Evolution of lakes and basins in northern Alaska and discussion of the thaw lake cycle

Abstract

[1] We evaluated the development of lake basins on the central coastal plain of northern Alaska on the basis of topographic profiles, soil and ground ice surveys, radiocarbon dating, photogrammetric analysis, and regional comparisons. Our analysis reveals that lake evolution is much more complex and less cyclic than theorized by previous investigations. In the area we studied, there was insufficient ground ice in the oldest terrain to form thaw lakes, the aggradation of ice in the margins of drained lake basins was insufficient to heave the surface up to near original topographic conditions, and the process occurs at too slow a rate for a ''thaw lake cycle'' to develop within the Holocene. Accordingly, we revised the conceptual model of lake and basin development to be consistent with the patterns and process we observed on the extensive sand sheets underlying most of the coastal plain. Developmental stages include (1) initial flooding of depressions to form primary lakes, (2) lateral erosion, with sorting and redistribution of sediments, (3) lake drainage as the stream network expands, (4) differential ice aggradation in silty centers and sandy margins, (5) formation of secondary thaw lakes in the heaved centers of ice-rich basins and infilling of ponds along the low margins, and (6) basin stabilization.

Palaeoecological study of a Weichselian wetland site in the Netherlands suggests a link with Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillation

“…In successions similar to this one (Van Huissteden, 1990;Kasse et al, 1995;Bos et al, 2001;Bohncke et al, 2008) these depressions evolved into thaw lakes by the thaw of underlying ice-rich permafrost (e.g. Jorgenson & Shur, 2007). Although permafrost presence (e.g.…”

Ice-age megafauna in Arctic Alaska: extinction, invasion, survival

“…North-flowing rivers have deposited extensive gravel deposits on the Arctic Coastal Plain and redistributed older, marine deposits left by Tertiary and Pleistocene sea-level high stands (Dinter et al, 1990). Intense periglacial activity in the form of ice-wedge polygons, pingos, and thermokarst lakes has reworked this unconsolidated sediment (Jorgenson and Shur, 2007). During dry intervals in the Pleistocene, sandy sediments on the Coastal Plain were incorporated into sand dunes forming the Ikpikpuk Sand Sea (Carter, 1981).…”

Baseline characteristics of climate, permafrost and land cover from a new permafrost observatory in the Lena River Delta, Siberia (1998–2011)

“…Water bodies are dominated numerically by the polygonal ponds, but dominated in area by the relatively few thermokarst lakes.The thermokarst process involves the thawing of ice-rich permafrost and subsidence of the ground surface. Thermokarst ponds are formed through water accumulating in the resulting depressions that potentially grow into larger thermokarst lakes (Jorgenson and Shur, 2007). Polygonal ponds (defined here as water bodies smaller than 0.1 ha, including frost cracks) with a surface area between 0.003 and 0.1 ha are abundant in the ice-wedge polygonal tundra on Samoylov Island.…”

“…Model biases exist regarding regional and local surface water balances (Kattsov et al, 2007). Moreover, these models do not take into account subscale patterns and processes such as the spatiotemporal dynamics of low-centred ice-wedge polygons (de Klerk et al, 2011), or present-day land surface changes such as thermokarst lake formation (Jorgenson and Shur, 2007), increases in shrub cover (Sturm et al, 2001;Hinzman et al, 2005), prolongation of the snow-free season , and changes in the surface water balance (Hinzman et al, 2005).…”