Investigation of Soil and Vegetation Characteristics in Discontinuous Permafrost Landscapes Near Fairbanks, Alaska

• Main Authors: Berkowitz, Jacob F, Hiemstra, Christopher A, Douglas, Thomas A
• Other Authors: ENGINEER RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER VICKSBURG MS ENVIRONMENTAL LAB
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Biology; Geology; Geochemistry and Mineralogy; Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *PERMAFROST; *SOILS; *VEGETATION; ALASKA; ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES; DEPTH; FIELD TESTS; GEOPHYSICS; GROUND LEVEL; ICE; LAYERS; MEASUREMENT; MOISTURE; NUTRIENTS; OPTICAL RADAR; REFLECTANCE; STABILITY; TOPOGRAPHY; ACTIVE-LAYER DEPTH; DISCONTINUOUS PERMAFROST; GROUND-ICE FEATURES; INTERIOR ALASKA; MICROTOPOGRAPHY; PERMAFROST STABILITY; SOIL NUTRIENTS; CF(CREAMERS FIELD); FL(FARMERS LOOP); PT(PERMAFROST TUNNEL); Fairbanks; Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory; Ice; permafrost; Alaska
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA623196; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA623196

Alaska contains large areas of discontinuous permafrost, yet few studies examine the impact of microtopography on ground conditions and permafrost stability. This report uses vegetation and soil measurements to identify statistically significant differences to potentially classify permafrost ground-state conditions. The study identified significant relationships between soil parameters and vegetative community structure, including thicker peat layers in high microtopographic positions, greater active-layer thaw depths in high microtopographic positions, increased redox potentials in elevated microtopographic positions, and decreased soil moisture in higher topographic locations. Additionally, soil carbon and nitrogen concentrations increased in low microtopographic positions. These results suggest that soil and vegetation conditions may provide useful proxy measures in identifying permafrost and ground-ice features when incorporated into an integrated approach that combines belowground geophysics with aboveground remotely sensed terrain characteristics. Additional research is needed to combine soil and vegetation characteristics with suborbital and satellite-based remotely sensed measurements, such as airborne LiDAR, spectral reflectance, and high-resolution ground-level subsidence measurements. The original document contains color images. Prepared in collaboration with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), Alaska Projects Office, Fort Wainwright, AK.