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Topic · Atmospheric Science

Climate change and permafrost

Climate change and permafrost is a research topic within Atmospheric Science. Science Explorer counts 35k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the dynamics of Arctic permafrost in the context of climate change, including its impact on carbon feedback, methane emissions, vegetation change, and hydrology. The research covers a wide range of topics such as soil organic carbon pools, shrub expansion, tundra biome responses, and the vulnerability of high-latitude soil organic carbon.

  • Permafrost
  • Arctic
  • Climate Change
  • Carbon Feedback
  • Thawing
  • Methane Emissions
  • Tundra
  • Vegetation Change
  • Hydrology
  • Ecosystem Response
Research works
35k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+7%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
48% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Climate change and permafrost

Which countries lead Climate change and permafrost research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.3k and 1.1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.3k works
  2. 2 United States 1.1k works
  3. 3 Russia 855 works
  4. 4 Canada 462 works
  5. 5 Germany 300 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 233 works
  7. 7 India 233 works
  8. 8 France 226 works
  9. 9 Norway 140 works
  10. 10 Japan 123 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 47.5%United States: 15.6%Russia: 12.3%Canada: 6.6%6 others listed: 18.0%48%largest
China3,316 · 47.5%United States1,086 · 15.6%Russia855 · 12.3%Canada462 · 6.6%6 others listed1,255 · 18.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Climate change and permafrost research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Climate change and permafrost research, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 585 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 405 works
  3. 3 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 116 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 91 works
  5. 5 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 84 works
  6. 6 Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityRussia 76 works
  7. 7 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 61 works
  8. 8 Lanzhou UniversityChina 58 works
  9. 9 University of Alaska FairbanksUnited States 57 works
  10. 10 Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 48 works

Who are the leading researchers in Climate change and permafrost?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Climate change and permafrost include Jun Wang, Mark A. Bradford and Philippe Ciais.

  1. 1 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  2. 2 Mark A. Bradford United States 268k citations
  3. 3 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  4. 4 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  5. 5 Peter B. Reich United States 189k citations
  6. 6 F. Stuart Chapin United States 185k citations
  7. 7 Noah Fierer United States 175k citations
  8. 8 Han Zhang China 161k citations
  9. 9 Josep Peñuelas Spain 160k citations
  10. 10 Carlos Manuel Duarte Saudi Arabia 152k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Climate change and permafrost?

The most cited paper in Climate change and permafrost is "Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification" (Murray Cameron Peel, BRIAN L. FINLAYSON, Thomas A. McMahon, 2007), with 13,158 citations. Next come "Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change" (7,089) and "The Global Land Data Assimilation System" (5,841).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification Murray Cameron Peel, BRIAN L. FINLAYSON, Thomas A. McMahon · Hydrology and earth system sciences Open access 11 Oct 2007 13,158
2 Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change Eric A. Davidson, Ivan August Janssens · Nature Open access Mar 2006 7,089
3 The Global Land Data Assimilation System Matthew Rodell, Paul R. Houser, U. Jambor et al. · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Open access Mar 2004 5,841
4 Anomalous collapses of Nares Strait ice arches leads to enhanced export of Arctic sea ice G. W. K. Moore, Stephen Howell, Mike Brady et al. · Nature Communications Open access 4 Jan 2021 5,198
5 Climate change and the permafrost carbon feedback Edward A. G. Schuur, Anthony David McGuire, Christina Schädel et al. · Nature Open access Apr 2015 3,927
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Climate change and permafrost research done?

The largest centres of Climate change and permafrost research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Moscow (Russia), Lanzhou (China) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Fairbanks, Bremerhaven and Yakutsk.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 981 works
  2. 2 MoscowRussia 301 works
  3. 3 LanzhouChina 276 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 196 works
  5. 5 Xi'anChina 139 works
  6. 6 ChengduChina 129 works
  7. 7 HarbinChina 129 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 119 works
  9. 9 ShanghaiChina 118 works
  10. 10 Saint PetersburgRussia 99 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. FairbanksUS · 57.4 works120×
  2. BremerhavenDE · 45.9 works84×
  3. YakutskRU · 63.2 works57×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Climate change and permafrost than the world average.

See Climate change and permafrost on the map

Where is the best place to study Climate change and permafrost?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Normal University and Northwest University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 17.12%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwest UniversityUniversity of Chines…Beijing Normal Unive…Lanzhou University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 74.316.4%9.9×116 +32.9%
2Beijing Normal UniversityChina 64.514.3%10.7×61 +22.2%
3Northwest UniversityChina 63.022.8%8.2×17 +83.5%
4Lanzhou UniversityChina 61.612.5%11.7×58 +72.2%
5Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 61.428.1%1.5×9 +72.2%
6Hohai UniversityChina 60.713.3%11.1×47 +81.8%
7Chang'an UniversityChina 60.714.7%15.5×42 +32.7%
8Wuhan UniversityChina 60.419.8%3.3×33 +31.9%
9Central South UniversityChina 59.318.4%2.0×28 +78.7%
10Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 58.110.9%16.5×48 +91.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Climate change and permafrost, country by country

Is Climate change and permafrost research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 7% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Climate change and permafrost.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Climate change and permafrost as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.034% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Climate change and permafrost0.034% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Climate change and permafrost over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Climate change and permafrost9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Questions people ask

Who leads permafrost research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Climate change and permafrost research, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.3k and 1.1k works in 2022-now).

All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

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