Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions in the Ogilvie Mountains, Central Yukon
Permafrost is vulnerable to climate changes and the associated landscape changes that are enhanced by amplification processes and feedbacks unique to the Arctic. Permafrost degradation leads to important changes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and determining regions that are sensitive to per...
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Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
2023
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ftunivottawa:oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/45076 2023-07-16T03:57:10+02:00 Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions in the Ogilvie Mountains, Central Yukon Frappier, Roxanne Lacelle, Denis 2023-06-20 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10393/45076 https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-29282 en eng Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa http://hdl.handle.net/10393/45076 http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-29282 Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Permafrost Climate change Geomorphology Ground ice Remote sensing Modeling Thesis 2023 ftunivottawa https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-29282 2023-06-24T22:59:49Z Permafrost is vulnerable to climate changes and the associated landscape changes that are enhanced by amplification processes and feedbacks unique to the Arctic. Permafrost degradation leads to important changes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and determining regions that are sensitive to permafrost degradation therefore represents an urgent issue. The Tombstone Territorial Park (TTP) and its surroundings (Ogilvie Mountains, central Yukon) represent one of those sensitive permafrost environment that should be monitored. The central Yukon is an enigmatic permafrost environment that reflects both Pleistocene and Holocene permafrost and climate conditions. The area is particularly intriguing because of the extensive presence of permafrost landforms that are more typical of areas much further north, especially ice-wedge (IW) polygons. It also represents a major transportation corridor linking multiple northern communities (Dempster Highway). Despite access along the road, and signs of permafrost degradation, there have been a limited number of studies addressing permafrost and ground ice conditions throughout the landscape. Consequently, this PhD thesis aims to characterize IW polygons, define the type and magnitude of landscape changes, and model permafrost distribution, conditions and sensitivity to climate changes in the study area. Characterization of IW polygons reveals that they occupy 2.6% of the TTP and preferentially develop in woody sedge peat, glaciofluvial and alluvial deposits along the lower reaches of the Blackstone and East Blackstone rivers on hillslopes of ≤1°. Vegetation type, surface wetness, and polygon spatial pattern are influenced by the development stage of ice-wedge polygons, while the size and angles of polygons seem independent of the development stage. A Landsat-based landscape change analysis of the TTP and surrounding region covering the 1986-2021 period shows that statistically significant spectral changes occurred in 24% of the study area, and most of these changes are ... Thesis Arctic Climate change Ice Ogilvie Mountains permafrost wedge* Yukon uO Research (University of Ottawa - uOttawa) Arctic Ogilvie ENVELOPE(-139.746,-139.746,63.563,63.563) Ogilvie Mountains ENVELOPE(-138.254,-138.254,64.583,64.583) Tombstone ENVELOPE(-63.533,-63.533,-64.817,-64.817) Yukon |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
uO Research (University of Ottawa - uOttawa) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivottawa |
language |
English |
topic |
Permafrost Climate change Geomorphology Ground ice Remote sensing Modeling |
spellingShingle |
Permafrost Climate change Geomorphology Ground ice Remote sensing Modeling Frappier, Roxanne Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions in the Ogilvie Mountains, Central Yukon |
topic_facet |
Permafrost Climate change Geomorphology Ground ice Remote sensing Modeling |
description |
Permafrost is vulnerable to climate changes and the associated landscape changes that are enhanced by amplification processes and feedbacks unique to the Arctic. Permafrost degradation leads to important changes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and determining regions that are sensitive to permafrost degradation therefore represents an urgent issue. The Tombstone Territorial Park (TTP) and its surroundings (Ogilvie Mountains, central Yukon) represent one of those sensitive permafrost environment that should be monitored. The central Yukon is an enigmatic permafrost environment that reflects both Pleistocene and Holocene permafrost and climate conditions. The area is particularly intriguing because of the extensive presence of permafrost landforms that are more typical of areas much further north, especially ice-wedge (IW) polygons. It also represents a major transportation corridor linking multiple northern communities (Dempster Highway). Despite access along the road, and signs of permafrost degradation, there have been a limited number of studies addressing permafrost and ground ice conditions throughout the landscape. Consequently, this PhD thesis aims to characterize IW polygons, define the type and magnitude of landscape changes, and model permafrost distribution, conditions and sensitivity to climate changes in the study area. Characterization of IW polygons reveals that they occupy 2.6% of the TTP and preferentially develop in woody sedge peat, glaciofluvial and alluvial deposits along the lower reaches of the Blackstone and East Blackstone rivers on hillslopes of ≤1°. Vegetation type, surface wetness, and polygon spatial pattern are influenced by the development stage of ice-wedge polygons, while the size and angles of polygons seem independent of the development stage. A Landsat-based landscape change analysis of the TTP and surrounding region covering the 1986-2021 period shows that statistically significant spectral changes occurred in 24% of the study area, and most of these changes are ... |
author2 |
Lacelle, Denis |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Frappier, Roxanne |
author_facet |
Frappier, Roxanne |
author_sort |
Frappier, Roxanne |
title |
Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions in the Ogilvie Mountains, Central Yukon |
title_short |
Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions in the Ogilvie Mountains, Central Yukon |
title_full |
Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions in the Ogilvie Mountains, Central Yukon |
title_fullStr |
Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions in the Ogilvie Mountains, Central Yukon |
title_full_unstemmed |
Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions in the Ogilvie Mountains, Central Yukon |
title_sort |
permafrost and ground ice conditions in the ogilvie mountains, central yukon |
publisher |
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10393/45076 https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-29282 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-139.746,-139.746,63.563,63.563) ENVELOPE(-138.254,-138.254,64.583,64.583) ENVELOPE(-63.533,-63.533,-64.817,-64.817) |
geographic |
Arctic Ogilvie Ogilvie Mountains Tombstone Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Ogilvie Ogilvie Mountains Tombstone Yukon |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Ice Ogilvie Mountains permafrost wedge* Yukon |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Ice Ogilvie Mountains permafrost wedge* Yukon |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10393/45076 http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-29282 |
op_rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-29282 |
_version_ |
1771543683935502336 |