presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central alaska
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2016
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Abstract
Permafrost presence is determined by a complex interaction of climatic,
topographic, and ecological conditions operating over long time scales. In
particular, vegetation and organic layer characteristics may act to protect
permafrost in regions with a mean annual air temperature (MAAT) above
0 °C. In this study, we document the presence of residual permafrost
plateaus in the western Kenai Peninsula lowlands of south-central Alaska, a
region with a MAAT of 1.5 ± 1 °C (1981–2010). Continuous
ground temperature measurements between 16 September 2012 and 15 September 2015,
using calibrated thermistor strings, documented the presence of warm
permafrost (−0.04 to −0.08 °C). Field measurements
(probing) on several plateau features during the fall of 2015 showed that the
depth to the permafrost table averaged 1.48 m but at some locations was as
shallow as 0.53 m. Late winter surveys (augering, coring, and GPR) in 2016
showed that the average seasonally frozen ground thickness was 0.45 m,
overlying a talik above the permafrost table. Measured permafrost thickness
ranged from 0.33 to > 6.90 m. Manual interpretation of historic
aerial photography acquired in 1950 indicates that residual permafrost
plateaus covered 920 ha as mapped across portions of four wetland complexes
encompassing 4810 ha. However, between 1950 and ca. 2010, permafrost plateau
extent decreased by 60.0 %, with lateral feature degradation accounting
for 85.0 % of the reduction in area. Permafrost loss on the Kenai
Peninsula is likely associated with a warming climate, wildfires that remove
the protective forest and organic layer cover, groundwater flow at depth, and
lateral heat transfer from wetland surface waters in the summer. Better
understanding the resilience and vulnerability of ecosystem-protected
permafrost is critical for mapping and predicting future permafrost extent
and degradation across all permafrost regions that are currently warming.
Further work should focus on reconstructing permafrost history in
south-central Alaska as well as additional contemporary observations of these
ecosystem-protected permafrost sites south of the regions with
relatively stable permafrost.
| Reference Key |
jones2016thepresence
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|---|---|
| Authors | ;B. M. Jones;C. A. Baughman;V. E. Romanovsky;A. D. Parsekian;E. L. Babcock;E. Stephani;M. C. Jones;G. Grosse;E. E. Berg |
| Journal | journal of applied polymer science |
| Year | 2016 |
| DOI |
10.5194/tc-10-2673-2016
|
| URL | |
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