Alaska

Arctic rivers face big changes with warming climate, permafrost thaw and accelerating water cycle • Alaska Beacon

Published

2 years ago

March 9, 2024

Arctic rivers face big changes with warming climate, permafrost thaw and accelerating water cycle • Alaska Beacon

As the Arctic warms, its mighty rivers are changing in ways that could have vast consequences – not only for the Arctic region but for the world.

Rivers represent the land branch of the earth’s hydrological cycle. As rain and snow fall, rivers transport freshwater runoff along with dissolved organic and particulate materials, including carbon, to coastal areas. With the Arctic now warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, the region is seeing more precipitation and the permafrost is thawing, leading to stronger river flows.

Major river basins of the Arctic region are mapped.
(NOAA Arctic Report Card image)

We’re climate scientists who study how warming is influencing the water cycle and ecosystems. In a new study using historical data and sophisticated computer models of Earth’s climate and hydrology, we explored how climate change is altering Arctic rivers.

We found that thawing permafrost and intensifying storms will change how water moves into and through Arctic rivers. These changes will affect coastal regions, the Arctic Ocean and, potentially, the North Atlantic, as well as the climate.

Thawing permafrost: Big changes in Arctic soils

Permafrost thaw is one of the most consequential changes that the Arctic is experiencing as temperatures rise.

Permafrost is soil that has been frozen for at least two years and often for millennia. It covers approximately 8.8 million square miles (about 22.8 million square kilometers) in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere, but that area is shrinking as the permafrost thaws.

Erosion reveals ice-rich permafrost near Teshekpuk Lake, Alaska.(Photo by Brandt Meixell/USGS) — Erosion reveals ice-rich permafrost near Teshekpuk Lake, Alaska.
(Photo by Brandt Meixell/USGS)

Historically, most water going into Arctic rivers flows atop frozen permafrost soils in spring. Scientists call this “overland runoff.”

However, our results suggest that as warming continues, an increasing fraction of annual river flow will come from under the surface, through thawed soils in the degrading permafrost. As the overall flow increases with more precipitation, as much as 30% more of it could be moving underground by the end of this century as subsurface pathways expand.

When water flows through soil, it picks up different chemicals and metals. As a result, water coming into rivers will likely have a different chemical character. For example, it may carry more nutrients and dissolved carbon that can affect coastal zones and the global climate. The fate of that mobilized carbon is an active area of study.

More carbon in river water could end up “outgassed” upon reaching placid coastal waters, increasing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, which further drives climate warming. The thaw is also revealing other nasty surprises, such as the emergence of long-frozen viruses.

More rain and snow, more runoff

The Arctic’s water cycle is also ramping up as temperatures rise, meaning more precipitation, evaporation, plant transpiration and river discharge. This is primarily due to a warmer atmosphere’s inherent ability to hold more moisture. It’s the same reason that bigger snowstorms are occurring as the climate warms.

Our study found that the bulk of the additional precipitation will occur across far northern parts of the Arctic basin. As sea ice disappears in a warming climate, computer models agree that a more open Arctic Ocean will feed more water to the atmosphere, where it will be transported to adjacent land areas to fall as precipitation.

Changes projected this century in annual rainfall and snowfall simulated by the computer model used in the study. Red areas represent increases.(Rawlins and Karmalkar, 2024, image) — Changes projected this century in annual rainfall and snowfall simulated by the computer model used in the study. Red areas represent increases.
(Rawlins and Karmalkar, 2024, image)

More snow in northern Alaska, Siberia and Canada will lead to more water flowing in rivers, potentially up to 25% more under a high-warming scenario based on our research. There is more carbon in the soil in northern parts of the Arctic compared with the south. With permafrost thaw, those regions will also see more water coming into rivers from below the surface, where additional soil carbon can leach into the water and become dissolved organic carbon.

More old carbon is already showing up in samples gathered from Arctic rivers, attributed to permafrost thaw. Carbon dating shows that some of this carbon has been frozen for thousands of years.

Impacts will cascade through Arctic ecosystems

So, what does the future hold?

One of the most notable changes expected involves the transport of fresh water and associated materials, such as dissolved organic carbon and heat energy, to Arctic coastal zones.

James McClelland of the Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research program examines a water sample from a stream near Utqiagvik on Alaska’s North Slope. The brown tint is dissolved organic matter. (Photo by Michael A. Rawlins)

Coastal lagoons may become fresher. This change would affect organisms up and down the food chain, though our current understanding of the potential affects of changes in fresh water and dissolved organic carbon is still murky.

River water will also be warmer as the climate heats up and has the potential to melt coastal sea ice earlier in the season. Scientists observed this in spring 2023, when unusually warm water in Canada’s Mackenzie River carried heat to the Beaufort Sea, contributing to early coastal sea ice melting.

Fresh water flowing from rivers such as Canada’s Mackenzie River, at the bottom center of the satellite image, into the Beaufort Sea can break up sea ice early. (NASA Earth Observatory image)

Finally, more river water reaching the coast has the potential to freshen the Arctic Ocean, particularly along northern Eurasia, where big Russian rivers export massive amounts of fresh water each year.

There are concerns that rising river flows in that region are influencing the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, the currents that circulate heat from the tropics, up along the U.S. East Coast and toward Europe. Evidence is mounting that these currents have been slowing in recent years as more fresh water enters the North Atlantic. If the circulation shuts down, it would significantly affect temperatures across North America and Europe.

At the coast, changing river flows will also affect the plants, animals and Indigenous populations that call the region home. For them and for the global climate, our study’s findings highlight the need to closely watch how the Arctic is being transformed and take steps to mitigate the effects.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Alaska

Opinion: A defining moment for Alaska’s congressional delegation

Published

1 hour ago

February 18, 2026

Press Room

Opinion: A defining moment for Alaska’s congressional delegation

The U.S. Capitol is seen Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich must choose between complicity and commitment to their fundamental constitutional obligations as legislators. Like so many scandals before, the root cause and means of correction for our current national crisis resides in the deliberative body, not the executive.

It’s been nearly 25 years since energy giant Enron filed for bankruptcy. The company collapsed after it was discovered that CEO Kenneth Lay and other executives had concealed massive debt through fraudulent accounting practices. Billions disappeared from pension plans and retirement accounts of ordinary people across the country.

Executives, like Mr. Lay, capture our attention with their boundless capacity to believe in themselves to the very end, even as the lies, abuse and secrets finally catch up with them.

Despite the coverage they receive, such leaders are really a symptom of a more serious underlying autoimmune disease: a systemic failure of the organization’s policymaking and oversight body.

Time and again, boards that could prevent or contain executive misconduct are caught up in the success of the moment, blinded by groupthink, constrained by the perceived necessities of competitive edge and public image, and passive in response to a forceful leader considered integral to the organization’s success.

The U.S. government provides an unparalleled example of this dual failure of executive leadership and legislative oversight.

President Trump has:

• Been found civilly liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and is the subject of numerous credible allegations of sexual misconduct.

• Incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters, threatened the vice president and members of Congress in an attempt to interfere with the peaceful transition of power, and later pardoned or commuted the sentences of all those criminally convicted of violence against D.C. and Capitol police during the attack.

• Openly profited off the presidency through the use of cryptocurrency pay-for-play political schemes to the tune of billions of dollars.

• Weaponized departments of the federal government to target his personal enemies.

• Terrorized lawful immigrants and U.S. citizens and stoked domestic conflict through the use of militarized and masked federal police forces in the name of crime reduction and immigration enforcement.

• Threatened our allies with military action in contravention of ratified U.S. treaties and committed acts of war without congressional approval.

• Through his Department of Justice, illegally concealed the names of possible co-conspirators in a case of child sex trafficking associated with the highest echelons in our society, a case in which the president himself is potentially implicated.

Congress is the United States’ board of directors. It is responsible for investigating executive misconduct and, if warranted, impeaching and removing the president and cabinet members.

Members of Congress who refuse to perform their constitutional duties of oversight share responsibility for President Trump’s actions.

That Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich belong to the same party as the president is irrelevant. No one considers it a valid excuse if trustees happen to belong to the same political party as the executive leadership they are charged with overseeing. The job remains the same: oversight, accountability, exercise of budgetary authority and policymaking.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, often alone in her party, has stood up to the Trump administration, modeling the independent-minded leadership we need from all members of the legislative branch.

The United States of America is not a large energy company. Much more is at stake. Innocent people in Alaska and across the nation and world will suffer even more if Republican legislators, including Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich, refuse to investigate and fulfill their oath to check the abuse of executive power.

If the Alaska delegation does not act decisively now, they will never be able to wash their hands of these things. The stench of President Trump’s actions will remain with them long after their service to our state has ended.

Joel Potter is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

• • •

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Alaska

Former Alaska cop convicted of assault after lying about vehicle attack, according to state

Published

13 hours ago

February 18, 2026

Press Room

Former Alaska cop convicted of assault after lying about vehicle attack, according to state

BETHEL, Alaska (KTUU) – A former Bethel police officer has been convicted of assault and related charges after a jury concluded he used excessive force against a man during a 2023 traffic stop, and then provided false information about the encounter.

Jonathan Murphy, 39, was found guilty of fourth-degree assault, providing false information implicating another in a crime, and second degree tampering with evidence last week following a six day trial.

The charges stem from a Dec. 23, 2023 incident in Bethel, where Murphy, then an officer with the Bethel Police Department, assisted in a traffic stop involving a report of a stolen vehicle. Body-worn camera footage showed Murphy and another officer approach the driver and order him to raise his hands, which the driver did, according to the Alaska Department of Law.

Prosecutors said Murphy then attempted to forcibly remove the driver from the vehicle and struck him in the face. The victim drove away.

Murphy later radioed to the other officer, claiming the driver had attempted to hit him with the vehicle, according to the Department of Law.

After a short pursuit, officers forced the driver’s vehicle into a snowbank. Murphy and other officers surrounded the vehicle, broke its windows, deployed pepper spray and used tasers. Video showed the driver retreating into his vehicle and attempting to remove taser wires while curling into a defensive position, according to the state.

During the encounter, Murphy grabbed the victim through the driver’s window and repeatedly punched him in the head. Body-camera footage showed Murphy striking the driver more than 20 times in rapid succession, according to the Department of Law.

Prosecutors said Murphy later reported that the driver had struck him with the vehicle and implied he had been dragged by it. Investigators said the video did not show the driver attempting to hit Murphy or any part of the vehicle striking him.

Murphy resigned from the Bethel Police Department at the start of the investigation in 2024. He later worked briefly with the Sitka Police Department and currently serves as police chief in Diamond City, Arkansas, according to the Department of Law.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 19. Murphy faces a maximum of three years in confinement.

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Alaska

Alaska’s governor race picks up 17th candidate

Published

1 day ago

February 17, 2026

Press Room

Alaska’s governor race picks up 17th candidate

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Meda DeWitt, a traditional healer and community organizer, announced her candidacy in this year’s gubernatorial race Monday.

DeWitt entered the race as an independent and filed a letter of intent, according to Alaska Public Offices Commission paperwork. DeWitt’s announcement coincided with Elizabeth Peratrovich Day.

“Alaska is at a crossroads,” DeWitt said in her announcement. “We can continue down a path of division and short-term thinking, or we can choose a future grounded in courage, cooperation and responsibility to those who come after us. I am running for Governor because I believe in the strength of our people and the promise of this place.”

DeWitt said her campaign will focus on ensuring government transparency, investing in education and public safety and protecting Alaska’s natural resources.

More information can be found on her campaign website medaforalaska.com.

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