Recent degradation of interior Alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar
Permafrost underlies one-quarter of the Northern Hemisphere but is at increasing risk of thaw from climate warming. Recent studies across the Arctic have identified areas of rapid permafrost degradation from both top-down and lateral thaw. Of particular concern is thawing syngenetic “yedoma” permafr...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
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Copernicus Publications
2021
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3555-2021 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/3555/2021/tc-15-3555-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/cdaec73e2262480a890c5cd9dad51912 |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:cdaec73e2262480a890c5cd9dad51912 2023-05-15T15:16:45+02:00 Recent degradation of interior Alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar T. A. Douglas C. A. Hiemstra J. E. Anderson R. A. Barbato K. L. Bjella E. J. Deeb A. B. Gelvin P. E. Nelsen S. D. Newman S. P. Saari A. M. Wagner 2021-08-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3555-2021 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/3555/2021/tc-15-3555-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/cdaec73e2262480a890c5cd9dad51912 en eng Copernicus Publications doi:10.5194/tc-15-3555-2021 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/3555/2021/tc-15-3555-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/cdaec73e2262480a890c5cd9dad51912 undefined The Cryosphere, Vol 15, Pp 3555-3575 (2021) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2021 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3555-2021 2023-01-22T19:24:07Z Permafrost underlies one-quarter of the Northern Hemisphere but is at increasing risk of thaw from climate warming. Recent studies across the Arctic have identified areas of rapid permafrost degradation from both top-down and lateral thaw. Of particular concern is thawing syngenetic “yedoma” permafrost which is ice-rich and has a high carbon content. This type of permafrost is common in the region around Fairbanks, Alaska, and across central Alaska expanding westward to the Seward Peninsula. A major knowledge gap is relating belowground measurements of seasonal thaw, permafrost characteristics, and residual thaw layer development with aboveground ecotype properties and thermokarst expansion that can readily quantify vegetation cover and track surface elevation changes over time. This study was conducted from 2013 to 2020 along four 400 to 500 m long transects near Fairbanks, Alaska. Repeat active layer depths, near-surface permafrost temperature measurements, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), deep (> 5 m) boreholes, and repeat airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) were used to measure top-down permafrost thaw and map thermokarst development at the sites. Our study confirms previous work using ERT to map surface thawed zones; however, our deep boreholes confirm the boundaries between frozen and thawed zones that are needed to model top-down, lateral, and bottom-up thaw. At disturbed sites seasonal thaw increased up to 25 % between mid-August and early October and suggests measurements to evaluate active layer depth must be made as late in the fall season as possible because the projected increase in the summer season of just a few weeks could lead to significant additional thaw. At our sites, tussock tundra and spruce forest are associated with the lowest mean annual near-surface permafrost temperatures while mixed-forest ecotypes are the warmest and exhibit the highest degree of recent temperature warming and thaw degradation. Thermokarst features, residual thaw layers, and taliks have been ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Ice permafrost Seward Peninsula The Cryosphere Thermokarst Tundra Alaska Unknown Arctic Fairbanks The Cryosphere 15 8 3555 3575 |
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Open Polar |
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op_collection_id |
fttriple |
language |
English |
topic |
geo envir |
spellingShingle |
geo envir T. A. Douglas C. A. Hiemstra J. E. Anderson R. A. Barbato K. L. Bjella E. J. Deeb A. B. Gelvin P. E. Nelsen S. D. Newman S. P. Saari A. M. Wagner Recent degradation of interior Alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar |
topic_facet |
geo envir |
description |
Permafrost underlies one-quarter of the Northern Hemisphere but is at increasing risk of thaw from climate warming. Recent studies across the Arctic have identified areas of rapid permafrost degradation from both top-down and lateral thaw. Of particular concern is thawing syngenetic “yedoma” permafrost which is ice-rich and has a high carbon content. This type of permafrost is common in the region around Fairbanks, Alaska, and across central Alaska expanding westward to the Seward Peninsula. A major knowledge gap is relating belowground measurements of seasonal thaw, permafrost characteristics, and residual thaw layer development with aboveground ecotype properties and thermokarst expansion that can readily quantify vegetation cover and track surface elevation changes over time. This study was conducted from 2013 to 2020 along four 400 to 500 m long transects near Fairbanks, Alaska. Repeat active layer depths, near-surface permafrost temperature measurements, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), deep (> 5 m) boreholes, and repeat airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) were used to measure top-down permafrost thaw and map thermokarst development at the sites. Our study confirms previous work using ERT to map surface thawed zones; however, our deep boreholes confirm the boundaries between frozen and thawed zones that are needed to model top-down, lateral, and bottom-up thaw. At disturbed sites seasonal thaw increased up to 25 % between mid-August and early October and suggests measurements to evaluate active layer depth must be made as late in the fall season as possible because the projected increase in the summer season of just a few weeks could lead to significant additional thaw. At our sites, tussock tundra and spruce forest are associated with the lowest mean annual near-surface permafrost temperatures while mixed-forest ecotypes are the warmest and exhibit the highest degree of recent temperature warming and thaw degradation. Thermokarst features, residual thaw layers, and taliks have been ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
T. A. Douglas C. A. Hiemstra J. E. Anderson R. A. Barbato K. L. Bjella E. J. Deeb A. B. Gelvin P. E. Nelsen S. D. Newman S. P. Saari A. M. Wagner |
author_facet |
T. A. Douglas C. A. Hiemstra J. E. Anderson R. A. Barbato K. L. Bjella E. J. Deeb A. B. Gelvin P. E. Nelsen S. D. Newman S. P. Saari A. M. Wagner |
author_sort |
T. A. Douglas |
title |
Recent degradation of interior Alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar |
title_short |
Recent degradation of interior Alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar |
title_full |
Recent degradation of interior Alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar |
title_fullStr |
Recent degradation of interior Alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recent degradation of interior Alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar |
title_sort |
recent degradation of interior alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3555-2021 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/3555/2021/tc-15-3555-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/cdaec73e2262480a890c5cd9dad51912 |
geographic |
Arctic Fairbanks |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Fairbanks |
genre |
Arctic Ice permafrost Seward Peninsula The Cryosphere Thermokarst Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Ice permafrost Seward Peninsula The Cryosphere Thermokarst Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 15, Pp 3555-3575 (2021) |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-15-3555-2021 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/3555/2021/tc-15-3555-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/cdaec73e2262480a890c5cd9dad51912 |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3555-2021 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
3555 |
op_container_end_page |
3575 |
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1766347039630688256 |