Title: Yukon’s climate, notoriously cold in Gold Rush days, is transforming - Anchorage Daily News
Headings: Yukon’s climate, notoriously cold in Gold Rush days, is transforming
Yukon’s climate, notoriously cold in Gold Rush days, is transforming
After Interior Alaska fire, permafrost disappears
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Yereth Rosen
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Content: It will take some close-up, on-the-ground surveys to determine what has been happening with plants in that region, said Martha Raynolds of UAF, the lead author. Raynolds has worked for several years to track that region's changes caused by oil development and a rapidly warming climate. The new study uses satellite imagery captured from 1985 to 2011. Some changes are the obvious result of oil development — new roads and islands that have been constructed, for example, along with erosion along some of those man-made features. The active tundra layer — the layer below the surface where thaw happens each year — is getting thicker, and that sends more liquid water flowing freely. On the North Slope, that has resulted in deepened cracks in the tundra's polygon pattern, Raynolds said. "In the spring, the cracks fill with water. In the fall, the cracks freeze," she said. Over time, they get bigger, she said. On the land, the low-centered polygons can fill with water and become new puddles or ponds, she said.