Past and present permafrost temperatures in the Abisko area: redrilling of boreholes.

Monitoring of permafrost has been ongoing since 1978 in the Abisko area, northernmost Sweden, when measurements of active layer thickness started. In 1980, boreholes were drilled in three mires in the area to record permafrost temperatures. Recordings were made twice per year, and the last data were...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AMBIO
Main Authors: Johansson, Margareta, Åkerman, Jonas, Keuper, Frida, Christensen, Torben, Lantuit, Hugues, Callaghan, Terry
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer 2011
Subjects:
Physical Geography
Ground temperatures
Boreholes
Permafrost
Abisko
Sub-arctic Sweden
Arctic
Active layer thickness
International Polar Year
permafrost
Online Access:https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2201093
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0163-3
Description
Summary:Monitoring of permafrost has been ongoing since 1978 in the Abisko area, northernmost Sweden, when measurements of active layer thickness started. In 1980, boreholes were drilled in three mires in the area to record permafrost temperatures. Recordings were made twice per year, and the last data were obtained in 2002. During the International Polar Year (2007-2008), new boreholes were drilled within the 'Back to the Future' (BTF) and 'Thermal State of Permafrost' (TSP) projects that enabled year-round temperature monitoring. Mean annual ground temperatures (MAGT) in the mires are close to 0 degrees C, ranging from -0.16 to -0.47 degrees C at 5 m depth. Data from the boreholes show increasing ground temperatures in the upper and lower part by 0.4 to 1 degree C between 1980 and 2002. At one mire, permafrost thickness has decreased from 15 m in 1980 to ca. 9 m in 2009, with an accelerating thawing trend during the last decade.

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