(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists have overstated the speed of the Arctic riverbeds due to global warming.
Due to global warming, temperatures are primarily rising in high latitudes, including in the Arctic. Many experts in the region predicted that the riverbeds would be destabilized due to a sharp warming in air temperatures.
It was believed that as the permafrost thawed, river banks weakened and became subject to rapid changes, including changing their course.
To test this assumption, Alessandro Yelpi and his colleagues analyzed a collection of satellite images taken over a period of more than 50 years.
They compared more than a thousand kilometers of shores of 10 Arctic rivers in Alaska, the Yukon and the Canadian Northwest Territories.
“We tested the hypothesis that large winding rivers in permafrost are moving faster due to climate warming, and found just the opposite,” the scientists say.
Yes, permafrost is degrading, but the impact of other environmental changes, such as the greening of the Arctic, will neutralize its consequences.
Warmer temperatures and more moisture in the Arctic means the region is greening up. Shrubs are growing, becoming thicker and taller in areas where there was only sparse vegetation before.
Thus, the thick vegetation along the banks of the rivers made the banks more stable and stable and prevented their rapid displacement.
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