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Arctic inhabitants are taking research into their own hands. Rather than letting scientists determine what needs to be studied, Inuit communities in Canada are determining what questions they need answered and seeking researchers who can help them.

Coastlines everywhere are hit by waves and storms from rising seas that can eat away at the shoreline, but Arctic coasts once frozen in place by permafrost are especially susceptible to coastal erosion as temperatures rise and permafrost thaws. Increased erosion is threatening some coastal communities, forcing long-standing communities to consider relocation as the land underneath them disappears.

Sea ice is rapidly decreasing due to accelerated warming in the Arctic. Animals, subsistence hunters, and researchers who rely on the frozen surface are adapting to less ice while trying to preserve their livelihoods.

Many glaciers in the Kluane Region are fed by a massive reservoir of snow and ice that sits on top of the St. Elias Mountains. Glaciologists are studying how global warming is affecting the physical characteristics and behavior of these glaciers as they retreat further up mountain slopes.

Frozen soils (or permafrost) in the Arctic are thawing, destabilizing the ground surface and damaging buildings and roads. Although infrastructure is crumbling, scientists are more concerned with the potential for runaway global warming as preserved plant material in the soils starts to break down into carbon dioxide. Global climate action plans are in place to limit global warming to 2⁰C, but the huge volume of carbon stored in the soils may push us past that target.

As the Arctic warms, the limits of where trees can grow are slowly shifting up mountains and further north. Researchers at the Kluane Lake Research Station in Yukon, Canada are trying to determine the range of environmental conditions that control the position of the tree line and ultimately forecast the position of the tree line in the future.