Airborne microbes from thawing permafrost landscapes in the Arctic, Northern Alaska, 2021

This study focuses on Northern Alaska’s thawing of permafrost, reintroducing ancient microorganisms to the environment. As the Arctic continues to warm, the purpose of this dataset is to explore the local microbial sources of bioaerosols in the Utqiaġvik region, including cryosphere elements that can be introduced to the atmosphere when thawed. The objective of the study is to assess a broad range of environmental samples collected in September 2021 (09/01/2021 - 09/18/2021) including bioaerosols, permafrost, active layer, ice wedges, thermokarst lake water, lagoon water, seawater, foam, water body sediments, coastal bluffs, and vegetation samples. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) was extracted from all sample types, followed by amplicon sequencing (16S rRNA V4 region), then followed by bioinformatics analysis with QIIME2, DADA2, decontam, and SourceTracking2 analyses.