From 2024
Following recent projects to use bacteria as a way to augment Arctic ice albédo (or percentage of reflected light, to lower the melting pace as less light will penetrate it) — similar thing could be done on melting and heating permafrost.
This map shows the extent of permafrost in the Arctic. Darker shades of purple indicate larger percentages of permanently frozen ground. Lighter purples, and the terms isolated and sporadic, refer to lower percentages of frozen ground. — Credit: Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRID-Arendal; data from International Permafrost Association, 1998
Holding on a large amount of captured CO2 (carbon sinks) and possibly ancient virus strains, permafrost heating could be a real danger and acceleration-trigger for climate change and biosphere extreme stress.
Permafrost, a thick subsurface layer of soil that remains below freezing point throughout the year (occurring chiefly in polar regions for two consecutive years), contain sandy soil as stated in different studies case (International Soil Reference and Information Centre).
Although exact percentage and distribution data about sandy soil is missing (at least by my side) some well known bacteria do reinforce binding links in sandy soil, see :
The idea here is to use and propagate these bacteria to strengthen geomechanics of permafrost's sandy soils — possibly along the first one mentioned aiming at elevating the albédo level.
Geomechanics involve mechanical state studies of the Earth's crust and its reaction processes under the influence of natural physical factors.
Moreover and lastly, thermal effects (rapid or punctual warming) do provoke cracks in the permafrost, later filled naturally with water and sand. From a geomechanical point of view, winning back stability in these critical structural points with bacteria acting on sand filled cracks, could be useful.
As for the idea about using plasticophage bacteria to treat micro-plastic in our body, this brings up ethical questions for the idea of injecting bacteria in Arctic area abd permafrost qualify as geo-engineering.
