Alaska’s North Slope tundra may look desolate, but crouch down and you’ll see a lush jungle. It’s just so small, it’s almost all below your knee. Researchers are studying this Arctic region, which is warming four times faster than the rest of Earth. For thousands of years the tundra took heat-trapping gases out of the air, but now it adds to the planet’s warming problem. Willows are taking over, changing the landscape. Researchers are examining how plants that siphon nutrients from their neighbors actually also help them. The hope is to better understand the Arctic’s fast-changing future and that of planet Earth, simply by looking at what’s underfoot.
Commodities
A lush knee-high jungle grows in the Arctic, but warming is changing Earth's mini-greenhouse
Alaska’s North Slope tundra may look desolate, but crouch down and you’ll see a lush jungle. It’s just so small, it’s almost all below your knee. Researchers are studying this Arctic region, which is warming four times faster than the rest of Earth. For thousands of years the tundra took heat-trapping gases out of the […]
