Content type

  • How Arctic lakes are accelerating climate change

    Permafrost
    In the future, climate change could abruptly increase the amount of methane released by lakes in the permafrost regions of the Arctic. The explanation: because of thawing permafrost, these

  • The sleeping giant is waking

    Permafrost
    For years now, scientists have been investigating how the gradual thawing of near-surface permafrost, which takes place in the uppermost layers of Arctic soils and in the course of decades [...] another phenomenon, which has only been sporadically investigated: the abrupt thawing of ice-rich permafrost, which can transform entire landscapes in only months of years through subsidence, the formation

  • Bubbling under the Arctic Seabed

    Permafrost
    The fate of permafrost - soil that is frozen for 2 or more years - is of huge importance for the global climate because of the large amounts of organic carbon stored in it, which can be released

  • Coastlines’ contribution to climate change possibly underestimated

    Scientific Publication
    Permafrost coasts make up about one third of the Earth’s total coastline. As a result of accelerated climate change, whole sections of coastline rapidly thaw, and erode into the [...] now shows that large amounts of carbon dioxide are potentially being produced along these eroding permafrost coastlines in the Arctic.

  • Coastal erosion in the Arctic intensifies global warming

    Nature Communications Study
    The loss of arctic permafrost deposits by coastal erosion could amplify climate warming via the greenhouse effect. A study using sediment samples from the Sea of Okhotsk [...] Okhotsk on the eastern coast of Russia led by AWI researchers revealed that the loss of Arctic permafrost at the end of the last glacial period led to repeated sudden increases in the carbon dioxide concentration

  • A glance into the future of the Arctic

    Permafrost
    Throughout the Arctic, ice wedges are thawing at a rapid pace. Changes to these structures, which are very common in permafrost landscapes, have a massive impact on the hydrology of the tundra

  • Outstanding Dissertation on Climate Change

    for his doctoral thesis, which represents a valuable contribution toward refining simulations of permafrost development: in it, he demonstrates the importance of small-scale landscape characteristics, since [...] a result of thawing. In the future, his findings could help provide a more realistic picture of permafrost thawing.

  • Watching the Arctic Thaw in Fast-forward

    Permafrost
    The frozen permafrost in the Arctic is thawing on an alarming scale. By analysing an annual record of satellite images, researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute have now confirmed these

  • Beavers are changing the face of the Arctic

    Permafrost
    Beavers are highly effective ecosystem engineers: if a given landscape isn’t quite to their liking, they simply rearrange the terrain. And that’s what they’ve been doing for millennia in [...] to their findings, the animals could change entire ecosystems and contribute to the thawing of permafrost soils, as they report in the journal Global Change Biology.

  • Arctic coasts in transition

    Permafrost
    Arctic coasts are characterized by sea ice, permafrost and ground ice. This makes them particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which is already accelerating rapid coastal