a very large sheet of frozen ice that remains frozen for many, many years on an area of land. Glaciers move slowly across the land.

Read more about Arctic Climate Change

Arctic Climate Change

part of a glacier falls into the ocean — Part of a gigantic glacier falls into the ocean with a huge splash. Image by Calyponte.

Read more about Life Without Water in Tardigrades

Dehydrated Life

One moment you’re crawling from leaf to leaf on a wet twig of moss in a sunlit patch of forest. The next moment, your whole world starts closing in around you. Water starts drying up, and you find yourself in a shrinking prison. Stuck in the water drop, what does an aquatic creature do? Well, tardigrades dry up too, right along with the water. They wrinkle up and go into a deep lifeless sleep, in a survival trick called anhydrobiosis.

Read more about Surviving the Cold with Cryobiosis

Life After Freezing

Cryoconite holes holding melted glacier ice — Holes and puddles can form in glaciers from dark dust gathering and absorbing heat, melting the ice. Some tardigrades live in these cold waters. Image by Joseph Dsilva.

Itty Bitty Beasts

Ioulia Bespalova

Tardigrades are some of the toughest animals on earth. They can survive freezing, drying up, radiation, and space, all while being smaller than the tip of a pencil.

Falling into Freshwater

Jason Borchert

Lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers are all sources of freshwater. But there is a lot less freshwater on earth than you might think. Fall into freshwater with us to learn some new things about this near-saltless water biome.
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