Brief Communication: Future avenues for permafrost science from the perspective of early career researchers

Fritz, Michael; Deshpande, Bethany; Bouchard, Frédéric; Högtröm, E.; Lepage, J.; Morgenstern, Anne; Nieuwendam, Alexandre; Oliva, Marc; Paquette, Michel; Rudy, Ashley; Siewert, Matthias Benjamin; Sjöberg, Ylva; Weege, Stefanie

doi:10.5194/tcd-9-1209-2015

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…A final limitation of available permafrost hydrogeology models relates to the difficulty of their utility. As noted by Fritz et al (2015), many permafrost heat transfer modeling tools are “too complex to be used by anyone other than modeling experts.” This limitation may help explain the lack of simulations conducted for site‐specific application. Concerted efforts to provide more frequent and detailed model training workshops for interested researchers and develop more user‐friendly model interfaces may help overcome this limitation.…”

Section: Challenges and Opportunities In Hydrogeologic Modeling In Pementioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrologic Impacts of Thawing Permafrost—A Review

Walvoord¹,

Kurylyk

2016

Vadose Zone Journal

679

646

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Where present, permafrost exerts a primary control on water fluxes, flowpaths, and distribution. Climate warming and related drivers of soil thermal change are expected to modify the distribution of permafrost, leading to changing hydrologic conditions, including alterations in soil moisture, connectivity of inland waters, streamflow seasonality, and the partitioning of water stored above and below ground. The field of permafrost hydrology is undergoing rapid advancement with respect to multiscale observations, subsurface characterization, modeling, and integration with other disciplines. However, gaining predictive capability of the many interrelated consequences of climate change is a persistent challenge due to several factors. Observations of hydrologic change have been causally linked to permafrost thaw, but applications of process-based models needed to support and enhance the transferability of empirical linkages have often been restricted to generalized representations. Limitations stem from inadequate baseline permafrost and unfrozen hydrogeologic characterization, lack of historical data, and simplifications in structure and process representation needed to counter the high computational demands of cryohydrogeologic simulations. Further, due in part to the large degree of subsurface heterogeneity of permafrost landscapes and the nonuniformity in thaw patterns and rates, associations between various modes of permafrost thaw and hydrologic change are not readily scalable; even trajectories of change can differ. This review highlights promising advances in characterization and modeling of permafrost regions and presents ongoing research challenges toward projecting hydrologic and ecologic consequences of permafrost thaw at time and spatial scales that are useful to managers and researchers.Abbreviations: AEM, airborne electromagnetic; ALT, active layer thickness; CALM, Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring; EMI, electromagnetic induction; ERT, electrical resistivity tomography; GPR, ground-penetrating radar; InSAR, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar; NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance; SR, seismic refraction; TDEM, timedomain electromagnetics.Permafrost hydrology is a rapidly progressing research field, and a number of new discoveries and questions have emerged in recent years. Research interest in cold regions has been spurred in part by surface temperature warming rates in high latitudes (McBean et al., 2005) and high altitudes (Pepin et al., 2015) that are greater than the global average. This warming has produced changes to the cryosphere, including permafrost (ground that is £0°C year round), that impact hydrologic processes and conditions (ACIA, 2005;Hinzman et al., 2013). Despite increased attention, there are still critical limitations in hydrologic data coverage, subsurface characterization, process-level understanding, and integrated modeling approaches. Due to its low hydraulic conductivity (K), permafrost strongly affects the movement, storage, and exchange of surface and subsurface water. In...

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Section: Challenges and Opportunities In Hydrogeologic Modeling In Pementioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrologic Impacts of Thawing Permafrost—A Review

Walvoord¹,

Kurylyk

2016

Vadose Zone Journal

679

646

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“…A good example is the surface energy balance included in some of the aforementioned tools. To increase the accessibility of permafrost heat transfer models outside of the modeling expert community, Fritz et al (2015) suggested that “Future research should focus on identifying which processes are most important, so that models with varying levels of complexity can be developed for Arctic stakeholders”. We propose that the same principle should be applied to cold‐regions groundwater models.…”

Section: Challenges and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We propose that the same principle should be applied to cold‐regions groundwater models. Our recommendation to modelers is to first focus on identifying the important processes in different environments rather than adding processes to the already complex tools available, and to add varying levels of complexity to their code as suggested by Fritz et al (2015).…”

Section: Challenges and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guidelines for cold‐regions groundwater numerical modeling

et al. 2020

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The impacts of ongoing climate warming on cold-regions hydrogeology and groundwater resources have created a need to develop groundwater models adapted to these environments. Although permafrost is considered relatively impermeable to groundwater flow, permafrost thaw may result in potential increases in surface water infiltration, groundwater recharge, and hydrogeologic connectivity that can impact northern water resources. To account for these feedbacks, groundwater models that include the dynamic effects of freezing and thawing on ground properties and thermal regimes have been recently developed. However, these models are more complex than traditional hydrogeology numerical models due to the inclusion of nonlinear freeze-thaw processes and complex thermal boundary conditions. As such, their use to date has been limited to a small community of modeling experts. This article aims to provide guidelines and tips on cold-regions groundwater modeling for those with previous modeling experience.

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“…Other recent international collaborative efforts are the creation of early career researcher (ECR) networks such as PYRN and APECS . These networks have fostered a new generation of permafrost scientists, who started their careers during this expansion of climate change‐motivated permafrost research often in connection with the 4th IPY, in international collaborations through workshops, summer schools, online resources, and ECR‐driven research and outreach projects . The activities of such networks provide opportunities for ECRs to understand early on how to successfully collaborate across national borders and academic systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hot trends and impact in permafrost science

Sjöberg

Siewert

Rudy

et al. 2020

Permafrost & Periglacial

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An increased interest in Arctic environments, mainly due to climate change, has changed the conditions for permafrost research in recent years. This change has been accompanied by a global increase in scientific publications, as well as a trend towards open access publications. We have analyzed abstracts, titles and keywords for publications on permafrost from 1998 to 2017 to identify developments (topics, impact and collaboration) in the field of permafrost research in light of these changes. Furthermore, to understand how scientists build on and are inspired by each other's work, we have (a) developed citation networks from scientific publications on permafrost and (b) conducted an online survey on inspiration in permafrost science. Our results show an almost 400% increase in publications containing the word permafrost in the title, keywords or abstract over the study period, and a strong increase in climate-change-related research in terms of publications and citations. Survey respondents (n = 122) find inspiration not only in scientific journal publications, but to a large extent in books and public outreach materials. We argue that this increase in global-scope issues (i.e., climate change) complementing core permafrost research has provided new incentives for international collaborations and wider communication efforts.

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Brief Communication: Future avenues for permafrost science from the perspective of early career researchers

Cited by 5 publications

References 21 publications

Hydrologic Impacts of Thawing Permafrost—A Review

Hydrologic Impacts of Thawing Permafrost—A Review

Guidelines for cold‐regions groundwater numerical modeling

Hot trends and impact in permafrost science

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