Effects of Wildfire Burn on Permafrost Landcover and Catchment Hydrology in Manitoba, Canada
Permafrost is a strongly controlling factor on Arctic hydrology due to its effect on ground permeability, and thus surface and ground water flow paths. As wildfires are increasing in occurrence and magnitude in permafrost regions, they may alter the hydrological regime via permafrost thaw and degrad...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Bachelor Thesis |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper
2019
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-385405 |
id |
ftuppsalauniv:oai:DiVA.org:uu-385405 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftuppsalauniv:oai:DiVA.org:uu-385405 2023-05-15T15:16:25+02:00 Effects of Wildfire Burn on Permafrost Landcover and Catchment Hydrology in Manitoba, Canada Andersson, Andreas 2019 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-385405 eng eng Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-385405 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess wildfire permafrost catchment hydrology Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap Student thesis info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis text 2019 ftuppsalauniv 2023-02-23T21:49:59Z Permafrost is a strongly controlling factor on Arctic hydrology due to its effect on ground permeability, and thus surface and ground water flow paths. As wildfires are increasing in occurrence and magnitude in permafrost regions, they may alter the hydrological regime via permafrost thaw and degradation that increases ground permeability. Thus, it is hypothesized that in permafrost regions catchments exposed to severe wildfire burn may display a river discharge behavior different to that of unburned catchments, with reduced maximum and increased minimum flows corresponding to higher infiltration of precipitation and extended sub-surface flow paths. This study compares the seasonality and magnitude of runoff in severely burned (Odei River) and unburned (Taylor River) catchments in the sporadic permafrost region in the Canadian Shield Taiga. The investigated time span consists of 25 full calendar years with complete daily and monthly river discharge data between 1980 and 2016. They are used in conjunction with burned area data, climate data and landcover data to investigate patterns in hydrology behavior. An emerging trend is a sharply declining maximum flow and increasing minimum flow relative to precipitation in the burned catchment, indicating an accelerated increase in infiltration and buffer capacity of the soil relative to the unburned catchment. Over the entire period the apparent annual catchment storage change is decreasing in both catchments, but at a 115% faster rate in the burned catchment despite being exposed to ~1.5 C lower mean annual temperature, a factor that likely increases the rate of climate-driven aggradation of permafrost in the contrasting unburned catchment. The discrepancy found in catchment streamflow regime between the burned and unburned catchment and its alignment with the suggested permafrost disturbance effects from previous studies suggest that streamflow may serve as a useful and resource efficient indicator of wildfire-driven permafrost degradation. Bachelor Thesis Arctic permafrost taiga Uppsala University: Publications (DiVA) Arctic Canada Odei River ENVELOPE(-96.906,-96.906,56.096,56.096) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Uppsala University: Publications (DiVA) |
op_collection_id |
ftuppsalauniv |
language |
English |
topic |
wildfire permafrost catchment hydrology Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap |
spellingShingle |
wildfire permafrost catchment hydrology Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap Andersson, Andreas Effects of Wildfire Burn on Permafrost Landcover and Catchment Hydrology in Manitoba, Canada |
topic_facet |
wildfire permafrost catchment hydrology Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap |
description |
Permafrost is a strongly controlling factor on Arctic hydrology due to its effect on ground permeability, and thus surface and ground water flow paths. As wildfires are increasing in occurrence and magnitude in permafrost regions, they may alter the hydrological regime via permafrost thaw and degradation that increases ground permeability. Thus, it is hypothesized that in permafrost regions catchments exposed to severe wildfire burn may display a river discharge behavior different to that of unburned catchments, with reduced maximum and increased minimum flows corresponding to higher infiltration of precipitation and extended sub-surface flow paths. This study compares the seasonality and magnitude of runoff in severely burned (Odei River) and unburned (Taylor River) catchments in the sporadic permafrost region in the Canadian Shield Taiga. The investigated time span consists of 25 full calendar years with complete daily and monthly river discharge data between 1980 and 2016. They are used in conjunction with burned area data, climate data and landcover data to investigate patterns in hydrology behavior. An emerging trend is a sharply declining maximum flow and increasing minimum flow relative to precipitation in the burned catchment, indicating an accelerated increase in infiltration and buffer capacity of the soil relative to the unburned catchment. Over the entire period the apparent annual catchment storage change is decreasing in both catchments, but at a 115% faster rate in the burned catchment despite being exposed to ~1.5 C lower mean annual temperature, a factor that likely increases the rate of climate-driven aggradation of permafrost in the contrasting unburned catchment. The discrepancy found in catchment streamflow regime between the burned and unburned catchment and its alignment with the suggested permafrost disturbance effects from previous studies suggest that streamflow may serve as a useful and resource efficient indicator of wildfire-driven permafrost degradation. |
format |
Bachelor Thesis |
author |
Andersson, Andreas |
author_facet |
Andersson, Andreas |
author_sort |
Andersson, Andreas |
title |
Effects of Wildfire Burn on Permafrost Landcover and Catchment Hydrology in Manitoba, Canada |
title_short |
Effects of Wildfire Burn on Permafrost Landcover and Catchment Hydrology in Manitoba, Canada |
title_full |
Effects of Wildfire Burn on Permafrost Landcover and Catchment Hydrology in Manitoba, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Effects of Wildfire Burn on Permafrost Landcover and Catchment Hydrology in Manitoba, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of Wildfire Burn on Permafrost Landcover and Catchment Hydrology in Manitoba, Canada |
title_sort |
effects of wildfire burn on permafrost landcover and catchment hydrology in manitoba, canada |
publisher |
Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-385405 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-96.906,-96.906,56.096,56.096) |
geographic |
Arctic Canada Odei River |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada Odei River |
genre |
Arctic permafrost taiga |
genre_facet |
Arctic permafrost taiga |
op_relation |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-385405 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
_version_ |
1766346707246776320 |