Impact of seismic lines on the hydrology of wetlands in the discontinuous permafrost zone, southwestern Northwest Territories
Previous studies in the southern Northwest Territories have shown the underlying discontinuous permafrost is sensitive to disturbances such as the creation of seismic lines. Their creation has resulted in compaction topsoil and tree removal causing accelerated permafrost thaw. The loss of permafrost...
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ftwlaurieruniv:oai:scholars.wlu.ca:etd-3419 2023-06-11T04:15:26+02:00 Impact of seismic lines on the hydrology of wetlands in the discontinuous permafrost zone, southwestern Northwest Territories Hamilton, Angela 2020-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2299 https://scholars.wlu.ca/context/etd/article/3419/viewcontent/MSc_Geogrpahy_Thesis__Angela_Hamilton_August_7_2020.pdf en eng Scholars Commons @ Laurier https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2299 https://scholars.wlu.ca/context/etd/article/3419/viewcontent/MSc_Geogrpahy_Thesis__Angela_Hamilton_August_7_2020.pdf 2 Publicly accessible Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) Seismic line hydrology permafrost wetland Canada linear disturbance Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Environmental Monitoring Water Resource Management text 2020 ftwlaurieruniv 2023-05-07T16:38:48Z Previous studies in the southern Northwest Territories have shown the underlying discontinuous permafrost is sensitive to disturbances such as the creation of seismic lines. Their creation has resulted in compaction topsoil and tree removal causing accelerated permafrost thaw. The loss of permafrost has caused seismic lines’ surface elevation to subside, which allows water to conjugate. This increases the soil moisture of a seismic line, which results in preferential thaw along the seismic line edges. Thaw along the edges over time has connected more previously isolated wetlands to seismic lines. This leads to more water entering, resulting in higher water levels in seismic lines, which increases the landscape runoff. More runoff means less water is being stored on the landscape causing the affected land features to change. However, the hydrological effect on adjacent connected wetlands is still unclear. The research objective of this study is to create a better understanding of wetlands that are hydrologically connected to seismic lines in efforts to create more accurate prediction models. In particular, the study focuses on the partial draining of wetlands that are connected to a seismic line established in 1985. Three wetlands with contrasting degrees of hydrological connection (open connected, narrow channel connected, and isolated) to the seismic line were monitored. The wetlands were monitored for surface elevation, water level, surface water recession, and soil moisture. There are two main findings of this study: 1) the surface elevation and water level of the connected wetlands were significantly lower than the isolated wetland 2) the plateau fringe’s soil moisture of the connected wetlands were significantly higher than the isolated wetland. From these observations, it was inferred that a higher soil moisture along the plateau fringe is likely to result in a change of the connected wetlands’ catchment. Connected wetlands provide a secondary runoff input. Because of an increased runoff, the recovery of ... Text Northwest Territories permafrost Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario: Scholars Commons@Laurier Canada Northwest Territories |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario: Scholars Commons@Laurier |
op_collection_id |
ftwlaurieruniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Seismic line hydrology permafrost wetland Canada linear disturbance Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Environmental Monitoring Water Resource Management |
spellingShingle |
Seismic line hydrology permafrost wetland Canada linear disturbance Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Environmental Monitoring Water Resource Management Hamilton, Angela Impact of seismic lines on the hydrology of wetlands in the discontinuous permafrost zone, southwestern Northwest Territories |
topic_facet |
Seismic line hydrology permafrost wetland Canada linear disturbance Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Environmental Monitoring Water Resource Management |
description |
Previous studies in the southern Northwest Territories have shown the underlying discontinuous permafrost is sensitive to disturbances such as the creation of seismic lines. Their creation has resulted in compaction topsoil and tree removal causing accelerated permafrost thaw. The loss of permafrost has caused seismic lines’ surface elevation to subside, which allows water to conjugate. This increases the soil moisture of a seismic line, which results in preferential thaw along the seismic line edges. Thaw along the edges over time has connected more previously isolated wetlands to seismic lines. This leads to more water entering, resulting in higher water levels in seismic lines, which increases the landscape runoff. More runoff means less water is being stored on the landscape causing the affected land features to change. However, the hydrological effect on adjacent connected wetlands is still unclear. The research objective of this study is to create a better understanding of wetlands that are hydrologically connected to seismic lines in efforts to create more accurate prediction models. In particular, the study focuses on the partial draining of wetlands that are connected to a seismic line established in 1985. Three wetlands with contrasting degrees of hydrological connection (open connected, narrow channel connected, and isolated) to the seismic line were monitored. The wetlands were monitored for surface elevation, water level, surface water recession, and soil moisture. There are two main findings of this study: 1) the surface elevation and water level of the connected wetlands were significantly lower than the isolated wetland 2) the plateau fringe’s soil moisture of the connected wetlands were significantly higher than the isolated wetland. From these observations, it was inferred that a higher soil moisture along the plateau fringe is likely to result in a change of the connected wetlands’ catchment. Connected wetlands provide a secondary runoff input. Because of an increased runoff, the recovery of ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Hamilton, Angela |
author_facet |
Hamilton, Angela |
author_sort |
Hamilton, Angela |
title |
Impact of seismic lines on the hydrology of wetlands in the discontinuous permafrost zone, southwestern Northwest Territories |
title_short |
Impact of seismic lines on the hydrology of wetlands in the discontinuous permafrost zone, southwestern Northwest Territories |
title_full |
Impact of seismic lines on the hydrology of wetlands in the discontinuous permafrost zone, southwestern Northwest Territories |
title_fullStr |
Impact of seismic lines on the hydrology of wetlands in the discontinuous permafrost zone, southwestern Northwest Territories |
title_full_unstemmed |
Impact of seismic lines on the hydrology of wetlands in the discontinuous permafrost zone, southwestern Northwest Territories |
title_sort |
impact of seismic lines on the hydrology of wetlands in the discontinuous permafrost zone, southwestern northwest territories |
publisher |
Scholars Commons @ Laurier |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2299 https://scholars.wlu.ca/context/etd/article/3419/viewcontent/MSc_Geogrpahy_Thesis__Angela_Hamilton_August_7_2020.pdf |
geographic |
Canada Northwest Territories |
geographic_facet |
Canada Northwest Territories |
genre |
Northwest Territories permafrost |
genre_facet |
Northwest Territories permafrost |
op_source |
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) |
op_relation |
https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2299 https://scholars.wlu.ca/context/etd/article/3419/viewcontent/MSc_Geogrpahy_Thesis__Angela_Hamilton_August_7_2020.pdf |
op_rights |
2 Publicly accessible |
_version_ |
1768372252940697600 |