Scientists Found Something Alarming Under The Arctic Ice

Six years later, Christopher Horvat, a then-graduate student at Harvard University, published a research paper in Science Advances that proposed an answer: Global warming had caused the ice to thin enough that it allowed more light to penetrate through its surface. This thinner ice, which not only let a higher degree of light pass through it, also lost its ability to reflect sunlight as effectively. This combination created the right conditions for phytoplankton photosynthesis on a massive scale. The discovery of this phenomenon suggests something potentially paradigm breaking in the scientific community: Climate change isn't just turning Antarctica green, but it's also fundamentally reshaping one of the coldest ecologies on Earth.

The Arctic tundra ecosystem, found in the far north polar area of the world, is characterized by cold temperatures, frozen soil called permafrost and …

In the extreme cold of the Arctic, decomposers — the organisms that break down dead organic material — work a little differently and a lot more slowly than they do in other climates.

The Arctic tundra has a reputation for being cold and inhospitable – and it's true that for much of the year, this is a land of wind-driven snow and …

Derived from the Finnish word ​tunturi,​ which means 'treeless plain,' the tundra is regarded as one of the coldest and most environmentally challenging biomes on the planet. Although tundra ecosystems can be found at high elevations throughout the world, the term is most commonly used in relation to the Arctic tundra, which is located in the northern regions between the North Pole and the boreal forests in North America, Europe and Asia.