All articles tagged with #permafrost
Climate scientist Gustaf Hugelius warns that warming could push vast Arctic permafrost past tipping points, releasing CO2 and methane in a self-reinforcing feedback that could sustain warming for decades or centuries; reducing emissions now is essential to limit permafrost thaw and its climate impacts.
Scientists recovered and sequenced several hundred intact RNA transcripts from Yuka, a woolly mammoth preserved in Siberian permafrost for about 39,000 years. The data show muscle-contraction and metabolic-stress genes were actively expressed near death, suggesting the animal’s cells were responding to stress at the moment it died (likely from a cave-lion attack). The team authenticated the ancient signal using mammoth-specific microRNAs to guard against modern contamination. While this establishes a lower bound for RNA survival under ideal freezing, it’s a single study under favorable conditions and does not imply broad generalizability to other specimens or environments.
Scientists revived Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, a 46,000-year-old nematode from Siberian permafrost; after thawing it briefly survived and then reproduced asexually for 100+ laboratory generations, with cryptobiosis and trehalose helping its cells endure freezing. The finding, reported in PLoS Genetics, offers new insights into evolutionary timelines, generation variability, and the potential to study resurrected ancient lineages for biodiversity and extinction-prevention research.
A Nature study across 50 rivers on China's Qinghai–Tibet Plateau shows that thawing permafrost accelerates rock weathering, which consumes atmospheric CO2 and can offset or even exceed river CO2 emissions in some catchments, suggesting geological processes may partly counterbalance thaw-induced carbon release.
A Yukon permafrost study shows 700,000-year-old Arctic ground-squirrel coprolites preserving a rich environmental DNA record, enabling reconstruction of mitochondrial genomes for woolly mammoths, steppe bison and other Ice Age species (including horses, wolves, a big cat, and plants), offering a detailed snapshot of ancient Beringia and its ecosystem while noting that some signals may come from the burrow contents rather than direct predator DNA.
The Batagay megaslump in Siberia is widening as permafrost thaws, releasing greenhouse gases and unearthing ice-age fossils such as a 50,000-year-old mammoth and an ancient horse, highlighting climate feedback risks and ongoing paleontological discoveries.
Archaeologists studying 20 burials at Likneset (Corpse Point) on Svalbard uncover evidence that 17th–18th‑century Arctic whalers endured brutal manual labor and widespread scurvy, with pipe smoking possibly accelerating health decline; the site’s permafrost preservation is eroding due to climate warming, threatening future research.
Scientists thawed 40,000-year-old microbes from an Alaska permafrost tunnel and found them awakening after six months, forming biofilms and indicating life can resume after long dormancy; this slow reactivation could release carbon dioxide and methane as permafrost thaws, complicating climate models.
Scientists thawed a 24,000-year-old rotifer preserved in Siberian permafrost, revived it under strict lab conditions, and observed renewed metabolism and asexual reproduction, showing that multicellular life can endure cryptobiosis for millennia. The finding has implications for biotechnology and astrobiology, though researchers caution that revival of larger animals is unlikely.
Scientists thawed a 24,000-year-old rotifer from Siberian permafrost, revived it under controlled conditions, and observed asexual reproduction, showing that multicellular life can endure cryptobiosis for tens of thousands of years; while promising for biology and astrobiology, experts caution that revival of larger organisms is unlikely and thawing permafrost raises environmental and health questions.
Scientists thawed a 24,000-year-old rotifer from Siberian permafrost, observed it resume normal function, and even reproduce asexually, marking a milestone in showing multicellular life can survive cryptobiosis under extreme cold. The work suggests longevity of cellular structures in long-term frozen states and has implications for biology and astrobiology, though experts caution that revival of larger organisms is unlikely.
Scientists thawed a 24,000-year-old rotifer from Siberia's permafrost, reviving it and enabling asexual reproduction, showing multicellular animals can survive cryptobiosis for millennia; the finding highlights both the potential of cryopreservation and the health risks posed by revived ancient microbes as permafrost thaws.
A rotifer revived from 24,000-year-old Siberian permafrost not only returned to life but also reproduced, illustrating multicellular cryptobiosis and pushing the boundaries of long-term survival in extreme conditions.
Scientists using MBARI surveys found that submarine permafrost beneath the Canadian Beaufort Sea is actively forming ice and melting due to geothermal heat, creating rising mounds and fresh craters in the seafloor and revealing that Arctic submarine permafrost is not ancient or static, a finding with implications for infrastructure and methane risk in the region.
Scientists sequenced the woolly rhinoceros genome from tissue preserved in a 14,000-year-old wolf pup’s stomach in Siberian permafrost, marking the first time a genome has been reconstructed from inside another animal. By comparing this genome with other woolly rhino fossils and the Sumatran rhino, researchers found the species remained genetically stable until climate warming ended the last Ice Age, suggesting environmental change—not human hunting—drove extinction. The wolf pups likely died when their den collapsed, and the preserved stomach contents also offer a broader view of their ecosystem.