Climate & Environment

Billions live in environments that violate human rights

Yvaine Ye — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 16:02:04 +0000

Billions live in environments that violate human rights Yvaine Ye Thu, 11/06/2025 - 09:02

Yvaine Ye

More than 99% of the world’s 7.7 billion people have one or more of their environmental rights threatened, according to new research.

In the most comprehensive analysis of inequality in environmental conditions to date, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researchers revealed that nearly half of the global population lives in regions facing three or more environmental problems. Those include polluted air, unsafe water, extreme heat, food insecurity and biodiversity loss.

The analysis was published September 25 in Environmental Research Communications.

It provides strong evidence for urgent climate action, as representatives from nearly 200 countries prepare to convene for the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30), the United Nations’ annual climate meeting, in Brazil beginning November 10.

“Over the years, communities around the world have been fighting for local environmental justice,” said first author Naia Ormaza-Zulueta, a postdoctoral researcher in the Better Planet Lab at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. “We want to stitch their stories into a single, undeniable global tapestry so that they can’t be dismissed as isolated problems.”

In 2022, the UN formally recognized that everyone on the planet has the right to a healthy environment. The landmark resolution, while urging countries to take action to protect that right for their people, is not legally binding.

The resolution also failed to account for environmental harm caused by activities in other countries, said Ormaza-Zulueta, who's also a researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Extensive research has shown that large, industrialized nations, such as the United States, emit the most greenhouse gases, but lower-income countries experience the greatest impacts.

Credit: Naia Ormaza-Zulueta and Zia Mehrabi/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder

Pollution Without Borders

Ormaza-Zulueta and Zia Mehrabi, a data scientist in the Department of Environmental Studies and founder of the Better Planet Lab, wanted to put a number on how many people have had their environmental rights threatened.

They collected large datasets on environmental problems to calculate whether an individual in a given location around the world is experiencing, or has recently experienced, conditions that violated their rights in five core areas defined by the UN: clean air, clean water, a safe climate, healthy and sustainably produced food, and thriving biodiversity and ecosystems.

The team found that almost everyone on Earth lived in places that have recently experienced at least one environmental risk that failed to meet the UN conditions. Over 45%, or 3.4 billion people, had at least three rights threatened, and1.25%, or 95 million experienced all five conditions.

“The numbers are heartbreaking,” said Ormaza-Zulueta.

Naia Ormaza-Zulueta

Having access to clean air, defined as an annual average outdoor particulate matter concentration below the World Health Organization guideline, was the most common threat, followed by access to healthy and sustainably produced food.

In Colorado, a study has revealed that ozone pollution, mainly from cars, and oil and gas operations, causes more than 800 deaths each year.

“A lot of people think Boulder has great air quality for being so close to the mountains,” said Mehrabi. “But the reality is that our ozone level is high for multiple months during the summer. There are days when the air quality is so bad that our children can’t play outside.”

Hotspots of injustice

While most people are at risk of poor environmental conditions, not everyone feels the same impact. Consistent with previous research, disadvantaged populations, such as those with lower incomes, those who are displaced and those living on Indigenous lands, are far more likely to experience poor air quality, limited access to clean water and excessive heat than the rest of the population.

Those living in wealthier areas usually experience the best environmental conditions and are more likely to escape the worst impact as climate change progresses.

Internationally, several environmental impact hotspots stood out in the study: South Asia, for example, contains 41% of all people living with all five threats to environmental rights, despite making up only one-fifth of the world’s population.

Much of the poor environmental conditions around the globe result from the activities of wealthy nations, the study found. For instance, pollution from the United States is responsible for 12,000 deaths from poor air quality in India each year and 38,000 deaths in China. Meanwhile, emissions from the 27 countries in the European Union have made extreme weather events 1.8 times more likely in Southeast Africa and the Amazon rainforest.

Zia Mehrabi (Credit: Patrick Campbell/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

“No matter where we live, our rights are inherently connected to those of people in other parts of the world,” Ormaza-Zulueta said. She added that the large demand for products in the United States and Europe has caused biodiversity loss and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The resulting global warming and increased frequency of extreme weather events are felt around the world.

“An unstable environment destabilizes our society,” Mehrabi said. “There is already a lot of fear in the United States and elsewhere about conflict, immigration, and other signs of instability. Environmental issues are only going to make them worse.”

Even though the statistics are bleak, Mehrabi said they don’t tell the whole story. In addition to the five core categories, many people are at risk of other poor conditions that were not measured, such as exposure to toxins released from mining and plastic waste.

“There are many solutions to these environmental problems we’re facing now, from responsible clean energy to a more sustainable and just supply chain. We need strong policies that encourage businesses to adopt these solutions,” Mehrabi said.

Mehrabi pointed to due diligence laws in countries such as the Netherlands, France, and Germany, which require domestic companies to uphold human rights across their global operations. He said other nations need to follow suit.

The team hopes this study can empower communities and lawyers working on environmental rights issues.

“By showing how these injustices are happening across the world, deniers can no longer dismiss the polluted river here or dirty air there as anecdotes. This can be a critical tool for pushing for policy changes,” Ormaza-Zulueta said.

A global analysis found that almost everyone on Earth experiences at least one poor environmental condition, with the greatest burdens falling on low-income and Indigenous communities.

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Almost everyone on Earth experiences at least one poor environmental condition. (Credit: Yogendra Singh/Pexels)

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Almost everyone on Earth experiences at least one poor environmental condition. (Credit: Yogendra Singh/Pexels)

Long-term surface observations reveal clouds play key role in Arctic winter warming

Megan Maneval — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 22:10:27 +0000

Long-term surface observations reveal clouds play key role in Arctic winter warming Megan Maneval Tue, 11/04/2025 - 15:10

CIRES

Ground-based measurements from Alaska's North Slope offer a new perspective on how changing Arctic clouds impact rising temperatures on Earth's surface.

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Antarctic glacier retreated faster than any other in modern history

Megan Maneval — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 17:55:57 +0000

Antarctic glacier retreated faster than any other in modern history Megan Maneval Mon, 11/03/2025 - 10:55

Findings show the unprecedented speed of retreat is similar to the dramatic glacier retreats that occurred at the end of the last ice age.

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�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder delivers impactful research and creative work, despite federal funding uncertainty

Megan Maneval — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:04:13 +0000

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder delivers impactful research and creative work, despite federal funding uncertainty Megan Maneval Fri, 10/31/2025 - 11:04

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researchers continued to deliver meaningful, positive outcomes in the university's public research mission through strong results in fiscal year 2024–25. Highlights of their work include big innovations in quantum technology, improving our understanding of space weather, and enhancing environmental resiliency.

The pace of growth in research funding at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder tapered in the new year due to cuts and funding pauses by federal agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NASA. At $766.7 million, the newly released sponsored research funding numbers for �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder reflect a 3.3% increase over the prior year.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder drives $5B boost to Colorado's economy

“The research, scholarship and creative work produced by �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder faculty, researchers and students directly impacts people’s lives,” said Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation and dean of the institutes. “We are committed to advocating for the support needed to drive advances that strengthen our national security, enhance peoples’ health, ensure our nation’s continued leadership in scholarship and innovation, and spark economic development in Colorado and beyond.”

The bulk of the research funding, or 69%, comes from federal agencies, including NASA, the NSF, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NIH, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy. The state of Colorado contributed $15 million of the total. Nonprofits and international organizations supported �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder research and creative work to the tune of $102 million; industry accounted for $31 million; and other universities provided $47 million of the funding.

Here are a few research program highlights from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

Innovating at a quantum scale

The NSF invested $20 million in �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder to launch a facility known as the National Quantum Nanofab. In this facility, Colorado researchers and quantum specialists from industry and research institutions around the country will design and build devices that tap into the world of the tiny packets of energy that make up light.

Principal Investigator Scott Diddams, professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, alongside a team of physicists and engineers, leads the work in this makerspace.

Improving understanding of space weather

A team at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) has received $2 million to develop a concept study for a NASA mission that will investigate how Earth’s lower atmosphere influences the upper atmosphere. The results will improve and expand our understanding of the space weather system surrounding our planet.

The group, which is led by LASP researcher Aimee Merkel, is one of three selected by NASA to develop detailed proposals for the agency’s DYNAMIC (Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling) mission.

Helping communities adapt to climate change

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) has received a new five-year, $1.4 million cooperative agreement to continue hosting the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Since its founding in 2018, the center provides actionable science to help communities, ecosystems and economies in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska adapt to climate change.

Led by William Travis, associate professor of geography, the center advances the development and delivery of actionable science to help fish, wildlife, water, land and people in the North Central region adapt to a changing environment.

Learn more about NC CASC here.

Pairing humans and AI to help students learn

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder joined six other teams that make up the Learning Engineering Virtual Institute (LEVI). The institute's goal is to double the rate of middle school math learning within five years, focusing on students from low-income backgrounds.

Professors Sidney D'Mello and Tamara Sumner of the Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cognitive Science join professors Peter Foltz, Jennifer Jacobs and Jeffrey Bush of the Institute of Cognitive Science in leading the project team. �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder's project is the Hybrid Human-AI Tutoring (HAT) platform.

Learn more about LEVI and HAT.

Creating a Band-Aid for the heart

In the quest to develop lifelike materials to replace and repair human body parts, scientists face a formidable challenge: Real tissues are often both strong and stretchable and vary in shape and size. A �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder-led team, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, has taken a critical step toward cracking that code:

They’ve developed a new way to 3D print material that is at once elastic enough to withstand a heart’s persistent beating, tough enough to endure the crushing load placed on joints, and easily shapable to fit a patient’s unique defects.

A significant amount of sponsored research funding is directed to programs and researchers with unique expertise, such as biotechnology and aerospace, which stimulates industry.

Sponsored research funding from federal, state, international and foundation entities targets specific projects to advance research in laboratories and in the field. Research funding also helps pay for research-related capital improvements, scientific equipment, travel and salaries for research and support staff and student assistantships. �鶹��Ѱ��cannot divert this funding to non-research-related expenses.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researchers continued to deliver meaningful, positive outcomes in the university's public research mission through strong results in fiscal year 2024–25.

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Naval grant to improve ionospheric research over the open ocean

Megan Maneval — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:54:39 +0000

Naval grant to improve ionospheric research over the open ocean Megan Maneval Fri, 10/31/2025 - 10:54

Brian Breitsch is improving our understanding of the upper atmosphere in some of the most isolated places on Earth, thanks to an $840,000 federal grant.

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Rapid assessment by CIRES dives deep into Pagosa Springs' 3rd-largest flood on record

Megan Maneval — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 16:09:24 +0000

Rapid assessment by CIRES dives deep into Pagosa Springs' 3rd-largest flood on record Megan Maneval Tue, 10/28/2025 - 10:09

CIRES

Compiled by Western Water Assessment, the report includes scientific and historical context to help decision makers and emergency responders.

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Exploring Colorado's untapped geothermal energy potential

Megan Maneval — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 13:58:32 +0000

Exploring Colorado's untapped geothermal energy potential Megan Maneval Fri, 10/24/2025 - 07:58

College of Engineering and Applied Science

A major question looms over Colorado's energy future: Why does geothermal energy, a renewable resource, remain virtually untapped? �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researchers will examine the technological and social barriers that have held back geothermal development in the state.

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On an iconic Colorado 14er, climate change is shifting the timing between flowers and pollinators

Yvaine Ye — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 19:09:14 +0000

On an iconic Colorado 14er, climate change is shifting the timing between flowers and pollinators Yvaine Ye Thu, 10/16/2025 - 13:09

Warming temperatures and earlier snowmelt are disrupting the long-running relationship between wildflowers and their pollinators on Colorado’s Pikes Peak.

In a new study published September 25 in the American Naturalist, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researchers found many of the region’s plants and pollinators are now emerging earlier in the spring than they did a century ago. But some species are falling out of sync, potentially adding challenges for pollinators already under threat.

“Pollinators are so important to our ecosystem, supporting everything from wildflowers to the food we eat,” said Julian Resasco, the paper’s senior author and associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “Having data from 100 years ago gave us a unique opportunity to take a glimpse of these long-term trends under a changing climate.”

Pseudomasaris vespoides, a pollen wasp is showing up much earlier than it used to in the historical study. (Credit: Julian Resasco/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

Starting in 1910, ecologist Frederic Clements and his student Frances Long began documenting the interactions between local plants and their pollinators at the now-closed Carnegie Institution’s Alpine Laboratory on the slope of the 14,115-foot Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs.

Over the past century, Colorado has warmed by an average of 2.9°F, with the average winter temperature rising even faster, by 3.3°F. Climate change has also decreased the amount of snow accumulating on top of the mountains, or snowpack, in the western United States, reducing the amount of water available for mountain species in spring and summer.

Warming temperature and snowmelt are vital environmental cues for plants and insects to emerge from their winter inactive state.

As the climate warms and snow melts earlier, plants may begin flowering sooner and pollinators may start flying earlier. But not all species respond to it in the same way or at the same pace, said Leana Zoller, the paper’s first author and a former postdoctoral associate at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

Resasco, Zoller and their team returned to Clements and Long’s study area to see if the interactions between plants and pollinators have shifted over the past century. Because Pikes Peak is a protected wilderness area, its environment has remained largely undisturbed. This allowed the team to study the impact of climate change without other influences such as land use change.

Julian Resasco (right) and his two graduate students surveyed pollinators and wildflowers in the Pike National Forest near Colorado Springs. (Credit: Andrew Gaier/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

Between 2019 and 2022, the research team analyzed 25 wild pollinator species, including bumblebees, wasps and flies, as well as 11 flowering plants the insects interact with, forming 149 pairs of interactions.

Of the species that could be compared between the historical and contemporary datasets, they found that wildflowers were blooming about 17 days sooner than a century ago, and pollinators started to fly 11 days earlier.

Out of the 149 pairs of plant-pollinator comparable interactions, nearly 80% have more overlap in their active periods than before. While this trend appears beneficial for pollinators now, the advantage may be short-lived.

Historically, pollinators were active earlier than plants started flowering. “In our study system plants have advanced more rapidly than pollinators. If the trends continue, we may see plants flower before pollinators become active in the future,” said Zoller, who is currently a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

“Mismatches may occur among these currently overlapping pairs as plants and pollinators continue to respond differently to changing conditions,” she added.

Some species are already slipping out of sync.

The western bumblebee, for example, is emerging 12 days later than a century ago, which could leave it struggling to find enough food. Once common and widespread in the western United States and Canada, this species has sharply declined by at least 57% since 1998 due to a mix of disease, habitat loss and pesticides.

“This mismatch in the schedules of western bumblebees and the plants they historically fed on could add another stressor on top of everything else this species is facing,” Resasco said.

Pollinators, including domestic honeybees and wild species, contribute to the reproduction of 75% of the world’s flowering plants and about 35% of the world’s food crops. Their decline could have far-reaching effects on both natural landscapes and agriculture.

“Wild pollinators help maintain the biodiversity of plants in our ecosystems. We have a responsibility to make sure they don’t disappear,” Resasco said.

While some species are keeping pace with each other's changes, certain bumblebees may be struggling to find enough food.

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Bumblebee (Credit: Judy Gallagher/Wikimedia)

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Bumblebee (Credit: Judy Gallagher/Wikimedia)

North Atlantic dolphins are dying younger, new study shows

Yvaine Ye — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 19:15:37 +0000

North Atlantic dolphins are dying younger, new study shows Yvaine Ye Mon, 10/13/2025 - 13:15

Yvaine Ye

Common dolphins are among the ocean’s most abundant mammals, but they are living shorter lives in the North Atlantic, according to a new study published Oct. 10 in Conservation Letters.

Etienne Rouby

The �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder-led research team discovered that the longevity of female common dolphins has declined by seven years since 1997, an alarming trend that the authors say threatens not only the species but also the marine ecosystem it helps maintain.

“There is an urgent need to manage the population better,” said Etienne Rouby, a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). “Otherwise, there is a risk for decline and, ultimately, extinction.”

About 6 million common dolphins roam tropical and temperate oceans around the globe. They are the world’s most common cetaceans, a group that includes all whales, dolphins and porpoises.

The Bay of Biscay in the Atlantic Ocean off the French coast is a popular destination for dolphins in winter, because its warmer, nutrient-rich waters attract smaller species of fish like anchovies and sardines that dolphins eat. But those same conditions also make it one of Europe’s fishing hotspots.

While dolphins are not the target of fishing, many of them end up in nets by accident, also known as “bycatch”. Most dolphins caught as bycatch die. Some studies estimate that in 2021, fishing bycatch was responsible for the death of 6,900 dolphins in the bay, from a winter population of 180,000.

Despite those numbers, traditional abundance monitoring methods previously suggested that the dolphin population in the bay was stable.

The common dolphin is the most abundant cetacean in the world. (Credit: Observatoire Pelagis - France)

Conventionally, scientists have estimated dolphin numbers by tallying individuals spotted from survey ships and planes. Because dolphins are constantly moving in and out of a region, this approach can miss population changes until drastic shifts occur. For long-lived animals that only produce a few offspring in their lifetimes, such as dolphins, recovery may not be possible once population declines are significant enough to show up in general counts, Rouby said.

He and his team set out to reevaluate how well these cetaceans were surviving using a new approach they developed: counting and analyzing deceased dolphins stranded on beaches in the bay.

Dolphins often come onto the shore because they are old, sick, injured or disoriented, and rarely any survives after being stranded. While stranded dolphins represent only about 10% of total dolphin deaths, changes in their mortality patterns over time can reveal broader population trends.

The team studied 759 common dolphins stranded on beaches along the Bay of Biscay between 1997 and 2019.

The Bay of Biscay. (Credit: Wikimedia)

“We wanted to capture changes in the population’s survival and fertility rates. These are more sensitive indicators of population health, and they enable us to identify the problems before they become irreversible,” he said.

By analyzing dolphin teeth, the team determined the age at which these animals died. The team found that female dolphins’ longevity decreased from 24 years in the late 1990s to just 17 years two decades later.

This decline has led to fewer calves born. The researchers estimated that the dolphin population growth rate has declined by 2.4% from 1997 to 2019. In ideal conditions, a healthy common dolphin population grows ideally at about 4% per year. This means if the population was thriving perfectly in 1997, it was only growing at 1.6% annually by 2019.

“The numbers are likely to be lower in reality,” Rouby said. If the trend continues, the growth rate could dip below zero, a threshold that would signal population decline, he added.

Since 2024, the French government has been closing the Bay of Biscay to fishing for one month every January to protect the dolphins. While some data has suggested the measure has been helpful, Rouby said a more flexible schedule could work better.

Depending on ocean conditions, dolphins may arrive at the bay earlier or later than the set period in January, so timing fishing restrictions to match dolphin visits would better protect the animals.

Etienne Rouby received the Best Young Researcher Award from the International Society for Ecological Modelling for the methology he used in this work in September. He pioneered the use of age-at-death data to estimate how well an animal population is doing.

Other cetaceans in the North Atlantic, including Harbor porpoise and bottlenose dolphins may also be experiencing similar declines. Studying how well their populations are doing could improve current conservation policies including the US Marine Mammal Protection Act and the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Rouby said.

“Dolphins are the top predators in the Bay of Biscay, and they play a very important role in the ecosystem. Without these predators, fish populations could become out of control, and they would in turn consume too much plankton and vegetation until the system collapses,” Rouby said. “As humans, we should make conscious decisions to protect the living and non-living things around us. Facing evidence of viability loss, we need to act before it is too late.”

The longevity of female common dolphins has decreased by seven years in the last two decades in regions of the North Atlantic, with many getting caught in commercial fishing nets.

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The common dolphin is the most abundant cetacean in the world. (Credit: Charles J. Sharp/Wikimedia)

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The common dolphin is the most abundant cetacean in the world. (Credit: Charles J. Sharp/Wikimedia)

Researchers wake up microbes trapped in permafrost for thousands of years

Daniel William Strain — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 17:41:38 +0000

Researchers wake up microbes trapped in permafrost for thousands of years Daniel William… Thu, 10/02/2025 - 11:41

Daniel Strain

Thawing permafrost in Alaska. (Credit: Brandt Meixell/USGS)

In a new study, a team of geologists and biologists led by �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder resurrected ancient microbes that had been trapped in ice—in some cases for around 40,000 years.

The study is a showcase for the planet’s permafrost. That’s the name for a frozen mix of soil, ice and rocks that underlies nearly a quarter of the land in the northern hemisphere. It’s an icy graveyard where animal and plant remains, alongside plentiful bacteria and other microorganisms, have become stuck in time.

That is, until curious scientists try to wake them up.

The group discovered that if you thaw out permafrost, the microbes within will take a while to become active. But after a few months, like waking up after a long nap, they begin to form flourishing colonies.

“These are not dead samples by any means,” said Tristan Caro, lead author of the study and a former graduate student in geological sciences at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. “They’re still very much capable of hosting robust life that can break down organic matter and release it as carbon dioxide.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Permafrost Tunnel near Fairbanks, Alaska. (Credit: Tristan Caro)

Robyn Barbato of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory drills a sample from the walls of the Permafrost Tunnel. (Credit: Tristan Caro)

Caro and his colleagues published their findings in September in the journal JGR Biogeosciences.

The research has wide implications for the health of the Arctic, and the entire planet, added study co-author Sebastian Kopf.

Today, the world’s permafrost is thawing at an alarming rate because of human-caused climate change. Scientists worry this trend could kick off a vicious cycle. As permafrost thaws, microbes living in the soil will begin to break down organic matter, spewing it into the air as carbon dioxide and methane—both potent greenhouse gases.

“It’s one of the biggest unknowns in climate responses,” said Kopf, professor of geological sciences at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. “How will the thawing of all this frozen ground, where we know there’s tons of carbon stored, affect the ecology of these regions and the rate of climate change?”

Long slumber

To explore those unknowns, the researchers traveled to a one-of-a-kind location, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Permafrost Tunnel. This unusual research facility extends more than 350 feet into the frozen ground beneath central Alaska.

When Caro entered the tunnel, which is about as wide as a mine shaft, he could see the bones of ancient bison and mammoth sticking out from the walls.

“The first thing you notice when you walk in there is that it smells really bad. It smells like a musty basement that’s been left to sit for way too long,” said Caro, now a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology. “To a microbiologist, that’s very exciting because interesting smells are often microbial.”

In the current study, the researchers collected samples of permafrost that was a few thousand to tens of thousands of years old from the walls of the tunnel. They then added water to the samples and incubated them at temperatures of 39 and 54 degrees Fahrenheit—chilly for humans, but downright boiling for the Arctic.

“We wanted to simulate what happens in an Alaskan summer, under future climate conditions where these temperatures reach deeper areas of the permafrost.” Caro said.

With a twist: The researchers relied on water made up of unusually heavy hydrogen atoms, also known as deuterium. That allowed them to track how their microbes drank up the water, then used the hydrogen to build the membranes made of fatty material that surround all living cells.

Arctic summers

What they saw was surprising.

In the first few months, these colonies grew at a creep, in some cases replacing only about one in every 100,000 cells per day. Under lab conditions, most bacterial colonies completely turn over in the span of a few hours.

But by the six-month mark, that all changed. Some bacterial colonies even produced gooey structures called “biofilms” that you can see with the naked eye.

Caro said these microbes likely couldn’t infect people, but the team kept them in sealed chambers regardless.

He added that the colonies didn’t seem to wake up that much faster at hotter temperatures. The results could hold lessons for thawing permafrost in the real world: After a hot spell, it may take several months for microbes to become active enough that they begin to emit greenhouse gases into the air in large volumes.

In other words, the longer Arctic summers grow, the greater the risks for the planet.

“You might have a single hot day in the Alaskan summer, but what matters much more is the lengthening of the summer season to where these warm temperatures extend into the autumn and spring,” Caro said.

He added there are still a lot of open questions about these microbes, such as whether ancient organisms behave the same at sites around the world.

“There’s so much permafrost in the world—in Alaska, Siberia and in other northern cold regions,” Caro said. “We’ve only sampled one tiny slice of that.”

Across the Arctic, bacteria and other microorganisms have become trapped underground in frozen soil and ice. A new study finds that these ancient microbes may still be capable of forming thriving colonies.

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