Periglacial Lake Origin Influences the Likelihood of Lake Drainage in Northern Alaska
Nearly 25% of all lakes on earth are located at high latitudes. These lakes are formed by a combination of thermokarst, glacial, and geological processes. Evidence suggests that the origin of periglacial lake formation may be an important factor controlling the likelihood of lakes to drain. However,...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/13/5/852/ 2023-08-20T04:04:02+02:00 Periglacial Lake Origin Influences the Likelihood of Lake Drainage in Northern Alaska Mark Jason Lara Melissa Lynn Chipman 2021-02-25 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050852 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Biogeosciences Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13050852 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 13; Issue 5; Pages: 852 permafrost thaw thermokarst yedoma Landsat Alaska thaw settlement glaciation Text 2021 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050852 2023-08-01T01:08:39Z Nearly 25% of all lakes on earth are located at high latitudes. These lakes are formed by a combination of thermokarst, glacial, and geological processes. Evidence suggests that the origin of periglacial lake formation may be an important factor controlling the likelihood of lakes to drain. However, geospatial data regarding the spatial distribution of these dominant Arctic and subarctic lakes are limited or do not exist. Here, we use lake-specific morphological properties using the Arctic Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Landsat imagery to develop a Thermokarst lake Settlement Index (TSI), which was used in combination with available geospatial datasets of glacier history and yedoma permafrost extent to classify Arctic and subarctic lakes into Thermokarst (non-yedoma), Yedoma, Glacial, and Maar lakes, respectively. This lake origin dataset was used to evaluate the influence of lake origin on drainage between 1985 and 2019 in northern Alaska. The lake origin map and lake drainage datasets were synthesized using five-year seamless Landsat ETM+ and OLI image composites. Nearly 35,000 lakes and their properties were characterized from Landsat mosaics using an object-based image analysis. Results indicate that the pattern of lake drainage varied by lake origin, and the proportion of lakes that completely drained (i.e., >60% area loss) between 1985 and 2019 in Thermokarst (non-yedoma), Yedoma, Glacial, and Maar lakes were 12.1, 9.5, 8.7, and 0.0%, respectively. The lakes most vulnerable to draining were small thermokarst (non-yedoma) lakes (12.7%) and large yedoma lakes (12.5%), while the most resilient were large and medium-sized glacial lakes (4.9 and 4.1%) and Maar lakes (0.0%). This analysis provides a simple remote sensing approach to estimate the spatial distribution of dominant lake origins across variable physiography and surficial geology, useful for discriminating between vulnerable versus resilient Arctic and subarctic lakes that are likely to change in warmer and wetter climates. Text Arctic glacier permafrost Subarctic Thermokarst Alaska MDPI Open Access Publishing Arctic Remote Sensing 13 5 852 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
permafrost thaw thermokarst yedoma Landsat Alaska thaw settlement glaciation |
spellingShingle |
permafrost thaw thermokarst yedoma Landsat Alaska thaw settlement glaciation Mark Jason Lara Melissa Lynn Chipman Periglacial Lake Origin Influences the Likelihood of Lake Drainage in Northern Alaska |
topic_facet |
permafrost thaw thermokarst yedoma Landsat Alaska thaw settlement glaciation |
description |
Nearly 25% of all lakes on earth are located at high latitudes. These lakes are formed by a combination of thermokarst, glacial, and geological processes. Evidence suggests that the origin of periglacial lake formation may be an important factor controlling the likelihood of lakes to drain. However, geospatial data regarding the spatial distribution of these dominant Arctic and subarctic lakes are limited or do not exist. Here, we use lake-specific morphological properties using the Arctic Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Landsat imagery to develop a Thermokarst lake Settlement Index (TSI), which was used in combination with available geospatial datasets of glacier history and yedoma permafrost extent to classify Arctic and subarctic lakes into Thermokarst (non-yedoma), Yedoma, Glacial, and Maar lakes, respectively. This lake origin dataset was used to evaluate the influence of lake origin on drainage between 1985 and 2019 in northern Alaska. The lake origin map and lake drainage datasets were synthesized using five-year seamless Landsat ETM+ and OLI image composites. Nearly 35,000 lakes and their properties were characterized from Landsat mosaics using an object-based image analysis. Results indicate that the pattern of lake drainage varied by lake origin, and the proportion of lakes that completely drained (i.e., >60% area loss) between 1985 and 2019 in Thermokarst (non-yedoma), Yedoma, Glacial, and Maar lakes were 12.1, 9.5, 8.7, and 0.0%, respectively. The lakes most vulnerable to draining were small thermokarst (non-yedoma) lakes (12.7%) and large yedoma lakes (12.5%), while the most resilient were large and medium-sized glacial lakes (4.9 and 4.1%) and Maar lakes (0.0%). This analysis provides a simple remote sensing approach to estimate the spatial distribution of dominant lake origins across variable physiography and surficial geology, useful for discriminating between vulnerable versus resilient Arctic and subarctic lakes that are likely to change in warmer and wetter climates. |
format |
Text |
author |
Mark Jason Lara Melissa Lynn Chipman |
author_facet |
Mark Jason Lara Melissa Lynn Chipman |
author_sort |
Mark Jason Lara |
title |
Periglacial Lake Origin Influences the Likelihood of Lake Drainage in Northern Alaska |
title_short |
Periglacial Lake Origin Influences the Likelihood of Lake Drainage in Northern Alaska |
title_full |
Periglacial Lake Origin Influences the Likelihood of Lake Drainage in Northern Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Periglacial Lake Origin Influences the Likelihood of Lake Drainage in Northern Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Periglacial Lake Origin Influences the Likelihood of Lake Drainage in Northern Alaska |
title_sort |
periglacial lake origin influences the likelihood of lake drainage in northern alaska |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050852 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic glacier permafrost Subarctic Thermokarst Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic glacier permafrost Subarctic Thermokarst Alaska |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 13; Issue 5; Pages: 852 |
op_relation |
Biogeosciences Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13050852 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050852 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
852 |
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1774714470312968192 |