Spatial analyses of thermokarst lakes and basins in Yedoma landscapes of the Lena Delta

Morgenstern, Anne; Grosse, Guido; Günther, Frank; Fedorova, Irina; Schirrmeister, Lutz

doi:10.5194/tc-5-849-2011

Cited by 135 publications

(129 citation statements)

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“…In this context, of particular note is the areal fraction of yedoma uplands we found on Sobo-Sise Island and the Bykovsky Peninsula of 43 and 51 %, respectively. While this is within the range Morgenstern et al (2011) described for the third terrace of the Lena Delta, on a larger regional level yedoma coverage is generally lower. For example Veremeeva and Glushkova (2016) calculated 16 % of yedoma coverage for the entire Kolyma Lowland.…”

Section: Upscaling Of C and N Poolsmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…These remnants are commonly referred to as the third geomorphological river delta terrace (Schwamborn et al, 2002). According to Morgenstern et al (2011), Sobo-Sise Island accounts for almost 16 % of the entire yedoma coverage in the Lena Delta. It is characterized by yedoma uplands but also features permafrost degradation landforms such as thermokarst lakes, drained thaw lake basin, and thermo-erosional gullies.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Grigoriev (1993) dated a mammoth bone from a yedoma cliff on Sobo-Sise and Grigoriev (2007) investigated the shore erosion on SoboSise's coastline. Morgenstern et al (2011) as well as Nitze and Grosse (2016) included Sobo-Sise in regional remote sensing studies aiming at the quantification of thermokarst lakes and basins and surface landscape changes, respectively.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carbon and nitrogen pools in thermokarst-affected permafrost landscapes in Arctic Siberia

et al. 2018

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Abstract. Ice-rich yedoma-dominated landscapes store considerable amounts of organic carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) and are vulnerable to degradation under climate warming. We investigate the C and N pools in two thermokarst-affected yedoma landscapes -on Sobo-Sise Island and on Bykovsky Peninsula in the north of eastern Siberia. Soil cores up to 3 m depth were collected along geomorphic gradients and analysed for organic C and N contents. A high vertical sampling density in the profiles allowed the calculation of C and N stocks for short soil column intervals and enhanced understanding of within-core parameter variability. Profile-level C and N stocks were scaled to the landscape level based on landform classifications from 5 m resolution, multispectral RapidEye satellite imagery. Mean landscape C and N storage in the first metre of soil for Sobo-Sise Island is estimated to be 20.2 kg C m −2 and 1.8 kg N m −2 and for Bykovsky Peninsula 25.9 kg C m −2 and 2.2 kg N m −2 . Radiocarbon dating demonstrates the Holocene age of thermokarst basin deposits but also suggests the presence of thick Holoceneage cover layers which can reach up to 2 m on top of intact yedoma landforms. Reconstructed sedimentation rates of 0.10-0.57 mm yr −1 suggest sustained mineral soil accumulation across all investigated landforms. Both yedoma and thermokarst landforms are characterized by limited accumulation of organic soil layers (peat).We further estimate that an active layer deepening of about 100 cm will increase organic C availability in a seasonally thawed state in the two study areas by ∼ 5.8 Tg (13.2 kg C m −2 ). Our study demonstrates the importance of increasing the number of C and N storage inventories in icerich yedoma and thermokarst environments in order to account for high variability of permafrost and thermokarst environments in pan-permafrost soil C and N pool estimates.

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Section: Upscaling Of C and N Poolsmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carbon and nitrogen pools in thermokarst-affected permafrost landscapes in Arctic Siberia

et al. 2018

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“…The extrapolation of results from well-studied lakes of the Mackenzie Delta region of Canada [9,[91][92][93][94], the Yakutia alasses and yedoma lakes [20,95,96], to much larger territories of boreal plains such as the WSL peatlands, and North-Siberia and Yana-Indigirka lowlands, remains unwarranted. The lakes of these lowlands may stand apart from other studied lakes of the subarctic, in view of their high peat context, low pH, shallow depth, and very low salt content.…”

Section: Stock Of Doc and Metals In Thermokarst Lakes Of The Wslmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size Distribution, Surface Coverage, Water, Carbon, and Metal Storage of Thermokarst Lakes in the Permafrost Zone of the Western Siberia Lowland

Polishchuk

Bogdanov²,

Polishchuk

et al. 2017

Water

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Despite the importance of thermokarst (thaw) lakes of the subarctic zone in regulating greenhouse gas exchange with the atmosphere and the flux of metal pollutants and micro-nutrients to the ocean, the inventory of lake distribution and stock of solutes for the permafrost-affected zone are not available. We quantified the abundance of thermokarst lakes in the continuous, discontinuous, and sporadic permafrost zones of the western Siberian Lowland (WSL) using Landsat-8 scenes collected over the summers of 2013 and 2014. In a territory of 105 million ha, the total number of lakes >0.5 ha is 727,700, with a total surface area of 5.97 million ha, yielding an average lake coverage of 5.69% of the territory. Small lakes (0.5-1.0 ha) constitute about one third of the total number of lakes in the permafrost-bearing zone of WSL, yet their surface area does not exceed 2.9% of the total area of lakes in WSL. The latitudinal pattern of lake number and surface coverage follows the local topography and dominant landscape zones. The role of thermokarst lakes in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and most trace element storage in the territory of WSL is non-negligible compared to that of rivers. The annual lake storage across the WSL of DOC, Cd, Pb, Cr, and Al constitutes 16%, 34%, 37%, 57%, and 73%, respectively, of their annual delivery by WSL rivers to the Arctic Ocean from the same territory. However, given that the concentrations of DOC and metals in the smallest lakes (<0.5 ha) are much higher than those in the medium and large lakes, the contribution of small lakes to the overall carbon and metal budget may be comparable to, or greater than, their contribution to the water storage. As such, observations at high spatial resolution (<0.5 ha) are needed to constrain the reservoirs and the mobility of carbon and metals in aquatic systems. To upscale the DOC and metal storage in lakes of the whole subarctic, the remote sensing should be coupled with hydrochemical measurements in aquatic systems of boreal plains.

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“…The final mosaic has a spatial resolution of 30 m, encompasses the multispectral Landsat-7 bands 1-5 and 7, and has a horizontal accuracy of about 50 m. The areas of the sand-rich Arga Complex belonging to the 2nd main geomorphic unit in the Lena River Delta, and the Yedoma islands of the 3rd main geomorphic unit were not considered in our study of the Holocene and active delta portions. Therefore, we removed these areas by clipping with a mask based on geographic information system layers provided by Morgenstern et al (2008) and Morgenstern et al (2011), who delineated the extent of the Lena River Delta terraces manually from the same Landsat image mosaic under inclusion of cryostratigraphic and geologic field knowledge. In addition, we masked the sandy barrier islands offshore the western delta and the mountainous mainland areas along the southern delta boundary.…”

Section: Image Data and Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks in soils of the Lena River Delta

et al. 2013

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The Lena River Delta, which is the largest delta in the Arctic, extends over an area of 32 000 km(2) and likely holds more than half of the entire soil organic carbon (SOC) mass stored in the seven major deltas in the northern permafrost regions. The geomorphic units of the Lena River Delta which were formed by true deltaic sedimentation processes are a Holocene river terrace and the active floodplains. Their mean SOC stocks for the upper 1m of soils were estimated at 29 kgm(-2) +/- 10 kgm(-2) and at 14 kgm(-2) +/- 7 kgm(-2), respectively. For the depth of 1 m, the total SOC pool of the Holocene river terrace was estimated at 121 Tg +/- 43 Tg, and the SOC pool of the active floodplains was estimated at 120 Tg +/- 66 Tg. The mass of SOC stored within the observed seasonally thawed active layer was estimated at about 127 Tg assuming an average maximum active layer depth of 50 cm. The SOC mass which is stored in the perennially frozen ground at the increment 50-100 cm soil depth, which is currently excluded from intense biogeochemical exchange with the atmosphere, was estimated at 113 Tg. The mean nitrogen (N) stocks for the upper 1m of soils were estimated at 1.2 kgm(-2) +/- 0.4 kgm(-2) for the Holocene river terrace and at 0.9 kgm(-2) +/- 0.4 kgm(-2) for the active floodplain levels, respectively. For the depth of 1 m, the total N pool of the river terrace was estimated at 4.8 Tg +/- 1.5 Tg, and the total N pool of the floodplains was estimated at 7.7 Tg +/- 3.6 Tg. Considering the projections for deepening of the seasonally thawed active layer up to 120 cm in the Lena River Delta region within the 21st century, these large carbon and nitrogen stocks could become increasingly available for decomposition and mineralization processes

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Spatial analyses of thermokarst lakes and basins in Yedoma landscapes of the Lena Delta

Cited by 135 publications

References 43 publications

Carbon and nitrogen pools in thermokarst-affected permafrost landscapes in Arctic Siberia

Carbon and nitrogen pools in thermokarst-affected permafrost landscapes in Arctic Siberia

Size Distribution, Surface Coverage, Water, Carbon, and Metal Storage of Thermokarst Lakes in the Permafrost Zone of the Western Siberia Lowland

Organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks in soils of the Lena River Delta

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