Soil characteristics of cryosols from two sites on King George Island, maritime Antarctica ...

• Main Authors: Michel, Roberto F M, Schaefer, Carlos Ernesto G R, Poelking, Everton L, Simas, Felipe N B, Fernandes Filho, Elpidio I, Bockheim, James G
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2012
• Subjects: International Polar Year 2007-2008 IPY; Active layer monitoring; Antarc*; Antarctica; International Polar Year; IPY; King George Island
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.816781; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.816781

This study presents soil temperature and moisture regimes from March 2008 to January 2009 for two active layer monitoring (CALM-S) sites at King George Island, Maritime Antarctica. The monitoring sites were installed during the summer of 2008 and consist of thermistors (accuracy of ±0.2 °C), arranged vertically with probes at different depths and one soil moisture probe placed at the bottommost layer at each site (accuracy of ± 2.5%), recording data at hourly intervals in a high capacity datalogger. The active layer thermal regime in the studied period for both soils was typical of periglacial environments, with extreme variation in surface temperature during summer resulting in frequent freeze and thaw cycles. The great majority of the soil temperature readings during the eleven month period was close to 0 °C, resulting in low values of freezing and thawing degree days. Both soils have poor thermal apparent diffusivity but values were higher for the soil from Fildes Peninsula. The different moisture regimes ... : Data extracted in the frame of a joint ICSTI/PANGAEA IPY effort, see http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.150150 ...