scholarly journals Retrospective Analysis of Permafrost Landscape Evolution in Yakutia during the Holocene Warm Intervals

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 463
Author(s):  
Alexander N. Fedorov ◽  
Varvara A. Novopriezzhaya ◽  
Nikolay A. Fedorov ◽  
Pavel Y. Konstantinov ◽  
Vera V. Samsonova
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Modeling ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Retrospective Analysis ◽  
Active Layer ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Landscape Evolution ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Study Results

The observed global warming has significant impacts on permafrost. Permafrost changes modify landscapes and cause damage to infrastructure. The main purpose of this study was to estimate permafrost temperatures and active-layer thicknesses during the Holocene intervals with significantly warmer-than-present climates—the Atlantic (5500 years BP), Subboreal (3500 years BP) and Subatlantic (1000 years BP) optimums. Estimates were obtained using the ready-to-use models derived by G.M. Feldman, as well as mathematical modeling taking account of the paleogeography of the Holocene warm intervals. The data obtained were analyzed to reveal the regional patterns of warming impacts on different permafrost landscapes. The study results will be useful in predicting future permafrost changes in response to climate warming.

scholarly journals Observations on Palaeogeographical Evolution of Akrotiri Salt Lake, Lemesos, Cyprus

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 321
Author(s):  
Miltiadis Polidorou ◽  
Niki Evelpidou ◽  
Theodora Tsourou ◽  
Hara Drinia ◽  
Ferréol Salomon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Landscape Evolution ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Active Tectonics ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
Progressive Change ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Holocene Sediment ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City

Akrotiri Salt Lake is located 5 km west of the city of Lemesos in the southernmost part of the island of Cyprus. The evolution of the Akrotiri Salt Lake is of great scientific interest, occurring during the Holocene when eustatic and isostatic movements combined with local active tectonics and climate change developed a unique geomorphological environment. The Salt Lake today is a closed lagoon, which is depicted in Venetian maps as being connected to the sea, provides evidence of the geological setting and landscape evolution of the area. In this study, for the first time, we investigated the development of the Akrotiri Salt Lake through a series of three cores which penetrated the Holocene sediment sequence. Sedimentological and micropaleontological analyses, as well as geochronological studies were performed on the deposited sediments, identifying the complexity of the evolution of the Salt Lake and the progressive change of the area from a maritime space to an open bay and finally to a closed salt lake.

scholarly journals Variations in Lake Levels during the Holocene in North America: An Indicator of Changes in Atmospheric Circulation Patterns

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. P. Harrison ◽  
S. E. Metcalfe
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Data Bank ◽  
Relative Depth ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
Air Mass ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Lake Status

ABSTRACT Fluctuations in the extent of closed lakes provide a detailed record of regional and continental variations in mean annual water budget. The temporal sequence of hydrological fluctuations during the Holocene in North America has been reconstructed using information from the Oxford Lake-Level Data Bank. This data base includes 67 basins from the Americas north of the equator. Maps of lake status, an index of relative depth, are presented for the period 10,000 to 0 yr BP. The early Holocene was characterised by increasingly arid conditions, which led to widespread low lake levels in the mid-latitudes by 9,000 yr BP. By 6,000 yr BP this zone of low lakes extended from 32o to 51oN. Many of the features of the present day lake-level pattern, particularly high lake levels north of 46oN and along the eastern seaboard, were established by 3.000 yr BP. Four distinctive regional patterns of lake behaviour through time are apparent. Histograms of lake status from 20,000 to 0 yr BP are presented for each of these regions. They illustrate the temporal patterns of lake-level fluctuations on a time scale of 103 — 104 yr. Changes in lake status over North America are interpreted as indicating displacements in major features of the general circulation, specifically the zonal Westerlies and the Equatorial Trough, as reflected by changes in air mass trajectories and hence the position of air mass boundaries over the continent.

Evolution of the thermal state of permafrost under climate warming in Central Yakutia

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1401-1410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stepan P Varlamov ◽  
Yuri B Skachkov ◽  
Pavel N Skryabin
Keyword(s):  
Heat Exchange ◽  
Active Layer ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Thermal State ◽  
Thermal Response ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
Exchange Layer ◽  
Central Yakutia

The relevance of the problem under review is explained by the need to study the thermal response of permafrost to the modern climate change. Evolution of the thermal state of grounds has been studied with a view to evaluate the effects of modern climate warming on permafrost in Central Yakutia. The leading method to study this problem is the arrangement and performance of long-term monitoring observations of the permafrost thermal state that enable quantitative evaluation of the thermal response of upper permafrost layers to climatic fluctuations of recent decades. The analysis of long-term records from weather stations in the region has clearly revealed one of the highest increasing trends in the mean annual air temperature in northern Russia. Quantitative relationships in the long-term variability of ground thermal parameters, such as ground temperature at the bottom of the active layer, at the bottom of the annual heat exchange layer, and active thaw depth, have been established. The thermal state dynamics of the annual heat exchange layer under climate warming indicates that both warm and cold permafrost are thermally stable. Short-term variability of the snow accumulation regime is the main factor controlling the thermal state of the ground in permafrost landscapes. The active-layer thickness is characterized by low interannual variability and exhibits little response to climate warming, with no statistically meaningful increasing or decreasing trend. The results of ground thermal monitoring can be extended to similar landscapes in the region, providing a reliable basis for predicting heat transfer in natural landscapes.

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

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 3507-3524 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Zubrzycki ◽  
L. Kutzbach ◽  
G. Grosse ◽  
A. Desyatkin ◽  
E.-M. Pfeiffer
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Active Layer ◽  
River Delta ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
River Terrace ◽  
Total N ◽  
Lena River ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Lena River Delta ◽  
N Pool

Abstract. The Lena River Delta, which is the largest delta in the Arctic, extends over an area of 32 000 km2 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 1 m of soils were estimated at 29 kg m−2 ± 10 kg m−2 and at 14 kg m−2 ± 7 kg m−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 1 m of soils were estimated at 1.2 kg m−2 ± 0.4 kg m−2 for the Holocene river terrace and at 0.9 kg m−2 ± 0.4 kg m−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.

scholarly journals Dry and moist dynamics shape regional patterns of extreme precipitation sensitivity

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (16) ◽  
pp. 8757-8763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji Nie ◽  
Panxi Dai ◽  
Adam H. Sobel
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Extreme Precipitation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Regional Patterns

Responses of extreme precipitation to global warming are of great importance to society and ecosystems. Although observations and climate projections indicate a general intensification of extreme precipitation with warming on global scale, there are significant variations on the regional scale, mainly due to changes in the vertical motion associated with extreme precipitation. Here, we apply quasigeostrophic diagnostics on climate-model simulations to understand the changes in vertical motion, quantifying the roles of dry (large-scale adiabatic flow) and moist (small-scale convection) dynamics in shaping the regional patterns of extreme precipitation sensitivity (EPS). The dry component weakens in the subtropics but strengthens in the middle and high latitudes; the moist component accounts for the positive centers of EPS in the low latitudes and also contributes to the negative centers in the subtropics. A theoretical model depicts a nonlinear relationship between the diabatic heating feedback (α) and precipitable water, indicating high sensitivity of α (thus, EPS) over climatological moist regions. The model also captures the change of α due to competing effects of increases in precipitable water and dry static stability under global warming. Thus, the dry/moist decomposition provides a quantitive and intuitive explanation of the main regional features of EPS.

scholarly journals Methane transport from the active layer to lakes in the Arctic using Toolik Lake, Alaska, as a case study

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (12) ◽  
pp. 3636-3640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adina Paytan ◽  
Alanna L. Lecher ◽  
Natasha Dimova ◽  
Katy J. Sparrow ◽  
Fenix Garcia-Tigreros Kodovska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Active Layer ◽  
Lake Water ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Methane Flux ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Arctic Lakes ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Emission Rates ◽  
Toolik Lake

Methane emissions in the Arctic are important, and may be contributing to global warming. While methane emission rates from Arctic lakes are well documented, methods are needed to quantify the relative contribution of active layer groundwater to the overall lake methane budget. Here we report measurements of natural tracers of soil/groundwater, radon, and radium, along with methane concentration in Toolik Lake, Alaska, to evaluate the role active layer water plays as an exogenous source for lake methane. Average concentrations of methane, radium, and radon were all elevated in the active layer compared with lake water (1.6 × 104 nM, 61.6 dpm⋅m−3, and 4.5 × 105 dpm⋅m−3 compared with 1.3 × 102 nM, 5.7 dpm⋅m−3, and 4.4 × 103 dpm⋅m−3, respectively). Methane transport from the active layer to Toolik Lake based on the geochemical tracer radon (up to 2.9 g⋅m−2⋅y−1) can account for a large fraction of methane emissions from this lake. Strong but spatially and temporally variable correlations between radon activity and methane concentrations (r2 > 0.69) in lake water suggest that the parameters that control methane discharge from the active layer also vary. Warming in the Arctic may expand the active layer and increase the discharge, thereby increasing the methane flux to lakes and from lakes to the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming. More work is needed to quantify and elucidate the processes that control methane fluxes from the active layer to predict how this flux might change in the future and to evaluate the regional and global contribution of active layer water associated methane inputs.

Soil and vegetation feedbacks on climate change in high mountain ranges of the Tibetan Plateau__using near and mid-infrared spectroscopy (FT-NMIRS) in soil properties, phosphorus (P) as example

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuonan Cao ◽  
Peter Kühn ◽  
Thomas Scholten
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
P Fractions ◽  
Mid Infrared ◽  
Warming Rate

<p>The Tibetan Plateau is the third-largest glaciated area of the world and is one of the most sensitive regions due to climate warming, such as fast-melting permafrost, dust blow and overgrazing in recent decades. In the past 50 years, the warming rate on the Tibetan Plateau is higher than the global average warming rate with 0.40 ± 0.05 °C per decade. The climate warming is most distinct in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, implying increasing air and surface temperatures as well as duration and depth of thawing. The main ecological consequences are a disturbed vegetation cover of the surface and a depletion of nutrient-rich topsoils (Baumann et al., 2009, 2014) coupled with an increase of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly CO<sub>2</sub> (Bosch et al., 2017). Due to the extreme environmental conditions resulting from the intense and rapid tectonic uplift, highly adaptive and sensitive ecosystem have developed, and the Plateau is considered to be a key area for the environmental evolution of Earth on regional and global scales, which is particularly sensitive to global warming (Jin et al., 2007; Qiu, 2008). Climate warming and land-use change can reduce soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks as well as soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contents and soil quality. Many species showed their distributions by climate-driven shifts towards higher elevation. In Tibetan Plateau, however, the elevational variations of the alpine grassland are rare (Huang et al., 2018) and it is largely unknown how the grass line will respond to global warming and whether soils play a major role. With this research, the hypothesis is tested that soil quality, given by SOC, N and P stocks and content, is a driving factor for the position and structure of the grass line and that soil quality is one of the major controls of biodiversity and biomass production in high-mountain grassland ecosystems.</p><p>A Fourier transformation near and mid-infrared spectroscopy (FT-NMIRS) should be used to measure soil P fractions rapid and for large numbers of soil samples, and analyze environmental factors, including temperature, precipitation, soil development, soil fertility, and the ability of plants to adapt to the environmental impact of climate using FT-NMIRS.</p><p>We explored first near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in soils from grassland on the Tibetan Plateau, northwestern China and extracted P fractions of 196 samples from Haibei Alpine Meadow Ecosystem Research Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, at four depths increments (0-10 cm 10-20 cm 20-40 cm and 40-70 cm) with different pre-nutrient additions of nitrogen (N) an P. The fractionation data were correlated with the corresponding NIRS soil spectra and showed significant differences for depth increments and fertilizer amendments. The R<sup>2</sup> of NIRS calibrations to predict P in traditional Hedley fractions ranged between 0.12 and 0.90. The model prediction quality was higher for organic than for inorganic P fractions and changed with depth and fertilizer amendment. The results indicate that using NIRS to predict the P fractions can be a promising approach compared with traditional Hedley fractionation for soils in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau.</p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document