Permafrost is a cryospheric topic referring to ground (soil, sediment, or rock, with included ice and organic material) that remains at or below 0 °C for at least two consecutive years. Its thermal and hydrological regimes are governed by surface energy balance, snow cover, vegetation, and ground ice content, leading to stratified active layers that thaw seasonally above a perennially frozen substrate. Permafrost dynamics influence geomorphological processes such as thermokarst formation, ground subsidence, and slope instability, and critically regulate carbon and methane fluxes from frozen organic matter. Research on permafrost integrates climatology, biogeochemistry, geotechnical engineering, and remote sensing to quantify its stability and feedbacks within the Earth system.
Svalbard reindeer live in a place so remote they have actually evolved to become a subspecies. But that remoteness isn't enough to protect them from contaminants from the industrial world.
Environment
Apr 9, 2026
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In a first-of-its-kind study, a team of researchers led by geoscientist Michael Rawlins at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has shown in fine-grained detail what happens when Arctic permafrost thaws. Focusing on a ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 1, 2026
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Experiments by University of Leeds researchers, published in Earth's Future, have shown that thawing of permafrost makes it between 25 and 100 times more permeable, allowing more climate change forcing gases to escape.
Earth Sciences
Mar 30, 2026
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Some Arctic regions regain their "greenness" within a decade of a sudden permafrost collapse, while others can take a century or more to recover, researchers report in a new study. The difference is directly related to each ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 30, 2026
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604
The structure of the plant communities that grow on the thawing permafrost in the Arctic is changing, with grasses displacing slower-growing shrubs. Although these grasses bind more carbon dioxide than previous plant communities, ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 26, 2026
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Arctic rivers wind through remote tundra and boreal forests, freezing solid in winter and surging each spring with snowmelt, eventually emptying into the ocean. Runoff—water that does not soak into the ground but instead ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 23, 2026
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Climate warming can increase plant growth in permafrost regions by lengthening the growing season, speeding up plant metabolic processes, and allowing deeper root penetration as permafrost thaws. However, the capacity for ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 20, 2026
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For the first time, scientists have used DNA preserved in ancient sediments to examine how a major natural disaster affected animal populations. A new study of a catastrophic volcanic eruption during the Ice Age has found ...
Ecology
Mar 11, 2026
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In the face of climate change, permafrost peatland wildfires could play more of a role in the destructive cycle of global warming, University of Alberta research suggests.
Earth Sciences
Mar 5, 2026
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The devastating wildfires in northern Canada in recent years have climate consequences that go far beyond smoke and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, according to a new study co-authored by two NAU researchers. ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 3, 2026
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