Coupling soil field data with remote sensing to inventory permafrost soil carbon for two small Arctic river deltas, Alaska

• Main Authors: Fuchs, Matthias, Grosse, Guido, Jones, Benjamin M., Nitze, Ingmar
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Alaska North Slope; Arctic; Beaufort Sea; Ice; north slope; permafrost; Thermokarst; Tundra; wedge*; Alaska
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/41287/; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48597

Arctic river deltas are highly dynamic environments at the interface of land to ocean. Arctic deltas are underlain by permafrost deposits, which are highly vulnerable to a warming climate. The amount of soil carbon stored in these deltas and potentially vulnerable to mobilization due to permafrost thaw is poorly known and based on few data only. Previous soil carbon estimates (e.g. Hugelius et al., 2014, Tarnocai et al., 2009) were based on data from three large deltas, and no data is so far available for small (< 500 km2) Arctic river deltas. In this study, we investigate the soil carbon pools of two small Arctic river deltas entering the Beaufort Sea on the Alaska North Slope, the Ikpikpuk and the Fish Creek river deltas. Our approach couples soil carbon information with remotely sensed data to estimate the total carbon stock in the upper 1 m for these environments. Both river deltas are located within the continuous permafrost zone and are characterized by typical fluvial-deltaic features and processes, such as river channels and islands, floodplains and mudflats, sand dunes, as well as episodic flooding, erosion, and deposition. In addition, permafrost processes are an important factor for thaw, erosion, transport, and accumulation dynamics within these deltas. As a result, features specific to permafrost-dominated deltas are widespread such as thermokarst lakes, drained thaw lake basins and ice wedge polygonal tundra. Under future climate warming projections, Arctic river deltas will be threatened due to thawing permafrost (including melting and settling of ice-rich deposits) and a rising sea level in combination with coastal erosion. To better estimate how much soil carbon may be vulnerable to mobilization under these projected changes and might be released as greenhouse gases, it is necessary to study the total soil carbon storage in Arctic river deltas. This study presents the first carbon storage estimation in surface soils and sediments for two small Arctic deltas, which each cover each an area of ...