Parts of Alaska may be undergoing lasting environmental changes as rising temperatures thaw the frozen ground beneath the Arctic landscape—with implications that go well beyond "The Last Frontier." This is the warning of a first-of-its-kind study by researchers led by geoscientist professor Michael Rawlins of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who examined what happens when Arctic permafrost melts — and how this thawing is reshaping Alaska’s waterways. The team focused on a Wisconsin-