Abstract. Samoylov Island is centrally located within the Lena River Delta at 72° N, 126° E and lies within the Siberian zone of continuous permafrost. The landscape on Samoylov Island consists mainly of late Holocene river terraces with polygonal tundra, ponds and lakes, and an active floodplain. The island has been the focus of numerous multidisciplinary studies since 1993, which have focused on climate, land cover, ecology, hydrology, permafrost and limnology. This paper aims to provide a framework for future studies by describing the characteristics of the island's meteorological parameters (temperature, radiation and snow cover), soil temperature, and soil moisture. The land surface characteristics have been described using high resolution aerial images in combination with data from ground-based observations. Of note is that deeper permafrost temperatures have increased between 0.3 to 1.3 °C over the last five years. However, no clear warming of air and active layer temperatures is detected since 1998, though winter air temperatures during recent years have not been as cold as in earlier years. Data related to this article are archived under: http://doi. pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.806233 .

Abstract. Lakes and ponds play a key role in the carbon cycle of permafrost ecosystems, where they are considered to be hotspots of carbon dioxide CO 2 and methane CH 4 emission. The strength of these emissions is, however, controlled by a variety of physical and biogeochemical processes whose responses to a warming climate are complex and only poorly understood. Small waterbodies have been attracting an increasing amount of attention since recent studies demonstrated that ponds can make a significant contribution to the CO 2 and CH 4 emissions of tundra ecosystems. Waterbodies also have a marked effect on the thermal state of the surrounding permafrost; during the freezing period they prolong the period of time during which thawed soil material is available for microbial decomposition.This study presents net CH 4 production rates during the freezing period from ponds within a typical lowland tundra landscape in northern Siberia. Rate estimations were based on CH 4 concentrations measured in surface lake ice from a variety of waterbody types. Vertical profiles along ice blocks showed an exponential increase in CH 4 concentration with depth. These CH 4 profiles were reproduced by a 1-D mass balance model and the net CH 4 production rates were then inferred through inverse modeling.Results revealed marked differences in early winter net CH 4 production among various ponds. Ponds situated within intact polygonal ground structures yielded low net production rates, of the order of 10 −11 to 10 −10 mol m −2 s −1 (0.01 to 0.14 mg CH 4 m −2 day −1 ). In contrast, ponds exhibiting clear signs of erosion yielded net CH 4 production rates of the order of 10 −7 mol m −2 s −1 (140 mg CH 4 m −2 day −1 ). Our results therefore indicate that once a particular threshold in thermal erosion has been crossed, ponds can develop into major CH 4 sources. This implies that any future warming of the climate may result in nonlinear CH 4 emission behavior in tundra ecosystems.

In the sporadic permafrost zone of North America, thaw-induced boreal forest loss is leading to permafrost-free wetland expansion. These land cover changes alter landscape-scale surface properties with potentially large, however, still unknown impacts on regional climates. In this study, we combine nested eddy covariance flux tower measurements with satellite remote sensing to characterize the impacts of boreal forest loss on albedo, eco-physiological and aerodynamic surface properties, and turbulent energy fluxes of a lowland boreal forest region in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Planetary boundary layer modelling is used to estimate the potential forest loss impact on regional air temperature and atmospheric moisture. We show that thaw-induced conversion of forests to wetlands increases albedo: and bulk surface conductance for water vapour and decreases aerodynamic surface temperature. At the same time, heat transfer efficiency is reduced. These shifts in land surface properties increase latent at the expense of sensible heat fluxes, thus, drastically reducing Bowen ratios. Due to the lower albedo of forests and their masking effect of highly reflective snow, available energy is lower in wetlands, especially in late winter. Modelling results demonstrate that a conversion of a present-day boreal forest-wetland to a hypothetical homogeneous wetland landscape could induce a near-surface cooling effect on regional air temperatures of up to 3-4 °C in late winter and 1-2 °C in summer. An atmospheric wetting effect in summer is indicated by a maximum increase in water vapour mixing ratios of 2 mmol mol . At the same time, maximum boundary layer heights are reduced by about a third of the original height. In fall, simulated air temperature and atmospheric moisture between the two scenarios do not differ. Therefore, permafrost thaw-induced boreal forest loss may modify regional precipitation patterns and slow down regional warming trends.

Abstract. Freeze/thaw (F/T) processes can be quite different under the various land surface types found in the complex tundra of the Arctic, such as polygonal tundra (wet center and dry rims), ponds, and thermokarst lakes. Proper simulation of these different processes is essential for accurate prediction of the release of greenhouse gases under a warming climate scenario. In this study we have incorporated the water layer into a dynamic organic soil version of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (DOS-TEM), having first verified and validated the model. Results showed that (1) the DOS-TEM was very efficient and its results compared well with analytical solutions for idealized cases, and (2) despite a number of limitations and uncertainties in the modeling, the simulations compared reasonably well with in situ measurements from polygon rims, polygon centers (with and without water), and lakes on Samoylov Island, Siberia, indicating the suitability of the DOS-TEM for simulating the various F/T processes. Sensitivity tests were performed on the effects of water depth and our results indicated that both water and snow cover are very important in the simulated thermal processes, for both polygon centers and lakes. We therefore concluded that the polygon rims and polygon centers (with various maximum water depths) should be considered separately, and that the dynamics of water depth in both polygons and lakes should be taken into account when simulating thermal processes for methane emission studies.