Long Term Ecological Research site outside Fairbanks, Alaska measuring how soil respiration in relation to changing temperatures.

Photo By/Credit
Scott Covington/USFWS
Date Shot/Created
08/08/2022
Media Usage Rights/License
Public Domain
Image
The Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site outside Fairbanks, AK provides a research platform for scientists documenting long-term trends in ecological response to environmental change. In this photo, researchers are measuring the how the soil “breathes� (i.e., soil respiration), in relation to changing temperature regimes. Findings from this research indicate that global warming is exacerbated at high latitudes by energy and trace-gas feedbacks resulting from wildfire, “melting of sea ice and glaciers, lengthening of the snow-free season, and atmospheric losses of previously frozen permafrost carbon as carbon dioxide and methane.� (Bonanza Creek LTER Site).