Evolution of thermokarst in East Siberian ice-rich permafrost: A case study

Morgenstern, Anne; Ulrich, Mathias; Günther, Frank; Roessler, Sebastian; Fedorova, Irina; Rudaya, Natalia; Wetterich, Sebastian; Boike, Julia; Schirrmeister, Lutz

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2013.07.011

Cited by 107 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the intermediate stage, permafrost organic soils (Histels) were found in alases at Duvaany Yar, the extensively studied Yedoma formation along the Kolyma River upstream from Cherskiy (Smith et al, 1995), and in northern Alaska . Morgenstern et al (2013) suggested that alas formation was most extensive across the coastal lowlands of eastern Siberia due to abrupt thaw-lake drainage during the early Holocene. However, on a local scale and often within primary alases, more dynamic but less intensive thermokarst processes during the late Holocene have shaped the modern thermokarst terrain, which continues to evolve in response to present-day climatic and land-use changes.…”

Section: Intermittent Burial and Syngenetic Permafrostmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permafrost soils and carbon cycling

Ping

Jastrow

Jorgenson

et al. 2015

SOIL

265

188

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Knowledge of soils in the permafrost region has advanced immensely in recent decades, despite the remoteness and inaccessibility of most of the region and the sampling limitations posed by the severe environment. These efforts significantly increased estimates of the amount of organic carbon stored in permafrost-region soils and improved understanding of how pedogenic processes unique to permafrost environments built enormous organic carbon stocks during the Quaternary. This knowledge has also called attention to the importance of permafrost-affected soils to the global carbon cycle and the potential vulnerability of the region's soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks to changing climatic conditions. In this review, we briefly introduce the permafrost characteristics, ice structures, and cryopedogenic processes that shape the development of permafrost-affected soils, and discuss their effects on soil structures and on organic matter distributions within the soil profile. We then examine the quantity of organic carbon stored in permafrost-region soils, as well as the characteristics, intrinsic decomposability, and potential vulnerability of this organic carbon to permafrost thaw under a warming climate. Overall, frozen conditions and cryopedogenic processes, such as cryoturbation, have slowed decomposition and enhanced the sequestration of organic carbon in permafrost-affected soils over millennial timescales. Due to the low temperatures, the organic matter in permafrost soils is often less humified than in more temperate soils, making some portion of this stored organic carbon relatively vulnerable to mineralization upon thawing of permafrost.

show abstract

Section: Intermittent Burial and Syngenetic Permafrostmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permafrost soils and carbon cycling

Ping

Jastrow

Jorgenson

et al. 2015

SOIL

265

188

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite such small-scale variability, the LRD can be classified in three main geomorphological units (Fig. 1), which have distinctly different characteristics regarding their surface and subsurface properties, such as ground ice contents, thermokarst features and vegetation cover (Morgenstern et al, 2013;Fedorova et al, 2015).…”

Section: The Lena River Deltamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The vegetation consists of thick 0.1-0.2 m hummocky grass, sedge and moss cover, and the upper horizon of the soil has a thick organic layer. Holocene permafrost degradation resulted in the current complex thermokarst landscape characterized by thermokarst lakes and drained basins (Morgenstern et al, 2013).…”

Section: The Lena River Deltamentioning

confidence: 99%

Transient modeling of the ground thermal conditions using satellite data in the Lena River delta, Siberia

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Permafrost is a sensitive element of the cryosphere, but operational monitoring of the ground thermal conditions on large spatial scales is still lacking. Here, we demonstrate a remote-sensing-based scheme that is capable of estimating the transient evolution of ground temperatures and active layer thickness by means of the ground thermal model CryoGrid 2. The scheme is applied to an area of approximately 16 000 km 2 in the Lena River delta (LRD) in NE Siberia for a period of 14 years. The forcing data sets at 1 km spatial and weekly temporal resolution are synthesized from satellite products and fields of meteorological variables from the ERA-Interim reanalysis. To assign spatially distributed ground thermal properties, a stratigraphic classification based on geomorphological observations and mapping is constructed, which accounts for the large-scale patterns of sediment types, ground ice and surface properties in the Lena River delta.A comparison of the model forcing to in situ measurements on Samoylov Island in the southern part of the study area yields an acceptable agreement for the purpose of ground thermal modeling, for surface temperature, snow depth, and timing of the onset and termination of the winter snow cover. The model results are compared to observations of ground temperatures and thaw depths at nine sites in the Lena River delta, suggesting that thaw depths are in most cases reproduced to within 0.1 m or less and multi-year averages of ground temperatures within 1-2 • C. Comparison of monthly average temperatures at depths of 2-3 m in five boreholes yielded an RMSE of 1

show abstract

“…They feature open water surfaces and lack emergent vegetation in their centers. The study area is also characterized by thermokarst (thaw) lakes, which are a result of advanced permafrost degradation associated with further thermal erosion processes (Morgenstern et al, 2013). About 50 % of the free water surface on Samoylov Island is attributed to ponds, with the remaining 50 % attributed to lakes, including both thermokarst lakes and oxbow lakes .…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Frozen ponds: production and storage of methane during the Arctic winter in a lowland tundra landscape in northern Siberia, Lena River delta

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Evolution of thermokarst in East Siberian ice-rich permafrost: A case study

Cited by 107 publications

References 38 publications

Permafrost soils and carbon cycling

Permafrost soils and carbon cycling

Transient modeling of the ground thermal conditions using satellite data in the Lena River delta, Siberia

Frozen ponds: production and storage of methane during the Arctic winter in a lowland tundra landscape in northern Siberia, Lena River delta

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About