Widespread changes to near-surface permafrost in northern ecosystems are occurring through top-down thaw of near-surface permafrost and more abrupt localized thermokarst. Both types of thaw are associated with a loss of ecosystem services, including soil hydrothermal and mechanical stability and long-term carbon storage. Here, we analyze relationships between ground layer vegetation, active layer thickness, and greenhouse gas fluxes along a thaw gradient from permafrost peat plateau to thaw bog in Interior Alaska. We used active layer thickness to define four distinct stages of thaw: Stable, Early, Intermediate, and Advanced, and we identified key plant taxa that serve as reliable indicators of each stage. Advanced thaw, with a thicker active layer and thermokarst, was associated with increased abundance of graminoids and Sphagnum mosses but decreased plant species richness and ericoid abundance. Early thaw, driven by active layer thickening with little visible evidence of thermokarst, coincided with a fivefold increase in CH4 emissions, accounting for ~30% of the total increase in methane emissions occurring in ~10% of the timeline of the forest-to-bog transition. Our findings suggest that early stages of thaw, prior to the formation of thermokarst features, are associated with distinct vegetation and soil moisture changes that lead to abrupt increases in methane emissions, which then are perpetuated through ground collapse and collapse scar bog formation. Current modeling of permafrost peatlands will underestimate carbon emissions from thawing permafrost unless these linkages between plant community, nonlinear active layer dynamics, and carbon fluxes of emerging thaw features are integrated into modeling frameworks.

Floating communities exist throughout the world. Many live on water with a high pathogen load due to difficulties associated with sewage management. In Claverito, an informal floating community in Iquitos, Peru, we conducted a controlled experiment to test the ability of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) to remove Escherichia coli from water. When river E. coli concentrations were at or below ~1500 CFU 100 mL-1, water hyacinth reduced shallow concentrations (8-cm depth) down to levels deemed safe by U.S. EPA for recreational use. Above this threshold, plants were able to reduce E. coli levels within shallow water, but not down to “safe” levels. At deeper depths (>25 cm), there was evidence that plants increased E. coli concentrations. Water hyacinth removed E. coli from shallow water by providing a surface (i.e., submerged roots) onto which pathogens sorbed and by protecting organisms that consume E. coli. Unfortunately, because of root association, the total E. coli load within the water column was greater with water hyacinth present, and results hinted that the plants’ protective environment also harbored parasites. The use of water hyacinth to keep surface water around floating communities low in E. coli could be beneficial as this is the water layer with which people most likely interact. Aquatic vegetation naturally proliferates in and around Claverito. While this study was based on curating aquatic plants in order to achieve a water-quality outcome, it nonetheless supports concrete actions for Claverito residents under non-curated conditions, which are outlined at the end of the manuscript.

Northern high latitudes are projected to get warmer and wetter in the future which will affect rates of permafrost thaw and the mechanisms by which thaw occurs. To better understand these changing thaw dynamics, we instrumented an isolated permafrost plateau in south-central Alaska with climate conditions that currently mirror those expected in more northern permafrost regions in the future. Using preliminary 2019 measurements of temperature from the soil surface into permafrost, depth to frost table, water level, groundwater temperature, and meteorological variables, we tracked soil and permafrost warming throughout the season, and identified how environmental factors, such as water table elevation, microtopography, and warm rain events, affected rates of warming and thaw. Additionally, we present the extent of permafrost degradation since the last observations at this site in 2015. Permafrost thaw and resultant landscape change has a net warming effect on the climate. Understanding of the environmental factors that lead to thaw and rates at which permafrost will thaw under future climate conditions will allow for better preparation, modeling, and policy making for the future.

Root exudates alter the rhizosphere’s physical properties, but the impact that these changes have on solute transport is unknown. In this study, we tested the effects of chia mucilage and wheat root exudates on the transport of iodide and potassium in saturated or unsaturated soil. Saturated solute breakthrough experiments, conducted in loamy sand soil or coarser textured quartz sand, revealed that increasing the exudate concentration in soil resulted in increasingly non-equilibrium solute transport. This behavior was demonstrated by an initial solute breakthrough after fewer pore volumes and the arrival of the peak solute concentration after greater pore volumes in soil mixed with exudates compared to soil without exudates. These patterns were more pronounced for the quartz sand than in the loamy sand soil and in soil mixed with mucilage than in soil mixed wheat root exudates. Parameter fits to these breakthrough curves with a mobile-immobile transport model indicated the fraction of immobile water increased as the concentration of exudates increased. For example, in quartz sand the estimated immobile fraction increased from 0 without exudates to 0.75 at a mucilage concentration of 0.2%. The solutes’ breakthrough under unsaturated conditions was also altered by the exudates, demonstrated by a smaller volume of water extracted from soil mixed with exudates, compared to soil without exudates, before the arrival of the peak solute concentration. The results indicate that exudates alter the rhizosphere’s transport properties; we hypothesize that this is due to exudates creating low-conducting flow paths that result in a physical non-equilibrium solute transport.