Remote study of thermokarst lakes in the arctic tundra of the taimyr

The results of remote studies of thermokarst lakes in the Arctic zone of the Taimyr tundra are presented. The research was carried out on the territory of 725 thousand km2. Sentinel-2 satellite images were used in the studies, which made it possible to study the peculiarities of distribution of the number, total area of the lakes and tortuosity of their coastal borders. Histograms of the distribution of the number and total areas of the lakes in an extra wide range of their sizes from 0.2 to 5000 ha are presented. The histogram of lakes size-distribution demonstrates significant growth of their number with decrease in size. Histogram of the distribution of total areas of lakes by intervals of their sizes shows that more than 80 % of total area of lakes are dominated by lakes with sizes from 2 to 1000 ha. The analysis of the histogram of the degree of tortuosity of lakes borders distribution showed that the majority of lakes have the form of the coastal lines, which differs from a circle. The dependence of the degree of tortuosity of lakes borders on the size of lakes was studied and a positive linear trend of its change with the growth of the area of lakes was established.

Methane emissions from northern lakes under climate change: a review

Northern lakes are important sources of CH4 in the atmosphere under the background of permafrost thaw and winter warming. We synthesize studies on thermokarst lakes, including various carbon sources for CH4 emission and the influence of thermokarst drainage on carbon emission, to show the evasion potential of ancient carbon that stored in the permafrost and CH4 emission dynamics along with thermokarst lake evolution. Besides, we discuss the lake CH4 dynamics in seasonally ice-covered lakes, especially for under-ice CH4 accumulation and emission during spring ice melt and the possible influential factors for CH4 emission in ice-melt period. We summarize the latest findings and point out that further research should be conducted to investigate the possibility of abundant ancient carbon emission from thermokarst lakes under climate warming and quantify the contribution of ice-melt CH4 emission from northern lakes on a large scale.

Thermokarst lakes formed in buried glacier ice: Observations from Bylot Island, eastern Canadian Arctic

In formerly glaciated permafrost regions, extensive areas are still underlain by a considerable amount of glacier ice buried by glacigenic sediments. Although the extent and volume of undisturbed relict glacier ice are unknown, these ice bodies are predicted to melt with climate warming but their impact on landscape evolution remains poorly studied. The spatial distribution of buried glacier ice can play a significant role in reshaping periglacial landscapes, in particular thermokarst aquatic systems. This study focuses on lake initiation and development in response to the melting of buried glacier ice on Bylot Island, Nunavut. We studied a lake-rich area using lake-sediment cores, detailed bathymetric data, remotely sensed data and observations of buried glacier ice exposures. Our results suggest that initiation of deeper thermokarst lakes was triggered by the melting of buried glacier ice. They have subsequently enlarged through thermal and mechanical shoreline erosion, as well as vertically through thaw consolidation and subsidence, and they later coalesced with neighbouring water bodies to form larger lakes. Thus, these lakes now evolve as “classic” thermokarst lakes that expand in area and volume as a result of the melting of intrasedimental ground ice in the surrounding material and the underlying glaciofluvial and till material. It is expected that the deepening of thaw bulbs (taliks) and the enlargement of Arctic lakes in response to global warming will reach undisturbed buried glacier ice, if any, which in turn will substantially alter lake bathymetry, geochemistry and greenhouse gas emissions from Arctic lowlands.

Bacterial Communities Present Distinct Co-occurrence Networks in Sediment and Water of the Thermokarst Lakes in the Yellow River Source Area

Thermokarst lakes are a ubiquitous and important landscape feature in cold regions and are changing tremendously due to the accelerated climate change. In thermokarst lakes, sediment and water are two distinct but highly interconnected habitats, harboring different bacterial communities in terms of taxonomic composition. However, the co-occurrence networks of these bacterial communities remain unclear. Here, we investigate the co-occurrence ecological networks of sediment and water bacterial communities for thermokarst lakes in the Yellow River Source Area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results show that the bacterial communities construct distinct co-occurrence networks in sediment and water. The metacommunity network was parsed into four major modules formed by the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) enriched in sediment or water independently, and water-enriched OTUs exhibited much closer interconnections than sediment-enriched OTUs. When considering the sediment and water bacterial networks separately, different topological properties and modular patterns present: the sediment bacterial network was more clustered while the modules less responded to the environmental variables. On the contrary, the water bacterial network was more complex with the OTUs more interconnected and its modules more responded to the environmental variables. Moreover, the results of the structural equation model suggest that, by the influence of environmental variations on individual modules, the water bacterial communities would be more vulnerable under the fact of accelerating climate change. This study provides insights beyond a conventional taxonomic perspective, adding our knowledge of the potential mechanisms structuring bacterial community assembly and improving our prediction of the responses of this fast-changing ecosystem to future climate change.

Three-Dimensional Stefan Equation for Thermokarst Lake and Talik Geometry Characterization

Thermokarst lake dynamics, which plays an essential role in carbon release due to permafrost thaw, is affected by various geomorphological processes. In this study, we derive a three-dimensional (3D) Stefan equation to characterize talik geometry under a hypothetical thermokarst lake in the continuous permafrost region. Using the Euler equation in the calculus of variations, the lower bounds of the talik were determined as an extremum of the functional describing the phase boundary area with a fixed total talik volume. We demonstrate that the semi-ellipsoid geometry of the talik is optimal for minimizing the total permafrost thaw under the lake for a given annual heat supply. The model predicting ellipsoidal talik geometry was verified by talik thickness observations using transient electromagnetic (TEM) soundings in Peatball Lake on the Arctic Coastal Plain (ACP) of Alaska. The lake width-depth ratio of the elliptic talik can characterize the energy flux anisotropy in the permafrost although the lake bathymetry cross section may not be elliptic due to the presence of near-surface ice-rich permafrost. This theory suggests that talik development stabilizes thermokarst lakes by ground subsidence due to permafrost thaw while wind-induced waves and currents are likely responsible for the elongation and orientation of thermokarst lakes in certain regions such as the ACP of northern Alaska.