Retrogressive thaw slumps and active layer detachment slides in the Brooks Range and foothills of northern Alaska: terrain and timing

• Main Author: Balser, Andrew W.
• Other Authors: Jones, Jeremy B. Jr, Walker, Donald A., Mack, Michelle C., Gens, Rudiger
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Arctic; Fairbanks; Brooks Range; Climate change; permafrost; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/5582

Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015 Permafrost degradation is widespread throughout the circumpolar north, occurring by multiple modes and mechanisms on many types of landscapes. The pan-Arctic rate of permafrost degradation is reportedly increasing, and permafrost carbon and nitrogen release are likely to be major contributors to global atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations in coming decades. Locally, liberation of previously frozen substrates, organic materials, and nutrients alters the ecology of receiving streams, causes ecological and hydrobiogeochemical impacts in lake ecosystems, and impacts vegetation through disturbance, nutrient release, and succession on altered surfaces. Understanding the diverse modes of permafrost landscape response to climate, within time and space, is critical to questions of future impacts and feedbacks to climate change. Active layer detachment sliding and retrogressive thaw slumping are important modes of upland permafrost degradation and disturbance throughout the low arctic, and have been linked with climate warming trends, ecosystem impacts, and permafrost carbon release. In the Brooks Range and foothills study region of northwest Alaska, active layer detachment slides and retrogressive thaw slumps are widespread and prominant modes of permafrost degradation. Their distribution has been partially correlated with landscape properties, especially upper permafrost characteristics. However, drivers of active layer detachment slide and retrogressive thaw slump distribution and initiation triggering mechanisms, are poorly understood in this region, and detailed spatial distribution of permafrost characteristics is particularly lacking for the entire area. To better understand retrogressive thaw slump initiation triggers, this research used archived ERS-1 synthetic aperture RADAR data (1997-2010) to determine the year of first detection for 21 active retrogressive thaw slumps in the Noatak Basin, and examined weather records from remote and regional ...