Presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central Alaska
Permafrost presence is determined by a complex interaction of climatic, topographic, and ecological conditions operating over long time scales. In particular, vegetation and organic layer characteristics may act to protect permafrost in regions with a mean annual air temperature (MAAT) above 0 °C. I...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:tc50884 2023-05-15T17:55:16+02:00 Presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central Alaska Jones, Benjamin M. Baughman, Carson A. Romanovsky, Vladimir E. Parsekian, Andrew D. Babcock, Esther L. Stephani, Eva Jones, Miriam C. Grosse, Guido Berg, Edward E. 2018-09-27 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2673-2016 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/10/2673/2016/ eng eng doi:10.5194/tc-10-2673-2016 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/10/2673/2016/ eISSN: 1994-0424 Text 2018 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2673-2016 2020-07-20T16:23:55Z Permafrost presence is determined by a complex interaction of climatic, topographic, and ecological conditions operating over long time scales. In particular, vegetation and organic layer characteristics may act to protect permafrost in regions with a mean annual air temperature (MAAT) above 0 °C. In this study, we document the presence of residual permafrost plateaus in the western Kenai Peninsula lowlands of south-central Alaska, a region with a MAAT of 1.5 ± 1 °C (1981–2010). Continuous ground temperature measurements between 16 September 2012 and 15 September 2015, using calibrated thermistor strings, documented the presence of warm permafrost (−0.04 to −0.08 °C). Field measurements (probing) on several plateau features during the fall of 2015 showed that the depth to the permafrost table averaged 1.48 m but at some locations was as shallow as 0.53 m. Late winter surveys (augering, coring, and GPR) in 2016 showed that the average seasonally frozen ground thickness was 0.45 m, overlying a talik above the permafrost table. Measured permafrost thickness ranged from 0.33 to > 6.90 m. Manual interpretation of historic aerial photography acquired in 1950 indicates that residual permafrost plateaus covered 920 ha as mapped across portions of four wetland complexes encompassing 4810 ha. However, between 1950 and ca. 2010, permafrost plateau extent decreased by 60.0 %, with lateral feature degradation accounting for 85.0 % of the reduction in area. Permafrost loss on the Kenai Peninsula is likely associated with a warming climate, wildfires that remove the protective forest and organic layer cover, groundwater flow at depth, and lateral heat transfer from wetland surface waters in the summer. Better understanding the resilience and vulnerability of ecosystem-protected permafrost is critical for mapping and predicting future permafrost extent and degradation across all permafrost regions that are currently warming. Further work should focus on reconstructing permafrost history in south-central Alaska as well as additional contemporary observations of these ecosystem-protected permafrost sites south of the regions with relatively stable permafrost. Text permafrost Alaska Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Talik ENVELOPE(146.601,146.601,59.667,59.667) The Cryosphere 10 6 2673 2692 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Permafrost presence is determined by a complex interaction of climatic, topographic, and ecological conditions operating over long time scales. In particular, vegetation and organic layer characteristics may act to protect permafrost in regions with a mean annual air temperature (MAAT) above 0 °C. In this study, we document the presence of residual permafrost plateaus in the western Kenai Peninsula lowlands of south-central Alaska, a region with a MAAT of 1.5 ± 1 °C (1981–2010). Continuous ground temperature measurements between 16 September 2012 and 15 September 2015, using calibrated thermistor strings, documented the presence of warm permafrost (−0.04 to −0.08 °C). Field measurements (probing) on several plateau features during the fall of 2015 showed that the depth to the permafrost table averaged 1.48 m but at some locations was as shallow as 0.53 m. Late winter surveys (augering, coring, and GPR) in 2016 showed that the average seasonally frozen ground thickness was 0.45 m, overlying a talik above the permafrost table. Measured permafrost thickness ranged from 0.33 to > 6.90 m. Manual interpretation of historic aerial photography acquired in 1950 indicates that residual permafrost plateaus covered 920 ha as mapped across portions of four wetland complexes encompassing 4810 ha. However, between 1950 and ca. 2010, permafrost plateau extent decreased by 60.0 %, with lateral feature degradation accounting for 85.0 % of the reduction in area. Permafrost loss on the Kenai Peninsula is likely associated with a warming climate, wildfires that remove the protective forest and organic layer cover, groundwater flow at depth, and lateral heat transfer from wetland surface waters in the summer. Better understanding the resilience and vulnerability of ecosystem-protected permafrost is critical for mapping and predicting future permafrost extent and degradation across all permafrost regions that are currently warming. Further work should focus on reconstructing permafrost history in south-central Alaska as well as additional contemporary observations of these ecosystem-protected permafrost sites south of the regions with relatively stable permafrost. |
format |
Text |
author |
Jones, Benjamin M. Baughman, Carson A. Romanovsky, Vladimir E. Parsekian, Andrew D. Babcock, Esther L. Stephani, Eva Jones, Miriam C. Grosse, Guido Berg, Edward E. |
spellingShingle |
Jones, Benjamin M. Baughman, Carson A. Romanovsky, Vladimir E. Parsekian, Andrew D. Babcock, Esther L. Stephani, Eva Jones, Miriam C. Grosse, Guido Berg, Edward E. Presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central Alaska |
author_facet |
Jones, Benjamin M. Baughman, Carson A. Romanovsky, Vladimir E. Parsekian, Andrew D. Babcock, Esther L. Stephani, Eva Jones, Miriam C. Grosse, Guido Berg, Edward E. |
author_sort |
Jones, Benjamin M. |
title |
Presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central Alaska |
title_short |
Presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central Alaska |
title_full |
Presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central Alaska |
title_sort |
presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central alaska |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2673-2016 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/10/2673/2016/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(146.601,146.601,59.667,59.667) |
geographic |
Talik |
geographic_facet |
Talik |
genre |
permafrost Alaska |
genre_facet |
permafrost Alaska |
op_source |
eISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-10-2673-2016 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/10/2673/2016/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2673-2016 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
2673 |
op_container_end_page |
2692 |
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1766163181043974144 |