Researchers from the University of California, Davis, reported that dozens of Alaska’s most remote waterways are turning from a crystal clear blue color to a cloudy orange hue, and that thawing permafrost may be to blame.
The rust-colored discoloration of rivers and streams could be the result of minerals exposed by thawing permafrost, according to a new study published in the Nature journal Communications: Earth and Environment.
UC Davis has released images of the affected rivers and streams, a condition that scientists say could have huge consequences for drinking water and fisheries in the Arctic watersheds amid climate change.
A team of researchers from the National Park Service, US Geological Survey, the University of California, Davis and other institutions documented and sampled affected waters at 75 locations in an area the size of Texas in the northern Alaskan Brooks Range.
“The more we flew around, we started noticing more and more orange rivers and streams,” lead author Jon O’Donnell, an ecologist for the NPS’s Arctic Inventory and Monitoring Network, said in a UC Davis news release. “There are certain sites that almost look like a milky orange juice. Those orange flows can be problematic because they are toxic, but they can also prevent the migration of fish to spawning areas.”
