NOAA Arctic Report Card 2025 : Rusting Rivers

O'Donnell, J. A.; Carey, M. P.; Koch, J. C.; Baughman, C.; Hill, K.; Evinger, T.; Pruitt, A.; Thompson, C.; Graham, E.; Poulin, B. A.

doi:10.25923/f3tr-5759

i

NOAA Arctic Report Card 2025 : Rusting Rivers

2025
By O'Donnell, J. A. ; Carey, M. P. ; Koch, J. C. ; ...
Series: NOAA technical report OAR ARC 25-14 (Arctic Report Card)

Details

Alternative Title:

Rusting Rivers: Assessing the Causes and Consequences in Alaska and Across the Arctic
Personal Author:

O'Donnell, J. A. ; Carey, M. P. ; Koch, J. C. ; Baughman, C. ; Hill, K. ; Evinger, T. ; Pruitt, A. ; Thompson, C. ; Graham, E. ; Poulin, B. A.
Corporate Authors:

Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (U.S.) ; United States. National Park Service. ; Alaska Science Center (U.S. : 2002- ) ; University of California, Davis. Department of Environmental Toxicology. ; University of Alaska Fairbanks. Geophysical Institute.
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GOMO (Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing) ; PMEL (Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory)
Description:

Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the Arctic are undergoing rapid change due to the impacts of a changing climate and ecosystem disturbances. One climate-driven disturbance, permafrost thaw, is altering watershed hydrology and biogeochemical cycles (e.g., carbon cycling), with implications for coastal waters and marine ecosystems. Recent ground-based, aerial, and satellite observations from remote watersheds of northern Alaska indicate that hundreds of streams and rivers have shifted from pristine, clear water to an orange “rusting” condition, with many sites changing over the past decade (O’Donnell et al. 2024). This abrupt change appears to be an unanticipated consequence of permafrost thaw in the Arctic, and represents an emergent risk to water quality and aquatic life (Miner et al. 2021).
Keywords:

Arctic Regions Climatic Changes Monitoring Pollution Rivers Arctic Regions Climatic Changes
Series:

NOAA technical report OAR ARC 25-14 (Arctic Report Card)
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25923/f3tr-5759
Format:

pdf
Document Type:

Technical Report
Place as Subject:

Arctic Ocean
License:

https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Rights Information:

CC0 Public Domain
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:9fcf94ec3a2b6f55318e09b689f52bbd3451ee9e150e5b71fc4d9430114ec550b80d1ea9731f4e9d84ed52d72a8f2f89164306a7fdc672a2c65856e4c3a3f764
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/72428/noaa_72428_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 6.80 MB ]

ON THIS PAGE

Details

The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.