Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development
Fire-induced permafrost degradation is well documented in boreal forests, but the role of fires in initiating thermokarst development in Arctic tundra is less well understood. Here we show that Arctic tundra fires may induce widespread thaw subsidence of permafrost terrain in the first seven years f...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4625366 2023-05-15T14:44:36+02:00 Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development Jones, Benjamin M. Grosse, Guido Arp, Christopher D. Miller, Eric Liu, Lin Hayes, Daniel J. Larsen, Christopher F. 2015-10-29 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4625366/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26511650 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15865 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4625366/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26511650 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep15865 Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Article Text 2015 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15865 2015-11-08T01:41:50Z Fire-induced permafrost degradation is well documented in boreal forests, but the role of fires in initiating thermokarst development in Arctic tundra is less well understood. Here we show that Arctic tundra fires may induce widespread thaw subsidence of permafrost terrain in the first seven years following the disturbance. Quantitative analysis of airborne LiDAR data acquired two and seven years post-fire, detected permafrost thaw subsidence across 34% of the burned tundra area studied, compared to less than 1% in similar undisturbed, ice-rich tundra terrain units. The variability in thermokarst development appears to be influenced by the interaction of tundra fire burn severity and near-surface, ground-ice content. Subsidence was greatest in severely burned, ice-rich upland terrain (yedoma), accounting for ~50% of the detected subsidence, despite representing only 30% of the fire disturbed study area. Microtopography increased by 340% in this terrain unit as a result of ice wedge degradation. Increases in the frequency, magnitude, and severity of tundra fires will contribute to future thermokarst development and associated landscape change in Arctic tundra regions. Text Arctic Ice permafrost Thermokarst Tundra wedge* PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Scientific Reports 5 1 |
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Article Jones, Benjamin M. Grosse, Guido Arp, Christopher D. Miller, Eric Liu, Lin Hayes, Daniel J. Larsen, Christopher F. Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development |
topic_facet |
Article |
description |
Fire-induced permafrost degradation is well documented in boreal forests, but the role of fires in initiating thermokarst development in Arctic tundra is less well understood. Here we show that Arctic tundra fires may induce widespread thaw subsidence of permafrost terrain in the first seven years following the disturbance. Quantitative analysis of airborne LiDAR data acquired two and seven years post-fire, detected permafrost thaw subsidence across 34% of the burned tundra area studied, compared to less than 1% in similar undisturbed, ice-rich tundra terrain units. The variability in thermokarst development appears to be influenced by the interaction of tundra fire burn severity and near-surface, ground-ice content. Subsidence was greatest in severely burned, ice-rich upland terrain (yedoma), accounting for ~50% of the detected subsidence, despite representing only 30% of the fire disturbed study area. Microtopography increased by 340% in this terrain unit as a result of ice wedge degradation. Increases in the frequency, magnitude, and severity of tundra fires will contribute to future thermokarst development and associated landscape change in Arctic tundra regions. |
format |
Text |
author |
Jones, Benjamin M. Grosse, Guido Arp, Christopher D. Miller, Eric Liu, Lin Hayes, Daniel J. Larsen, Christopher F. |
author_facet |
Jones, Benjamin M. Grosse, Guido Arp, Christopher D. Miller, Eric Liu, Lin Hayes, Daniel J. Larsen, Christopher F. |
author_sort |
Jones, Benjamin M. |
title |
Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development |
title_short |
Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development |
title_full |
Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development |
title_fullStr |
Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development |
title_sort |
recent arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4625366/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26511650 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15865 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Ice permafrost Thermokarst Tundra wedge* |
genre_facet |
Arctic Ice permafrost Thermokarst Tundra wedge* |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4625366/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26511650 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep15865 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15865 |
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Scientific Reports |
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5 |
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