regulate the growth of snow algae on the ice by infecting them. Knowing how to control these viruses could help us reduce the rate of ...

Arctic Melting Heavily Influenced by Little-Studied Meteorological Phenomena

June 3, 2024 — A team of scientists has combined paleoclimatic data from the last 2,000 years with powerful computer modeling and in-the-field research on lake sediments and tree rings to show that an understudied ...

Thawing Permafrost: Not a Climate Tipping Element, but Nevertheless Far-Reaching Impacts

June 3, 2024 — Permafrost soils store large quantities of organic carbon and are often portrayed as a critical tipping element in the Earth system, which, once global warming has reached a certain level, suddenly ...

Alaska's Rusting Waters: Pristine Rivers and Streams Turning Orange

May 21, 2024 — Dozens of Alaska's rivers and streams are turning orange. The staining could be the result of minerals exposed by thawing permafrost and climate change, finds a new ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:06pm EDT

New Research Shows Soil Microorganisms Could Produce Additional Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Thawing Permafrost

May 28, 2024 — As the planet has warmed, scientists have long been concerned about the potential for harmful greenhouse gasses to seep out of thawing Arctic ...

How Heatwaves Are Affecting Arctic Phytoplankton

May 17, 2024 — The basis of the marine food web in the Arctic, the phytoplankton, responds to heatwaves much differently than to constantly elevated temperatures. This has been found by the first targeted ...

Deer Are Expanding North, and That's Not Good for Caribou

Apr. 25, 2024 — In the boreal forest of Western Canada, researchers have considered that both changing climate and increased habitat alteration have enabled deer to push farther ...

Warming Arctic Reduces Dust Levels in Parts of the Planet

Apr. 25, 2024 — Dust can have a huge impact on local air quality, food security, energy supply and public health. Previous studies have found that dust levels are decreasing across India, particularly northern ...

Understanding Climate Warming Impacts on Carbon Release from the Tundra

Apr. 17, 2024 — The warming climate shifts the dynamics of tundra environments and makes them release trapped carbon, according to a new study published in Nature. These changes could transform tundras from carbon ...

Paradox of Extreme Cold Events in a Warming World

Apr. 17, 2024 — The Warm Arctic-Cold Continent (WACC) phenomenon is the puzzling combination of Arctic warming and extreme coldness in specific mid-latitude regions. However, the progression of WACC events remains ...

Researchers Shine Light on Rapid Changes in Arctic and Boreal Ecosystems

Apr. 16, 2024 — Arctic and boreal latitudes are warming faster than any other region on ...

New Radar Analysis Method Can Improve Winter River Safety

Apr. 15, 2024 — Researchers have developed a way to use radar to detect open water zones and other changes in Alaska's frozen rivers in the early winter. The approach can be automated to provide current hazard maps ...

Boreal Forest and Tundra Regions Worst Hit Over Next 500 Years of Climate Change, Study Shows

Apr. 8, 2024 — Modelling climate change over a 500 year period shows that much of the boreal forest, the Earth's northernmost forests and most significant provider ...

Open Waste Burning Linked to Air Pollution in Northwestern Greenland

Mar. 28, 2024 — A case study on the effects of open waste burning on air quality in Northwestern Greenland calls attention to the importance of no-one-left-behind sustainable air quality monitoring in the Arctic ...

Arctic Nightlife: Seabird Colony Bursts With Sound at Night

Mar. 15, 2024 — Acoustic recordings of a colony of little auks reveal their nocturnal activities and offer valuable monitoring means for avian biology in the ...

Drought, Soil Desiccation Cracking, and Carbon Dioxide Emissions: An Overlooked Feedback Loop Exacerbating Climate Change

Mar. 13, 2024 — Soil stores 80 percent of carbon on earth, yet with increasing cycles of drought, that crucial reservoir is cracking and breaking down, releasing even more greenhouse gases creating an amplified ...

Exploring Arctic Plants and Lichens: An Important Conservation Baseline for Nunavut's Newest and Largest Territorial Park

Mar. 13, 2024 — A comprehensive study of the floristic diversity of Agguttinni Territorial Park, Nunavut's newest and largest Territorial Park, has documented 141 vascular plant, 69 bryophyte, and 93 lichen ...

Study Explores Impacts of Arctic Warming on Daily Weather Patterns in the U.S.

Mar. 11, 2024 — Arctic sea ice is shrinking as the world continues to warm, and a new study may provide a better understanding of how the loss of this ice may impact daily weather in the middle latitudes, like the ...

We Know the Arctic Is Warming -- What Will Changing River Flows Do to Its Environment?

Mar. 5, 2024 — Scientists recently combined satellite data, field observations and sophisticated numerical modeling to paint a picture of how 22.45 million square kilometers of the Arctic will change over the next ...

Arctic Could Become 'Ice-Free' Within a Decade

Mar. 5, 2024 — While summer sea ice loss in the Arctic is inevitable, it can be reversed if the planet cools down, researchers ...

Less Ice in the Arctic Ocean Has Complex Effects on Marine Ecosystems and Ocean Productivity

Mar. 4, 2024 — Most of the sunlight reaching the Arctic Ocean is reflected to space by sea ice, effectively shielding ocean ecosystems from sunlight. As the Arctic sea ice continues its downward trend, larger areas ...

Researchers Use GPS-Tracked Icebergs in Novel Study to Improve Climate Models

Mar. 1, 2024 — Research unearthed new information to help scientists better understand circulation patterns of ocean water around glaciers. In the summers of 2014 and 2019, a group of pioneers in glacial research ...

Chemistry in the Ground Affects How Many Offspring Wild Animals Have

Feb. 28, 2024 — Chemistry in the ground affect how many kids wild animals have Areas with more copper and selenium in the ground lead to higher reproductive success in wild musk oxen in ...

Does Russia Stand to Benefit from Climate Change?

Feb. 21, 2024 — There exists a narrative about climate change that says there are winners and losers -- with Russia being one of the countries that stand to benefit from its effects. In a new study, researchers ...

'The Future Is Fungal': New Research Finds That Fungi That Live in Healthy Plants Are Sensitive to Climate Change

Feb. 20, 2024 — Findings more than a decade in the making reveal a rich diversity of beneficial fungi living in boreal forest trees, with implications for the health of ...

Decline in Microbial Genetic Richness in the Western Arctic Ocean

Feb. 20, 2024 — Researchers analyzed archival samples of bacteria and archaea populations taken from the Beaufort Sea, bordering northwest Canada and Alaska. The samples were collected between 2004 and 2012, a ...

Giant Antarctic Sea Spiders Reproductive Mystery Solved

Feb. 18, 2024 — Instead of carrying the babies until they hatched, as in most species of sea spiders, one parent (likely the father) spent two days attaching the eggs to the rocky bottom where they developed for ...

Viruses That Can Help 'Dial Up' Carbon Capture in the Sea

Feb. 19, 2024 — Armed with a catalog of hundreds of thousands of DNA and RNA virus species in the world's oceans, scientists are now zeroing in on the viruses most likely to combat climate change by helping ...

The Role of Jellies as a Food Source in the Arctic Winter

Feb. 14, 2024 — The Arctic is changing rapidly due to climate change. It is not only affected by increasing surface temperatures, but also by warm water from the Atlantic, which is flowing in more and more -- ...

Tawny Owl's Pale Grey Color Linked to Vital Functions Ensuring Survival in Extreme Conditions

Feb. 14, 2024 — A recent genetic discovery has revealed that the pale grey plumage of the tawny owl is linked to crucial functions that aid the bird's survival in cold environments. As global temperatures rise, ...

Frequent Marine Heatwaves in the Arctic Ocean Will Be the Norm

Feb. 13, 2024 — Marine heatwaves will become a regular occurrence in the Arctic in the near future and are a product of higher anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions -- as shown in a new ...

Greenland's Ice Sheet Is Melting -- And Being Replaced by Vegetation

Feb. 13, 2024 — An estimated 11,000 sq miles or 28,707 sq kilometers of Greenland's ice sheet and glaciers have melted over the last three decades, according to a major analysis of historic satellite ...

Polar Bears Unlikely to Adapt to Longer Summers

Feb. 13, 2024 — More time stranded on land means greater risk of starvation for polar bears, a new study indicates. During three summer weeks, 20 polar bears closely observed by scientists tried different strategies ...

Study Challenges the Classical View of the Origin of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Warns of Its Vulnerability

Feb. 5, 2024 — The Circumpolar Current works as a regulator of the planet's climate. Its origins were thought to have caused the formation of the permanent ice in Antarctica about 34 million years ago. Now, a ...