17 December 2014 Last updated at 01:22
By Rebecca Morelle Science Correspondent, BBC News, San Francisco
Arctic ground squirrels could play a greater role in climate change than was previously thought.
Scientists have found that the animals are hastening the release of greenhouse gases from the permafrost - a vast, frozen store of carbon.
The researchers say it suggests the impact of wildlife on this area has been underplayed.
The findings are being presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
Dr Sue Natali, from Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, US, said: "We know wildlife impacts vegetation, and we know vegetation impacts thaw and soil carbon.
"It certainly has a bigger impact than we've considered and it's something we will be considering more and more going into the future."
The Arctic permafrost, where deep layers of soil remain frozen all year round, covers nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere and contains a great deal of carbon.
Dr Natali explained: "Carbon has been accumulating in permafrost for tens of thousands of years. The temperature is very cold, the soils are saturated, so that when plants and animals die, rather than decompose, the carbon has been slowly, slowly building up.
"Right now the carbon storage is about 1,500 petagrams (1,500 billion tonnes). To put that in perspective, that's about twice as much as is contained in the atmosphere."
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