Scientists have overestimated the speed of Arctic river beds due to global warming. article about it published Climate Change in Nature.
Due to global warming, temperatures are rising primarily at high latitudes, including the Arctic. Many experts in the region predict that the balance of the river beds will be disturbed due to the sharp increase in air temperatures. It was believed that as the permafrost thawed, river banks weakened and were subject to rapid changes, including changing their course.
To test this assumption, Alessandro Yelpi and colleagues analyzed a collection of satellite images taken over 50 years. They compared more than a thousand kilometers of banks of 10 Arctic rivers in Alaska, the Yukon, and the Canadian Northwest Territories.
“We tested the hypothesis that large meandering rivers in the permafrost move faster due to climate warming and found the opposite,” the scientists say. — Yes, permafrost is deteriorating, but the impact of other environmental changes, such as the greening of the Arctic, will negate its consequences. Higher temperatures and more humidity in the Arctic mean the region is greening. The bushes are growing, becoming thicker and taller in areas where previously there was only sparse vegetation.
Thus, the dense vegetation along the banks of the rivers made the banks more stable and stable and prevented their rapid displacement.