New Permafrost Is Forming Around Arctic Lakes

Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and McGill University have found here is new permafrost forming around Twelvemile Lake in the interior of Alaska.  Twelvemile Lake, and many others like it, have been shrinking over the past thirty years, now being 15 feet shallower than three decades ago.  As the lake recedes, bands of willow shrubs have grown up on the newly exposed lake shores over the past twenty years. What Martin Briggs from the U.S. Geological Survey and Prof. Jeffrey McKenzie from McGill's Dept. of Earth and Planetary Science have just discovered is that the extra shade provided by these willow shrubs has both cooled and dried the surrounding soil, allowing new permafrost to expand beneath them. read more

Read the whole article on

More from