Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems
Together with warming air temperatures, Arctic ecosystems are expected to experience increases in heavy rainfall events. Recent studies report accelerated degradation of permafrost under heavy rainfall, which could put significant amounts of soil carbon and infrastructure at risk. However, controlle...
Published in: | Science of The Total Environment |
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Language: | English |
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2024
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/11370/f266718f-6210-4db8-9419-10cc1e8084f7 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/f266718f-6210-4db8-9419-10cc1e8084f7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173696 https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/1023449091/1-s2.0-S0048969724038439-main.pdf |
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ftunigroningenpu:oai:pure.rug.nl:publications/f266718f-6210-4db8-9419-10cc1e8084f7 2024-09-30T14:21:34+00:00 Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems Magnusson, Rúna I. Schuring, S. Hamm, A. Verhoeven, Mo Limpens, Juul Loonen, Maarten J. J. E. Lang, Simone I. 2024-09-15 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11370/f266718f-6210-4db8-9419-10cc1e8084f7 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/f266718f-6210-4db8-9419-10cc1e8084f7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173696 https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/1023449091/1-s2.0-S0048969724038439-main.pdf eng eng https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/f266718f-6210-4db8-9419-10cc1e8084f7 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Magnusson , R I , Schuring , S , Hamm , A , Verhoeven , M , Limpens , J , Loonen , M J J E & Lang , S I 2024 , ' Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems ' , The Science of the Total Environment , vol. 943 , 173696 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173696 permafrost rainfall arctic svalbard article 2024 ftunigroningenpu https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173696 2024-09-18T02:10:24Z Together with warming air temperatures, Arctic ecosystems are expected to experience increases in heavy rainfall events. Recent studies report accelerated degradation of permafrost under heavy rainfall, which could put significant amounts of soil carbon and infrastructure at risk. However, controlled experimental evidence of rainfall effects on permafrost thaw is scarce. We experimentally tested the impact and legacy effect of heavy rainfall events in early and late summer for five sites varying in topography and soil type on the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. We found that effects of heavy rainfall on soil thermal regimes are small and limited to one season. Thaw rates increased under heavy rainfall in a loess terrace site, but not in polygonal tundra soils with higher organic matter content and water tables. End-of-season active layer thickness was not affected. Rainfall application did not affect soil temperature trends, which appeared driven by timing of snowmelt and organic layer thickness, particularly during early summer. Late summer rainfall was associated with slower freeze-up and colder soil temperatures the following winter. This implies that rainfall impacts on Svalbard permafrost are limited, locally variable and of short duration. Our findings diverge from earlier reports of sustained increases in permafrost thaw following extreme rainfall, but are consistent with observations that maritime permafrost regions such as Svalbard show lower rainfall sensitivity than continental regions. Based on our experiment, no substantial in-situ effects of heavy rainfall are anticipated for thawing of permafrost on Svalbard under future warming. However, further work is needed to quantify permafrost response to local redistribution of active layer flow under natural rainfall extremes. In addition, replication of experiments across variable Arctic regions as well as long-term monitoring of active layers, soil moisture and local climate will be essential to develop a panarctic perspective on rainfall ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Active layer thickness Arctic Archipelago Arctic permafrost Svalbard Tundra University of Groningen research database Arctic Svalbard Science of The Total Environment 943 173696 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Groningen research database |
op_collection_id |
ftunigroningenpu |
language |
English |
topic |
permafrost rainfall arctic svalbard |
spellingShingle |
permafrost rainfall arctic svalbard Magnusson, Rúna I. Schuring, S. Hamm, A. Verhoeven, Mo Limpens, Juul Loonen, Maarten J. J. E. Lang, Simone I. Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems |
topic_facet |
permafrost rainfall arctic svalbard |
description |
Together with warming air temperatures, Arctic ecosystems are expected to experience increases in heavy rainfall events. Recent studies report accelerated degradation of permafrost under heavy rainfall, which could put significant amounts of soil carbon and infrastructure at risk. However, controlled experimental evidence of rainfall effects on permafrost thaw is scarce. We experimentally tested the impact and legacy effect of heavy rainfall events in early and late summer for five sites varying in topography and soil type on the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. We found that effects of heavy rainfall on soil thermal regimes are small and limited to one season. Thaw rates increased under heavy rainfall in a loess terrace site, but not in polygonal tundra soils with higher organic matter content and water tables. End-of-season active layer thickness was not affected. Rainfall application did not affect soil temperature trends, which appeared driven by timing of snowmelt and organic layer thickness, particularly during early summer. Late summer rainfall was associated with slower freeze-up and colder soil temperatures the following winter. This implies that rainfall impacts on Svalbard permafrost are limited, locally variable and of short duration. Our findings diverge from earlier reports of sustained increases in permafrost thaw following extreme rainfall, but are consistent with observations that maritime permafrost regions such as Svalbard show lower rainfall sensitivity than continental regions. Based on our experiment, no substantial in-situ effects of heavy rainfall are anticipated for thawing of permafrost on Svalbard under future warming. However, further work is needed to quantify permafrost response to local redistribution of active layer flow under natural rainfall extremes. In addition, replication of experiments across variable Arctic regions as well as long-term monitoring of active layers, soil moisture and local climate will be essential to develop a panarctic perspective on rainfall ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Magnusson, Rúna I. Schuring, S. Hamm, A. Verhoeven, Mo Limpens, Juul Loonen, Maarten J. J. E. Lang, Simone I. |
author_facet |
Magnusson, Rúna I. Schuring, S. Hamm, A. Verhoeven, Mo Limpens, Juul Loonen, Maarten J. J. E. Lang, Simone I. |
author_sort |
Magnusson, Rúna I. |
title |
Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems |
title_short |
Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems |
title_full |
Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems |
title_sort |
limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across svalbard ecosystems |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11370/f266718f-6210-4db8-9419-10cc1e8084f7 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/f266718f-6210-4db8-9419-10cc1e8084f7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173696 https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/1023449091/1-s2.0-S0048969724038439-main.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Active layer thickness Arctic Archipelago Arctic permafrost Svalbard Tundra |
genre_facet |
Active layer thickness Arctic Archipelago Arctic permafrost Svalbard Tundra |
op_source |
Magnusson , R I , Schuring , S , Hamm , A , Verhoeven , M , Limpens , J , Loonen , M J J E & Lang , S I 2024 , ' Limited sensitivity of permafrost soils to heavy rainfall across Svalbard ecosystems ' , The Science of the Total Environment , vol. 943 , 173696 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173696 |
op_relation |
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/f266718f-6210-4db8-9419-10cc1e8084f7 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173696 |
container_title |
Science of The Total Environment |
container_volume |
943 |
container_start_page |
173696 |
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1811636276884930560 |