Historic Change in Permafrost Distribution in Northern British Columbia and Southern Yukon Territory, Canada
The impact of recent climate change on permafrost distribution was evaluated by repeating the 1964 survey of Roger Brown along the Alaska Highway from Whitehorse, YT to Fort St. John, BC in August 2007 and 2008. Results demonstrate that: (1) significant degradation of permafrost has occurred over th...
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ftdatacite:10.20381/ruor-19376 2023-05-15T17:55:18+02:00 Historic Change in Permafrost Distribution in Northern British Columbia and Southern Yukon Territory, Canada James, Megan 2010 https://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-19376 http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/28657 en eng Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa Physical Geography. Geomorphology. Paleoclimate Science. Text Thesis article-journal ScholarlyArticle 2010 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-19376 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z The impact of recent climate change on permafrost distribution was evaluated by repeating the 1964 survey of Roger Brown along the Alaska Highway from Whitehorse, YT to Fort St. John, BC in August 2007 and 2008. Results demonstrate that: (1) significant degradation of permafrost has occurred over the past four decades, especially in the southernmost part of the route where 67% of the permafrost sites in 1964 no longer exhibit perennially frozen conditions; (2) the mapped southern limit of discontinuous permafrost appears to have shifted roughly 75 km northward; (3) most of the permafrost still present in the study area is in peat or under thick organic mats, which probably relates to a large thermal offset or to the latent heat requirements of thawing permafrost; and (4) that where permafrost has persisted, it is very thin, discontinuous, at temperatures just below 0°C, and its location may relate in part to the existence of atmospheric temperature inversions in the region. Changes in permafrost are attributed to significant climatic warming, primarily in winter, at rates of 0.4°C to 0.5°C per decade from 1965-2008. The results augment the very limited number of field studies of long-term change to permafrost in Canada, and are relevant to northern residents who must adapt to changing permafrost conditions. Thesis permafrost Whitehorse Alaska Yukon DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Yukon Canada British Columbia ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) Fort St. John ENVELOPE(-120.837,-120.837,56.244,56.244) |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
English |
topic |
Physical Geography. Geomorphology. Paleoclimate Science. |
spellingShingle |
Physical Geography. Geomorphology. Paleoclimate Science. James, Megan Historic Change in Permafrost Distribution in Northern British Columbia and Southern Yukon Territory, Canada |
topic_facet |
Physical Geography. Geomorphology. Paleoclimate Science. |
description |
The impact of recent climate change on permafrost distribution was evaluated by repeating the 1964 survey of Roger Brown along the Alaska Highway from Whitehorse, YT to Fort St. John, BC in August 2007 and 2008. Results demonstrate that: (1) significant degradation of permafrost has occurred over the past four decades, especially in the southernmost part of the route where 67% of the permafrost sites in 1964 no longer exhibit perennially frozen conditions; (2) the mapped southern limit of discontinuous permafrost appears to have shifted roughly 75 km northward; (3) most of the permafrost still present in the study area is in peat or under thick organic mats, which probably relates to a large thermal offset or to the latent heat requirements of thawing permafrost; and (4) that where permafrost has persisted, it is very thin, discontinuous, at temperatures just below 0°C, and its location may relate in part to the existence of atmospheric temperature inversions in the region. Changes in permafrost are attributed to significant climatic warming, primarily in winter, at rates of 0.4°C to 0.5°C per decade from 1965-2008. The results augment the very limited number of field studies of long-term change to permafrost in Canada, and are relevant to northern residents who must adapt to changing permafrost conditions. |
format |
Thesis |
author |
James, Megan |
author_facet |
James, Megan |
author_sort |
James, Megan |
title |
Historic Change in Permafrost Distribution in Northern British Columbia and Southern Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_short |
Historic Change in Permafrost Distribution in Northern British Columbia and Southern Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_full |
Historic Change in Permafrost Distribution in Northern British Columbia and Southern Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Historic Change in Permafrost Distribution in Northern British Columbia and Southern Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Historic Change in Permafrost Distribution in Northern British Columbia and Southern Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_sort |
historic change in permafrost distribution in northern british columbia and southern yukon territory, canada |
publisher |
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-19376 http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/28657 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) ENVELOPE(-120.837,-120.837,56.244,56.244) |
geographic |
Yukon Canada British Columbia Fort St. John |
geographic_facet |
Yukon Canada British Columbia Fort St. John |
genre |
permafrost Whitehorse Alaska Yukon |
genre_facet |
permafrost Whitehorse Alaska Yukon |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-19376 |
_version_ |
1766163225028591616 |