Ancient Permafrost, Yedoma, and all its Organic Matter: Contribution of the D-A-CH Permafrost Union to the Upcoming Encyclopaedia of Quaternary Science

• Main Authors: Strauss, Jens, Opel, Thomas, Grosse, Guido, Schirrmeister, Lutz
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Yukon; Climate change; Ice; permafrost; wedge*; Alaska; Beringia; Siberia
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58290/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58290/1/Strauss_DACH_Talk.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.c5c097ac-390e-4620-91c9-db496e5abf2e

This contribution provides a short summary of three permafrost-related contributions to the upcoming 3rd volume of the Encyclopaedia of Quaternary Science. There are 24 chapters on ‘Permafrost and Periglacial Features’, and three of those are led by authors from the D-A-CH Permafrost Community. Specifically, these are ‘Ancient and past permafrost’, ‘Yedoma: Late Pleistocene ice-rich syngenetic permafrost of Beringia’ and ‘Organic matter storage and vulnerability in the permafrost domain’. With this presentation, we aim to give you a short introduction and show the key figures out of these three encyclopaedia chapters already now. In more detail, the broader perspective on ancient permafrost dynamics examines its formation, stability, and degradation in response to climate variations over the Quaternary. This encyclopaedia contribution distinguishes between ancient permafrost persisting since the Pleistocene and past permafrost, no longer existing at a specific locality. Recent research challenges traditional associations between permafrost and glacial periods, highlighting the complexity of permafrost responses to climate change. The Yedoma segment delves into the unique depositional processes of late Pleistocene Beringia, where a cold, dry climate fostered Yedoma formation due to periglacial weathering and syngenetic ice wedge growth. Yedoma hills in Siberia and foothill regions in Alaska, as well as valley fillings in mountain regions in Siberia and Alaska and in the Yukon Territory of western Canada are remnants of this feature, offering insight into paleoenvironmental, cryolithological, sedimentological and large carbon stock characteristics. The permafrost regions soil organic matter chapter synthesizes recent data and shows that this warming-susceptible region holds a staggering ~1500 Gt of organic carbon on land, with an additional ~2800 Gt in subsea permafrost. As permafrost degrades, it releases carbon, affecting ecosystems and greenhouse gas emissions. Projections indicate that the Arctic might release ...