Tundra News

September 30, 2016

Tracking Sea Ice from the Greenland Ice Sheet

Flies Are Key Pollinators of the High Arctic

Changes: Hurricanes, Storm Surges and Icebergs

Shorter Sea Ice Season for Arctic Polar Bears

Latest Headlines

updated 1:29am EDT

Caspian Terns Discovered Nesting 1,000 Miles Farther to the North Than Ever Recorded in Alaska

Sep. 23, 2016 — In the late summer of 2016, a field team monitored Caspian tern chicks through to fledging in Cape Krusenstern National ... read more

The Difficulty of Predicting an Ice-Free Arctic

Sep. 20, 2016 — The Arctic is nearing its seasonal sea ice minimum this month, but predicting exactly when the region will see its first ice-free summer may be more difficult than previously believed, according to ... read more

2016 Ties With 2007 for Second Lowest Arctic Sea Ice Minimum

Sep. 15, 2016 — The Arctic's ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent on September 10, 2016, according to scientists. Arctic sea ice extent on that day stood at 4.14 million ... read more

Land-Based Food Not Nutritionally Sufficient for Wild Polar Bears, According to New Study

Sep. 13, 2016 — On average, a polar bear loses up to 30 percent of its total body mass while fasting during the open-water season. Although some scientists ... read more

3-D Elevation Maps of Alaska for Released for White House Arctic Initiative

Sep. 1, 2016 — Less than one year after President Barack Obama announced a White House Arctic Initiative that included better mapping of the area, a team of researchers has released the ... read more

Which Snowy Owls Thrive in Saskatchewan's Winters?

Aug. 31, 2016 — Snowy owls capture the imagination, but ornithologists know surprisingly little about how these birds of the far north fare during the harsh winters they endure. The ... read more

Technique Could Assess Historic Changes to Antarctic Sea Ice, Glaciers

Aug. 30, 2016 — Historic changes to Antarctic sea ice could be unraveled using a new technique, say scientists. The new method builds on an existing technique developed over the last 10 ... read more

Humans Have Caused Climate Change for 180 Years

Aug. 24, 2016 — An international research project has found human activity has been causing global warming for almost two centuries, proving human-induced climate change is not just a 20th ... read more

Arctic Gives Clues on Worst Mass Extinction of Life

Aug. 24, 2016 — Extreme global warming 252 million years ago caused a severe mass extinction of life on Earth. It took life up to 9 million years to recover. New study finds clues in the ... read more

Study Measures Methane Release from Arctic Permafrost

Aug. 22, 2016 — A new research project has provided the first modern evidence of a landscape-level permafrost carbon feedback, in which thawing permafrost releases ancient carbon as ... read more

Arctic Ice Melting in 2016 Heat: NASA

Locking CO2 Into Iceland's Rocks to Limit Climate Change

Pianist Performs 'Elegy for Arctic' Over Ocean

Kerry Issues Climate Warning, Urges Clean Energy

Relationship Between Soil Color and Climate

Sep. 1, 2016 — What is the first color that comes to mind when you envision soil? Is it brown, black, yellow, or red? How about white, gray, green, or blue? Experts now explain that all of these answers are correct ... read more

Scientists Begin to Unravel Summer Jet Stream Mystery

Aug. 24, 2016 — Scientists have discovered the cause of the recent run of miserable wet summers as they begin to unravel the mysteries of the Atlantic jet ... read more

NASA Monitors the 'New Normal' of Sea Ice

Aug. 19, 2016 — This year's melt season in the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas started with a bang, with a record low maximum extent in March and relatively rapid ice loss through May. One NASA sea ice ... read more

New Antarctic Ice Discovery Aids Future Climate Predictions

Aug. 16, 2016 — A team of scientists has discovered a 65 percent reduction in sea ice during the last interglacial period around 128,000 years ... read more

New Map of World Vegetation Reveals Substantial Changes Since 1980s

Aug. 15, 2016 — A new system to map the world's 'biomes' -- large-scale vegetation formations -- has been developed that will provide an objective method for monitoring how vegetation reacts as ... read more

Specialized Life Forms Abound at Arctic Methane Seeps

Aug. 10, 2016 — Methane seeps have strong effects on the community structure at the bottom of the Arctic ... read more

New Genome Reveals How Arctic Microbes Survive in Cold Extreme Habitats

Aug. 3, 2016 — Scientists have revealed how a tiny Arctic microbe, crucial to shaping the surface of glaciers, survives in such extreme ... read more

Giant Forest Fires Exterminate Spotted Owls, Long-Term Study Finds

Aug. 2, 2016 — Could periodic forest thinning and prescribed burns intended to prevent dangerous "megafires" help conserve owls in the long run? Or are those benefits outweighed by their short-term harm ... read more

Historical Records Miss a Fifth of Global Warming: NASA

July 21, 2016 — A new NASA-led study finds that almost one-fifth of the global warming that has occurred in the past 150 years has been missed by historical records due to quirks in how global temperatures were ... read more

Birds on Top of the World, With Nowhere to Go

July 20, 2016 — Climate change could make much of the Arctic unsuitable for millions of migratory birds that travel north to breed each year, according to a new international study. Suitable breeding conditions for ... read more

2016 Climate Trends Continue to Break Records

July 19, 2016 — Two key climate change indicators -- global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent -- have broken numerous records through the first half of 2016, according to NASA analyses of ground-based ... read more

NASA Science Flights Target Melting Arctic Sea Ice

July 19, 2016 — This summer, with sea ice across the Arctic Ocean shrinking to below-average levels, a NASA airborne survey of polar ice just completed its first flights. Its target: aquamarine pools of melt water ... read more

Alaska's Shorebirds Exposed to Mercury

July 13, 2016 — Shorebirds breeding in Alaska are being exposed to mercury at levels that could put their populations at risk, according to new ... read more

Ice Algae: The Engine of Life in the Central Arctic Ocean

July 12, 2016 — Algae that live in and under the sea ice play a much greater role for the Arctic food web than previously assumed. In a new study, biologists show that not only animals that live directly under the ... read more

Vegetation in Russian Arctic Has Memory

June 27, 2016 — Adaptation to climate change has a lag of several thousands of years, report researchers. The permafrost regions in the Arctic are among those areas of the world in which the temperature is rising ... read more

Siberian Larch Forests Are Still Linked to the Ice Age

June 24, 2016 — The Siberian permafrost regions include those areas of the Earth, which heat up very quickly in the course of climate change. Nevertheless, biologists are currently observing only a minimal response ... read more

New Technique Settles Old Debate on Highest Peaks in US Arctic

June 23, 2016 — Finding out which is the highest mountain in the US Arctic may be the last thing on your mind, unless you are an explorer who skis from the tallest peaks around the globe. A ski mountaineer and a ... read more

As Alaska Warms, Methane Emissions Appear Stable

June 22, 2016 — Analysis of nearly three decades of air samples from Alaska's North Slope shows little change in long-term methane emissions despite significant Arctic warming over that time period, according ... read more

Cosmopolitan Snow Algae Accelerate the Melting of Arctic Glaciers

June 22, 2016 — The role of red pigmented snow algae in melting Arctic glaciers has been strongly underestimated, suggests a study. The new work shows a 13 percent reduction of the albedo over the course of one ... read more

Permafrost Thawing Below Shallow Arctic Lakes

June 16, 2016 — Permafrost below shallow Arctic lakes is thawing as a result of changing winter climate, new research shows. These rates of warming are similar to those observed in terrestrial permafrost, yet those ... read more

Thursday, September 1, 2016