Impacts of land clearing on areas containing permafrost

Impacts of land clearing on areas containing permafrost

Melissa Ward Jones from the University of Alaska Fairbanks explores the impacts of land clearing on areas with permafrost. Climate change is simultaneously decreasing yields by pushing crops to their upper-temperature limits while also simultaneously increasing opportunities to grow crops in regions that are currently not climatically suitable. It is estimated that high-latitude regions, containing primarily boreal ecosystems, will gain the highest land area with a suitable climate to grow globally important crops (Hannah et al., 2020). These regions also contain permafrost (perennially frozen ground), whose consideration is essential for agriculture and agricultural expansion in these regions (Ward Jones et al., 2022).