May 2012 Permafrost Alert · 12051633 Heil, K. (Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany) and Schmidhalter, U. Characterisation of soil texture variability using the apparent

May 2012 Permafrost Alert

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12052238 DeConto, Robert M. (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Geosciences, Amherst, MA);Galeotti, Simone; Pagani, Mark; Tracy, David; Schaefer, Kevin; Zhang, Tingjun; Pollard, David and Beerling, David J.Past extreme warming events linked to massive carbon release from thawing permafrost: Nature (London),484(7392), p. 87-91, illus. incl. 2 tables, sketch maps, 31 ref., April 5, 2012. Supplemental information/data isavailable in the online version of this article.

DOI: 10.1038/nature10929

12056440 Kabala, C. (University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Institute of Soil Science and EnvironmentalProtection, Wroclaw, Poland) and Zapart, J. Initial soil development and carbon accumulation on moraines ofthe rapidly retreating Werenskiold Glacier, SW Spitsbergen, Svalbard Archipelago: Geoderma, 175-176, p.9-20, illus. incl. 4 tables, sketch map, 61 ref., April 2012.

The rapid retreat of the Werenskiold Glacier (the Svalbard Archipelago, High Arctic) is leading to an extensivebroadening of the proglacial zone covered with recent moraine till on older glacigenic deposits or directly on bedrockschists. To study the type and intensity of initial soil development under a harsh periglacial climate, a chronosequenceof six soils was established between the glacier front and its terminal moraine on 1 to about 80 year-old moraines.Although the surface layer over the entire area of study is frost-active, the patterned features are not well developed.The succession of vegetation, mainly Saxifraga sp. and lichens, starts 5-6 years after deglaciation, successivelycovering up to 30% of the soil surface, then stagnating. Present-day soil-forming processes within the uppermost soillayer comprise initial weathering of primary minerals (chlorites and amphiboles), carbonate dissolution and base cationleaching associated with pH lowering, accumulation of organic matter and nitrogen, and an increase in pedogenically-derived Fe. Soil development measures are time-related and, in general, fit a logarithmic model. The intensity oftransformation, including organic carbon and nitrogen accumulation, started at high rates comparable to those reportedin Low Arctic and Alpine environments; however, in the fourth/fifth decade after deglaciation it reached a quasi steady-state. Low annual precipitation is probably a crucial factor that controls plant succession and leaching of carbonates,

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thus limiting mineral weathering, organic matter accumulation and soil development on the Werenskiold moraines.

DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2012.01.025

12056621 Toutanji, Houssam (University of Alabama in Huntsville, Department of Civil and EnvironmentalEngineering, Huntsville, AL); Goff, Christopher M.; Ethridge, Edwin and Stokes, Eric. Gas permeability and flowcharacterization of simulated lunar regolith: Advances in Space Research, 49(8), p. 1271-1276, illus. incl. 1 table,12 ref., April 15, 2012.

DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2012.02.002

12052221 Wetterich, Sebastian (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Department of PeriglacialResearch, Potsdam, Germany); Grosse, Guido; Schirrmeister, Lutz; Andreev, Andrei A.; Bobrov, Anatoly A.; Kienast,Frank; Bigelow, Nancy H. and Edwards, Mary E. Late Quaternary environmental and landscape dynamicsrevealed by a pingo sequence on the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Quaternary Science Reviews, 39, p.26-44, illus. incl. 2 tables, sketch map, 144 ref., April 16, 2012.

A terrestrial sediment sequence exposed in an eroding pingo provides insights into the late-Quaternary environmentalhistory of the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska. We have obtained the first radiocarbon-dated evidence for amid-Wisconsin thermokarst lake, demonstrating that complex landscape dynamics involving cyclic permafrostaggradation and thermokarst lake formation occurred over stadial-interstadial as well as glacial-interglacial timeperiods. High values of Picea pollen and the presence of Larix pollen in sediments dated to 50-40 ka BP stronglysuggest the presence of forest or woodland early in MIS 3; the trees grew within a vegetation matrix dominated bygrass and sedge, and there is indirect evidence of grazing animals. Thus the interstadial ecosystem was different instructure and composition from the Holocene or from the preceding Last Interglacial period. An early Holocene warmperiod is indicated by renewed thermokarst lake formation and a range of fossil taxa. Multiple extralimital plant taxasuggest mean July temperatures above modern values. The local presence of spruce during the early Holocene warminterval is evident from a radiocarbon-dated spruce macrofossil remain and indicates significant range extension farbeyond the modern tree line. The first direct evidence of spruce in Northwest Alaska during the early Holocene hasimplications for the presence of forest refugia in Central Beringia and previously assumed routes and timing ofpost-glacial forest expansion in Alaska.

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.01.027

12052181 Johnsson, A. (University of Gothenburg, Department of Earth Sciences, Goteborg, Sweden); Reiss, D.;Hauber, E.; Zanetti, M.; Hiesinger, H.; Johansson, L. and Olvmo, M. Periglacial mass-wasting landforms on Marssuggestive of transient liquid water in the recent past; insights from solifluction lobes on Svalbard: Icarus,218(1), p. 489-505, illus. incl. 1 table, sketch map, 126 ref., March 2012.

DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2011.12.021


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12051633 Heil, K. (Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany) and Schmidhalter, U. Characterisation ofsoil texture variability using the apparent soil electrical conductivity at a highly variable site: Computers &Geosciences, 39, p. 98-110, illus. incl. 7 tables, 49 ref., February 2012.

The characterisation of the spatial distribution of clay, silt, and sand/gravel is one of the main objectives of soilsurveys. Researchers as well as producers have an interest in characterising soil texture variability. The objective ofour study was the development of models to derive the clay, silt, and sand/gravel content from the variables apparentelectrical conductivity (ECa), the boundary depth between Quaternary and Tertiary sediments, the terrain parameters,

and the cultivation (organic vs integrated and type of fertiliser). The investigation site made it possible to include awide range of soil types within the geological area under investigation. The apparent electrical conductivity and the soilproperties texture and digital terrain attributes were densely mapped onto approximately 17 ha. Soil sampling wascarried out in a 50´50-m grid. Clay and sand/gravel were most closely related to the ECa, whereas silt showed a

stronger dependency on the boundary depth. R2 values ranged between 0.67 and 0.76 in this hilly landscape. However,some weaknesses of the applied procedure were observed: on layered soils with clay lenses covered with sandy,gravelly material, too much clay, and too little sand/gravel were predicted. In some subareas with distinct differencesat the field boundaries, breaks in the ECa were observed. The latter was likely due to fertilising effects that caused

enhanced ECa levels. In conclusion, the ECa, in combination with the boundary depth between Quaternary and Tertiary

sediments, the elevation, the terrain aspect, and the cultivation parameters represent a useful and robust surveyingtechnique to predict soil texture for the Tertiary hill country in southern Germany.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cageo.2011.06.017

12049946 Stumpp, Christine (University of California at Riverside, Department of Environmental Sciences,Riverside, CA); Stichler, W.; Kandolf, M. and Simunek, J. Effects of land cover and fertilization method on waterflow and solute transport in five lysimeters; a long-term study using stable water isotopes: Vadose ZoneJournal, 11(1), unpaginated, illus. incl. 5 tables, 63 ref., February 2012.

Land cover and agricultural management practices can significantly influence soil structure. However, little is knownabout how fertilizer applications and land cover affect soil hydrology and groundwater recharge over long time periods.The objective of this study was to use stable water isotopes as environmental tracers to provide additional informationrequired for better understanding of water flow and solute transport processes in the unsaturated zone influenced byland cover and type of fertilizer applications. Five lysimeters containing undisturbed soil monoliths from the sameagricultural field site were investigated over a period of 5 yr. Liquid cattle slurry and solid animal manure were appliedto the maize (Zea mays L.) and winter rye (Secale cereale L.) lysimeters. The grass-clover lysimeter was treated withmineral fertilizer. Quantitative influence of land cover and type of fertilizer application on water flow and solutetransport was evaluated for all lysimeters using a modified version of HYDRUS-1D. The highest drainage was observedin the maize lysimeter treated with cattle slurry, and the lowest in the grass lysimeter treated with mineral fertilizer.Pronounced differences in water contents and estimated saturated hydraulic conductivities between the lysimeterswere restricted to the upper 25 to 30 cm of the soil. In particular, the lysimeters treated with animal manure hadhigher porosities, indicating a higher content of organic matter. Main differences in discharge between the lysimeters


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were observed in spring and during the plant growth periods, indicating the importance of nonuniform, patchyinfiltration patterns during snow melt and of root water uptake, respectively. Mean water flow velocities, transit times,and effective water contents were estimated from the stable water isotope data, providing evidence on the impact ofland cover and type of fertilizer application. We found smaller mean transit times in the maize lysimeters and for soilswith liquid cattle slurry applications. Simulations indicate that numerical modeling can reproduce the general trend ofwater flow and isotope transport. Despite differences in mean transit times, fitted dispersivities were all in the samerange, suggesting similar soil structures in the five lysimeters. However, more data for calibration and moreinformation about heterogeneous infiltration would be required to improve the model accuracy. In general, stablewater isotopes clearly contributed an added value, elucidating differences in mean flow parameters between thelysimeters. Thus, they provided evidence of the impacts of land cover and fertilizer applications, which are not obviousfrom water balance and mean discharge rates alone.

DOI: 10.2136/vzj2011.0075

12050066 Henley, David C. (University of Calgary, Department of Geoscience, CREWES, Calgary, AB, Canada).Interferometric application of static corrections: Geophysics, 77(1), p. Q1-Q13, illus., 17 ref., January 1, 2012.

Correcting reflection seismic data for the effects of near-surface irregularities is a persistent problem usually addressedat least partly by static corrections applied to traces. However, there are areas where static corrections are ineffectivebecause basic assumptions are violated. The assumptions which fail most often are surface consistency andstationarity, which are central to the concept of static corrections. To address this failure, I mapped raw seismic tracesinto the radial trace domain and gathered the radial traces by common surface angle. Then I imposed a more generalconstraint, raypath consistency, which simultaneously introduces nonstationarity. Conventional static correction alsoassumes implicitly that reflection events consist of single discrete arrivals. This is not true, however, in regions wherenear-surface multipathing and scattering complicate reflection event waveforms. Borrowing from recent work in seismicinferometry, I removed the single-arrival assumption by using trace crosscorrelations to estimate and deconvolvesurface functions from traces, rather than applying time shifts. The entire crosscorrelation function is used in everycase, so both timing and waveform variations are removed by the deconvolution. The operation is applied in thecommon-angle domain, so it is raypath consistent and nonstationary. The method, dubbed "raypath interferometry",was applied successfully to a set of 2D Arctic field data with serious surface consistency and multipath problems, and toa set of 3C 2D land data with very large S-wave receiver statics. Although intended primarily for use on seismic datafor which conventional statics corrections fail, raypath interferometry can be used on any seismic data; its assumptionsinclude single-arrival events and surface consistency as special cases.

DOI: 10.1190/geo2011-0082.1

12054504 Huggel, Christian (University of Zurich, Departmet of Glaciology, Geomorphodynamics andGeochronology, Zurich, Switzerland); Clague, John J. and Korup, Oliver. Is climate change responsible forchanging landslide activity in high mountains?: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 37(1), p. 77-91, illus.incl. 1 table, 150 ref., January 2012.


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Climate change, manifested by an increase in mean, minimum, and maximum temperatures and by more intenserainstorms, is becoming more evident in many regions. An important consequence of these changes may be anincrease in landslides in high mountains. More research, however, is necessary to detect changes in landslidemagnitude and frequency related to contemporary climate, particularly in alpine regions hosting glaciers, permafrost,and snow. These regions not only are sensitive to changes in both temperature and precipitation, but are also areas inwhich landslides are ubiquitous even under a stable climate. We analyze a series of catastrophic slope failures thatoccurred in the mountains of Europe, the Americas, and the Caucasus since the end of the 1990s. We distinguishbetween rock and ice avalanches, debris flows from de-glaciated areas, and landslides that involve dynamic interactionswith glacial and river processes. Analysis of these events indicates several important controls on slope stability in highmountains, including: the non-linear response of firn and ice to warming; three-dimensional warming of subsurfacebedrock and its relation to site geology; de-glaciation accompanied by exposure of new sediment; and combinedshort-term effects of precipitation and temperature. Based on several case studies, we propose that the followingmechanisms can significantly alter landslide magnitude and frequency, and thus hazard, under warming conditions: (1)positive feedbacks acting on mass movement processes that after an initial climatic stimulus may evolve independentlyof climate change; (2) threshold behavior and tipping points in geomorphic systems; (3) storage of sediment and iceinvolving important lag-time effects. Abstract Copyright (2010), John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/esp.2223

12054318 Haldorsen, Sylvi (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Department of Plants and EnvironmentalScience, As, Norway); Heim, Michael and van der Ploeg, Martine. Impacts of climate change on groundwater inpermafrost areas; case study from Svalbard, Norway: in Climate change effects on groundwater resources; aglobal synthesis of findings and recommendations (Treidel, Holger, editor; et al.), International Association ofHydrogeologists, 27, p. 324-338, illus. incl. sketch map, 82 ref., 2012.

12054488 Moore, Jeffrey R. (ETH Zürich, Department of Earth Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland); Gischig, Valentin;Katterbach, Maren and Loew, Simon. Air circulation in deep fractures and the temperature field of an alpinerock slope: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 36(15), p. 1985-1996, illus. incl. 1 table, sketch map, 26 ref.,December 2011.

The subsurface temperature field of a rock slope is a key variable influencing both bedrock fracturing and slopestability. However, significant unknowns remain relating to the effect of air and water fracture flow, which can rapidlytransmit temperature changes to appreciable depths. In this work, we analyze a unique set of temperaturemeasurements from an alpine rock slope at ~2400 m a.s.l. in southern Switzerland. The monitored area encompassespart of an active slope instability above the village of Randa (VS) and is traversed by a network of open cracks, some ofwhich have been traced to >80 m depth. We first describe distributed temperature measurements and boreholeprofiles, highlighting deep steady temperatures and different transient effects, and then use these data to approximatethe conductive temperature field at the site. In a second step, we analyze the impact of air and water circulation indeep open fractures on the subsurface thermal field. On multiple visits to the study site in winter, we consistentlynoted the presence of warm air vents in the snowpack following the trace of deep tension cracks. Measurementsshowed that venting air changed temperature gradually from ~3 to 2 °C between December and May, which is similar


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to the rock temperature at around 50 m depth. Comparison with ambient air temperature suggests that winterconditions favor buoyancy-driven convective air flow in these fractures, which acts to cool the deep subsurface as therock gives up heat to incoming air. The potential impact of this process on the local thermal field is revealed by adisturbed temperature profile in one borehole and transient signals observed at depths well below the thermal activelayer. Seasonal water infiltration during snowmelt appears to have little impact on the temperature field in themonitored area. Abstract Copyright (2010), John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/esp.2217

12054492 Ridefelt, Hanna (Uppsala University, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala, Sweden);Boelhouwers, Jan and Etzelmuller, Bernd. Local variations of solifluction activity and environment in the AbiskoMountains, northern Sweden: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 36(15), p. 2042-2053, illus. incl. 7 tables,sketch map, 46 ref., December 2011.

Seven sites within the mountain region of Abisko, northern Sweden, were selected for measurement of solifluctionmovement rates and correlation with the local environmental factors. Grids with sizes from 20 m ´ 30 m to 50 m ´ 100

m included both solifluction landforms and adjacent ground. Positions of movement markers and the terrain wererecorded and the grid areas were digitally reconstructed. This allowed topography, vegetation and soil texture (fractionof fine material) surfaces to be interpolated and used together with data on soil moisture in statistical analyses.Significant correlations differ from site to site indicating that environmental factors have varying importance and inter-relations depending on the local setting. Geomorphic work was also assessed within the grids. The results indicatemeasurable geomorphic work where no landforms are present. These areas may make larger contributions to sedimentdisplacement than where solifluction landforms exist. Solifluction is an important denudational agent in the region andhas its greatest impact on landscape development in the western part of the region. Abstract Copyright (2010), JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/esp.2225

12054479 Parsekian, Andrew D. (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Department of Earth andEnvironmental Sciences, Newark, NJ); Jones, Benjamin M.; Jones, Miriam; Grosse, Guido; Walter Anthony, Katey M.and Slater, Lee. Expansion rate and geometry of floating vegetation mats on the margins of thermokarstlakes, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska, USA: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 36(14), p. 1889-1897,illus. incl. sketch map, 57 ref., November 2011.

Investigations on the northern Seward Peninsula in Alaska identified zones of recent (<50 years) permafrost collapsethat led to the formation of floating vegetation mats along thermokarst lake margins. The occurrence of floatingvegetation mat features indicates rapid degradation of near-surface permafrost and lake expansion. This paper reportson the recent expansion of these collapse features and their geometry is determined using geophysical and remotesensing measurements. The vegetation mats were observed to have an average thickness of 0.57 m and petrophysicalmodeling indicated that gas content of 1.5-5% enabled floatation above the lake surface. Furthermore, geophysicalinvestigation provides evidence that the mats form by thaw and subsidence of the underlying permafrost rather than


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terrestrialization. The temperature of the water below a vegetation mat was observed to remain above freezing late inthe winter. Analysis of satellite and aerial imagery indicates that these features have expanded at maximum rates of1-2 m yr-1 over a 56 year period. Including the spatial coverage of floating 'thermokarst mats' increases estimates oflake area by as much as 4% in some lakes. Abstract Copyright (2010), John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/esp.2210

12049164 Waller, Richard (Keele University, Keele, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele, UnitedKingdom); Phillips, Emrys; Murton, Julian; Lee, Jonathan and Whiteman, Colin. Sand intraclasts as evidence ofsubglacial deformation of middle Pleistocene permafrost, north Norfolk, UK: Quaternary Science Reviews,30(23-24), p. 3481-3500, illus. incl. 1 table, sketch map, 73 ref., November 2011.

Sand intraclasts are common within the Bacton Green Till Member, a glacitectonic melange subjected to polyphasedeformation during the Middle Pleistocene in North Norfolk, UK. The intraclasts range from a few tens of centimetres to>10 m in length and have sharp contacts with the surrounding till. Sand within the intraclasts is unconsolidated andcontains well-preserved primary stratification. The wrapping of glacitectonic foliation around the intraclasts and thedevelopment of folds relating to mechanical instabilities indicate that the intraclasts acted as competent masses withina more easily deformable fine-grained till that accommodated the majority of the strain. Sharp contacts and distinctiveheavy-mineral assemblages indicate little intermixing between the sand and till. Five hypotheses about theentrainment and evolution of the intraclasts are tested against sedimentological, structural and mineralogicalobservations. The most reasonable hypothesis attributes the intraclasts to glacitectonic deformation of "warm"permafrost. Initial ice advance caused large-scale thrusting of proglacial permafrost that led to the stacking ofpre-glacial and ice-marginal sediments that were subsequently deformed sub-marginally to generate the intraclasts.Preservation of primary stratification within the intraclasts is attributed to deformation at temperatures slightly belowthe pressure-melting point, when pore ice cemented the intraclasts as rigid bodies. At the same time deformation wasconcentrated into the surrounding finer-grained till because of its significant liquid water content and ductile rheology.It is concluded that the intraclasts provide a criterion to identify past glacier-permafrost interactions and a potentialmeans of differentiating between subglacial deformation under unfrozen and partially-frozen conditions.

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.07.011

12053868 Bauer, Ilka E. (University of Alberta, Department of Biological Sciences, Edmonton, AB, Canada) and Vitt,Dale H. Peatland dynamics in a complex landscape; development of a fen-bog complex in the sporadicdiscontinuous permafrost zone of northern Alberta, Canada: Boreas, 40(4), p. 714-726, illus. incl. strat. cols., 2tables, sketch map, 62 ref., October 2011.

The development of a peatland complex in the Sporadic Discontinuous Permafrost zone of northwestern Alberta,Canada was reconstructed using a series of dated profiles. Peat-forming communities first established c. 10 230 cal. aBP, and by 8000 cal. a BP the site supported monocot fens or marshes in several isolated topographic depressions.Most of the current peatland area initiated between c. 8000 and 4000 cal. a BP, and involved the replacement ofupland habitats by shrubby or treed fen and, in some areas, the establishment of Sphagnum on mineral terrain.


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Ombrotrophic hummock communities had established by c. 7000 cal. a BP, and permafrost was present at 6800 cal. aBP in at least some peat plateau areas. Macrofossil-based reconstructions show considerable local diversity invegetation succession and permafrost dynamics, with cyclic collapse and aggradation in at least one profile and relativestability in others. Lichen-rich peat is rare in deep-peat plateau cores, and where charcoal was recovered, fire effectson vegetation trajectories varied between cores. Organic matter accumulation was high in the early Holocene anddeclined after permafrost formation, with low rates especially over the past 4000 years. The site was burned in awildfire in 1971, and by 1998 permafrost had disappeared from almost all peat plateau areas. In this part of thediscontinuous permafrost zone, peat plateaus are likely to be unsustainable under a warming climate. The hydrologyand carbon dynamics of former plateau areas following large-scale permafrost degradation require furtherinvestigation.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2011.00210.x

12051263 Blinnikov, Mikhail S. (St. Cloud State University, Department of Geography, Saint Clound, MN); Gaglioti,Benjamin V.; Walker, Donald A.; Wooller, Matthew J. and Zazula, Grant D. Pleistocene graminoid-dominatedecosystems in the Arctic: Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(21-22), p. 2906-2929, illus. incl. 5 tables, sketch map,251 ref., October 2011.

We review evidence obtained from analyses of multiple proxies (floristics, mammal remains, paleoinsects, pollen,macrofossils, plant cuticles, phytoliths, stable isotopes, and modeling) that elucidate the composition and character ofthe graminoid-dominated ecosystems of the Pleistocene Arctic. The past thirty years have seen a renewed interest inthis now-extinct biome, sometimes referred to as "tundra-steppe" (steppe-tundra in North American sources). Whilemany questions remain, converging evidence from many new terrestrial records and proxies coupled with betterunderstanding of paleoclimate dynamics point to the predominance of xeric and cold adapted grassland as the keyformer vegetation type in the Arctic confirming earlier conjectures completed in the 1960s-1980s. A variety of stillexisting species of grasses and forbs played key roles in the species assemblages of the time, but their mixtures werenot analogous to the tundras of today. Local mosaics based on topography, proximity to the ice sheets and coasts, soilheterogeneity, animal disturbance, and fire regimes were undoubtedly present. However, inadequate coverage ofterrestrial proxies exist to resolve this spatial heterogeneity. These past ecosystems were maintained by a combinationof dry and cold climate and grazing pressure/disturbance by large (e.g., mammoth and horse) and small (e.g., groundsquirrels) mammals. Some recent studies from Eastern Beringia (Alaska) suggest that more progress will be possiblewhen analyses of many proxies are combined at local scales.

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.07.002

12051270 de Klerk, Pim (Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Greifswald,Germany); Donner, Norman; Karpov, Nikolay S.; Minke, Merten and Joosten, Hans. Short-term dynamics of alow-centred ice-wedge polygon near Chokurdakh (NE Yakutia, NE Siberia) and climate change during thelast ca 1250 years: Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(21-22), p. 3013-3031, illus. incl. sect., 1 table, sketch map, 156ref., October 2011.


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Palaeoecological studies (including analysis of pollen, macrofossils, geochemistry, and AMS radiocarbon dates) of fourpeat sections from one low-centred ice-wedge polygon in NE Yakutia (NE Siberia) allow the three-dimensionalreconstruction of polygon development during the last ca 1250 years. After drainage of a lake, peat forming vegetationinvaded rapidly. Comparison with palaeotemperature data shows that the initial formation of mature ridges coincidedwith a period of high summer temperatures around AD 1400. The ridges persisted and expanded during the subsequentcolder ca 200 years. Partial collapse of various ridges at the end of the 18th century corresponded to a phase with lowsummer temperatures. During the warm, 20th century one collapsed ridge regenerated, whereas another persisted inits collapsed state. Ice-wedge polygons are, thus, complex and highly dynamic ecosystems, in which changes intemperature and precipitation may induce rapid ecological changes by the complex interplay of water, ice andvegetation. Our study indicates that global warming associated with a decrease in summer precipitation may initiallyresult in enhanced polygon ridge formation. The combination of longer summers and increased winter precipitation, aspredicted for high latitudes will, however, eventually result in larger meltwater input in the polygon mires, which maycause the (partial) collapse of polygon ridges and underlying ice-wedges.

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.06.016

12051279 Wetterich, Sebastian (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Department of PeriglacialResearch, Potsdam, Germany); Rudaya, Natalia; Tumskoy, Vladimir; Andreev, Andrei A.; Opel, Thomas; Schirrmeister,Lutz and Meyer, Hanno. Last glacial maximum records in permafrost of the east Siberian Arctic: QuaternaryScience Reviews, 30(21-22), p. 3139-3151, illus. incl. 4 tables, sketch map, 74 ref., October 2011.

Palaeontological proxy data and cryolithological information from Siberian Arctic permafrost preserves records of lateQuaternary climate and environmental conditions in West Beringia and their variability which results from interglacial-glacial and interstadial-stadial dynamics. To date, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) period has been rather poorlyrepresented in East Siberian permafrost records. Here, we present pollen, sediment, and ground-ice stable waterisotope data obtained from coastal exposures on Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island (New Siberian Archipelago, Arctic Ocean)that mirror the coldest conditions during the Sartan period between about 26 and 22 ka BP, using pollen and sedimentdata for summer conditions and stable water isotope data for winter conditions. The pollen record revealed a coldtundra-steppe vegetation with characteristic predominance of grass pollen over sedge pollen while the stable isotopeice-wedges data indicate extremely cold winter temperatures with mean values of d18O of about -37 ppm, dD of about

-290 ppm. Combined with available regional LGM permafrost records that extend from the Taymyr Peninsula in thewest to the Yana River lowland in the east, the new data set from Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island indicate that the regionalappearance of LGM conditions depended on atmospheric circulation patterns that were influenced by the extent of theNorthern Hemisphere glaciation.

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.07.020

12053867 Winterfeld, Maria (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany);Schirrmeister, Lutz; Grigoriev, Mikhail N.; Kunitsky, Viktor V.; Andreev, Andrei; Murray, Andrew and Overduin, PierPaul. Coastal permafrost landscape development since the late Pleistocene in the western Laptev Sea,Siberia: Boreas, 40(4), p. 697-713, illus. incl. strat. cols., 1 table, sketch maps, 73 ref., October 2011.


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The palaeoenvironmental development of the western Laptev Sea is understood primarily from investigations ofexposed cliffs and surface sediment cores from the shelf. In 2005, a core transect was drilled between the TaymyrPeninsula and the Lena Delta, an area that was part of the westernmost region of the non-glaciated Beringianlandmass during the late Quaternary. The transect of five cores, one terrestrial and four marine, taken near CapeMamontov Klyk reached 12 km offshore and 77 m below sea level. A multiproxy approach combined cryolithological,sedimentological, geochronological (14C-AMS, OSL on quartz, IR-OSL on feldspars) and palaeoecological (pollen,diatoms) methods. Our interpretation of the proxies focuses on landscape history and the transition of terrestrial intosubsea permafrost. Marine interglacial deposits overlain by relict terrestrial permafrost within the same offshore corewere encountered in the western Laptev Sea. Moreover, the marine interglacial deposits lay unexpectedly deep at 64m below modern sea level 12 km from the current coastline, while no marine deposits were encountered onshore. Thisimplies that the position of the Eemian coastline presumably was similar to today's. The landscape reconstructionsuggests Eemian coastal lagoons and thermokarst lakes, followed by Early to Middle Weichselian fluvially dominatedterrestrial deposition. During the Late Weichselian, this fluvial landscape was transformed into a poorly drainedaccumulation plain, characterized by widespread and broad ice-wedge polygons. Finally, the shelf plain was flooded bythe sea during the Holocene, resulting in the inundation and degradation of terrestrial permafrost and itstransformation into subsea permafrost.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2011.00203.x

12049323 Bing Hui (Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and AridRegions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Lanzhou, China) and He Ping. Experimentalinvestigations on the influence of cyclical freezing and thawing on physical and mechanical properties ofsaline soil: Environmental Earth Sciences, 64(2), p. 431-436, illus. incl. 2 tables, 12 ref., September 2011.

Uniaxial compressive strength experiments were performed on saline loess different water and salt contents, andmultiple freeze/thaw cycles at room temperature. The experiments revealed changes to the stress-strain curve and thefailure mode of the saline loess. The results indicated that soil strength is intensified or weakened during freezing andthawing due to the injection of sodium sulfate solute. Cyclical freezing and thawing is a process to get a new dynamicequilibrium, and under these experimental conditions, six freeze-thaw cycles are need for loess with sodium sulfate toreach a new dynamic equilibrium. Copyright 2010 Springer-Verlag

DOI: 10.1007/s12665-010-0858-y

12049293 Chen Youliang (University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Department of Civil Engineering,Shanghai, China); Azzam, Rafig; Wang Ming; Xu Shan and Chang Lequn. The uniaxial compressive and tensiletests of frozen saturated clay in Shanghai area: Environmental Earth Sciences, 64(1), p. 29-36, illus. incl. 8tables, 8 ref., September 2011.

The compressive and tensile strengths of frozen clay are important parameters for frozen wall design in artificialfreezing excavation of tunnels and foundation pits. Up to now, nobody has conducted the compressive and tensile test


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of frozen clays in the Shanghai area. In this paper, the unconfined compressive and tensile tests of frozen clayspecimens drilled from the soil horizons 3-5 in the Shanghai area were conducted in Zwick-Z020kN High-lowTemperature Materials Testing Machine and Frozen Soil Triaxial Testing Machine, the corresponding constitutiveequations were suggested; the temperature-unconfined uniaxial compressive strength relation was discussed; thestrain rate-unconfined uniaxial compressive strength and strain rate-uniaxial tensile strength relations were studied.The relation between moisture content, dry density and unconfined uniaxial compressive strength was analyzed, too.In addition, the uniaxial compressive elastic modulus of Shanghai frozen clays and its influence factors were discussed.The research work of the current paper is very helpful for the design and theoretical studies of artificial freezingexcavation in soft soil areas. Copyright 2010 Springer-Verlag

DOI: 10.1007/s12665-010-0813-y

12049313 Ye Weimin (Tongji University, Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering, Shanghai,China); Qi Ziyuan; Chen Bao; Xie Ji; Huang Yu; Lu Yaoru and Cui, Yu-Jun. Mechanism of cultivation soildegradation in rocky desertification areas under dry/wet cycles: Environmental Earth Sciences, 64(1), p.269-276, illus. incl. 5 tables, 35 ref., September 2011.

Karst rocky desertification is a process of land degradation involving serious soil erosion, extensive exposure ofbasement rocks. It leads to drastic decrease in soil productivity and formation of a desert-like landscape. In this regard,changes in climatic conditions are the main origin of the soils degradation. Indeed, soils subjected to successivedry/wet cycling processes caused by climate change develop swelling and shrinkage deformations which can modifytheir water retention properties, thus inducing the degradation of soil-water capacity. The ecological characteristics ofcultivation soils in karst areas, Southwest of China, are extremely easy to be affected by external environmentalfactors due to its shallow bedding and low vegetation coverage. Based on the analysis of the climate (precipitation) ofthis region during the past decades, an experimental study has been conducted on a cultivated soil obtained from thetypical karst area in southwestern China. Firstly, the soil-water properties have been investigated. The measuredsoil-water retention curve shows that the air-entry value of the soil is between 50 and 60 kPa, while the residualsaturation is about 12%. Based on the experimental results, three identifiable stages of de-saturation have beendefined. Secondly, a special apparatus was developed to investigate the volume change behavior of the soil withcontrolled suction cycles. The vapor equilibrium technique was used for the suction control. The obtained results showthat under the effect of dry/wet cycles, (1) the void ratio of the cultivated soil is continuously decreasing, leading to agradual soil compaction. (2) The permeability decreases, giving rise to a deterioration of water transfer ability as wellas a deterioration of soil-water retention capacity. It is then obvious that the long-term dry/wet cycling process causedby the climate change induce a continuously compaction and degradation of the cultivated soil in karst rockydesertification areas. Copyright 2010 Springer-Verlag

DOI: 10.1007/s12665-010-0846-2

12053826 Manz, Lorraine. Frost heave: Geo News, 38(2), p. 18-24, illus., 17 ref., July 2011.

12049274 Cao Wei (Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid


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Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Lanzhou, China); Sheng Yu; Qin, Yinghong; Li Jing and WuJichun. An application of a new method in permafrost environment assessment of Muli mining area inQinghai-Tibet Plateau, China: Environmental Earth Sciences, 63(3), p. 609-616, illus. incl. 3 tables, sketch map, 18ref., June 2011.

The permafrost environment in the Muli mining area, an opencast mining site in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China, isnow undergoing significant degradation because of the ongoing mining activities. The permafrost environment in thismining site had already been evaluated by previous study, in which analytic hierarchy process was applied. Althoughthis method can roughly characterize the permafrost environment of this mining site, it has limitations by being easilyaffected by man-made factors. In view of this limitation, this study attempts to employ a new method, the catastropheprogression method, to estimate the current stage of the permafrost environment in this mining area. The results showthat, by catastrophe progression method, currently the calculated indexes of the permafrost freezing-thawingdisintegration, permafrost thermal stability, permafrost ecological fragility, and the permafrost environment are 0.43(general situation), 0.77 (general situation), 0.71 (bad situation) and 0.83 (general situation), respectively. Thesevalues imply that the permafrost environment has been damaged by anthropologic activities to a certain degree andpotentially may be further degenerated. However, at this degree, a new equilibrium stage of permafrost environmentcould be achieved if the current state of environmental degradation is stabilized and treatments are constructedagainst further damages. Copyright 2010 Springer-Verlag

DOI: 10.1007/s12665-010-0728-7

12055781 Guo Donglin (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Nansen-Zhu InternationalResearch Center, Beijing, China); Yang Meixue and Wang Huijun. Sensible and latent heat flux response todiurnal variation in soil surface temperature and moisture under different freeze/thaw soil conditions in theseasonal frozen soil region of the central Tibetan Plateau: Environmental Earth Sciences, 63(1), p. 97-107, illus.incl. 6 tables, sketch map, 31 ref., May 2011.

The relationship between sensible and latent heat flux and diurnal variation in soil surface temperature and moistureunder four freeze/thaw soil conditions was investigated using observed soil temperature and moisture and simulatedsensible and latent heat flux. The diurnal range of latent heat flux had a similar temporal change pattern as that ofunfrozen soil water at depths of 0-3 cm during the freezing stage. Also, there was a better relationship with the diurnalrange of unfrozen soil water at depths of 3-6 cm during the thawing stage. Diurnal variation in latent heat flux wassignificant and depended mostly on solar radiation during the completely thawed stage. However, while diurnalvariation in solar radiation during the completely frozen stage was significant, for latent heat flux it was quite weakdue to low unfrozen soil water content. Thus, diurnal variation in latent heat flux depended mostly on unfrozen soilwater content during this stage. During the freezing and thawing stages, diurnal variation in latent heat flux was alsosignificant and depended mostly on diurnal variation in unfrozen soil water content. However, the impacts of airtemperature change from solar radiation on latent heat flux could not be ignored. Copyright 2010 Springer-Verlag

DOI: 10.1007/s12665-010-0672-6


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12051145 Melles, Martin (University of Cologne, Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Cologne, Germany); Brigham-Grette, Julie; Minyuk, Pavel; Koeberl, Christian; Andreev, Andrei; Cook, Timothy; Fedorov, Grigory; Gebhardt,Catalina; Haltia-Hovi, Eeva; Kukkonen, Maaret; Nowaczyk, Norbert; Schwamborn, Georg and Wennrich, Volker. TheLake El'gygytgyn Scientific Drilling Project; conquering Arctic challenges through continental drilling:Scientific Drilling, 11, p. 29-40, illus. incl. sects., 1 table, sketch map, 35 ref., March 2011.

DOI: 10.2204/iodp.sd.11.03.2011

12049220 Berrittella, Cinzia (Vrije Universiteit, Department of Hydrology and Geo-Environmental Sciences,Amsterdam, Netherlands) and van Huissteden, J. Uncertainties in modelling CH4 emissions from northern

wetlands in glacial climates; the role of vegetation parameters: Climate of the Past, 7(4), p. 1075-1087, illus.incl. 4 tables, sketch map, 75 ref., 2011. Published in Climate of the Past Discussion: 9 December 2010, URL:http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/2651/2010/cpd-6-2651-2010.html; accessed in Feb., 2012.

Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) interstadials are marked by a sharp increase in the atmospheric methane (CH4)

concentration, as recorded in ice cores. Wetlands are assumed to be the major source of this CH4, although several

other hypotheses have been advanced. Modelling of CH4 emissions is crucial to quantify CH4 sources for past climates.

Vegetation effects are generally highly generalized in modelling past and present-day CH4 fluxes, but should not be

neglected. Plants strongly affect the soil-atmosphere exchange of CH4 and the net primary production of the vegetation

supplies organic matter as substrate for methanogens. For modelling past CH4 fluxes from northern wetlands,

assumptions on vegetation are highly relevant since paleobotanical data indicate large differences in Last Glacial (LG)wetland vegetation composition as compared to modern wetland vegetation. Besides more cold-adapted vegetation,Sphagnum mosses appear to be much less dominant during large parts of the LG than at present, which particularlyaffects CH4 oxidation and transport. To evaluate the effect of vegetation parameters, we used the PEATLAND-VU

wetland CO2/CH4 model to simulate emissions from wetlands in continental Europe during LG and modern climates. We

tested the effect of parameters influencing oxidation during plant transport (fox), vegetation net primary production

(NPP, parameter symbol Pmax), plant transport rate (Vtransp), maximum rooting depth (Zroot) and root exudation rate

(fex). Our model results show that modelled CH4 fluxes are sensitive to fox and Zroot in particular. The effects of Pmax,

Vtransp and fex are of lesser relevance. Interactions with water table modelling are significant for Vtransp. We conducted

experiments with different wetland vegetation types for Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) stadial and interstadialclimates and the present-day climate, by coupling PEATLAND-VU to high resolution climate model simulations forEurope. Experiments assuming dominance of one vegetation type (Sphagnum vs. Carex vs. Shrubs) show that Carex-dominated vegetation can increase CH4 emissions by 50% to 78% over Sphagnum-dominated vegetation depending on

the modelled climate, while for shrubs this increase ranges from 42% to 72%. Consequently, during the LG northernwetlands may have had CH4 emissions similar to their present-day counterparts, despite a colder climate. Changes in

dominant wetland vegetation, therefore, may drive changes in wetland CH4 fluxes, in the past as well as in the future.

URL: http://www.clim-past.net/7/1075/2011/cp-7-1075-2011.pdf


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12049228 Levavasseur, Guillaume (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de L'Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette,France); Vrac, Mathieu; Roche, Didier M.; Paillard, Didier; Martin, A. and Vandenberghe, Jef. Present and LGMpermafrost from climate simulations; contribution of statistical downscaling: Climate of the Past, 7(4), p.1225-1246, illus. incl. 4 tables, sketch maps, 77 ref., 2011. Includes supplement, URL: http://www.clim-past.net/7/1247/2011/cp-7-1247-2011-supplement.zip; published in Climate of the Past Discussion: 25 May 2011, URL:http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/7/1647/2011/cpd-7-1647-2011.html; accessed in Feb., 2012.

We quantify the agreement between permafrost distributions from PMIP2 (Paleoclimate Modeling IntercomparisonProject) climate models and permafrost data. We evaluate the ability of several climate models to represent permafrostand assess the variability between their results. Studying a heterogeneous variable such as permafrost impliesconducting analysis at a smaller spatial scale compared with climate models resolution. Our approach consists ofapplying statistical downscaling methods (SDMs) on large- or regional-scale atmospheric variables provided by climatemodels, leading to local-scale permafrost modelling. Among the SDMs, we first choose a transfer function approachbased on Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) to produce high-resolution climatology of air temperature at the surface.Then we define permafrost distribution over Eurasia by air temperature conditions. In a first validation step on presentclimate (CTRL period), this method shows some limitations with non-systematic improvements in comparison with thelarge-scale fields. So, we develop an alternative method of statistical downscaling based on a Multinomial Logistic GAM(ML-GAM), which directly predicts the occurrence probabilities of local-scale permafrost. The obtained permafrostdistributions appear in a better agreement with CTRL data. In average for the nine PMIP2 models, we measure a globalagreement with CTRL permafrost data that is better when using ML-GAM than when applying the GAM method with airtemperature conditions. In both cases, the provided local information reduces the variability between climate modelsresults. This also confirms that a simple relationship between permafrost and the air temperature only is not alwayssufficient to represent local-scale permafrost. Finally, we apply each method on a very different climate, the LastGlacial Maximum (LGM) time period, in order to quantify the ability of climate models to represent LGM permafrost.The prediction of the SDMs (GAM and ML-GAM) is not significantly in better agreement with LGM permafrost data thanlarge-scale fields. At the LGM, both methods do not reduce the variability between climate models results. We showthat LGM permafrost distribution from climate models strongly depends on large-scale air temperature at the surface.LGM simulations from climate models lead to larger differences with LGM data than in the CTRL period. Thesedifferences reduce the contribution of downscaling.


12055537 Woillez, Marie-Noelle (Institute Pierre Simon Laplace, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et del'Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette, France); Kageyama, Masa; Krinner, Gerhard; de Noblet-Ducoudré, Nathalie; Viovy,Nicolas and Mancip, M. Impact of CO2 and climate on the last glacial maximum vegetation; results from the

ORCHIDEE/IPSL models: Climate of the Past, 7(2), p. 557-577, illus. incl. 3 tables, 49 ref., 2011. Published inClimate of the Past Discussion: 3 January 2011, URL: http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/7/1/2011/cpd-7-1-2011.html;accessed in Nov., 2011.

Vegetation reconstructions from pollen data for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), 21 ky ago, reveal lanscapes radically


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different from the modern ones, with, in particular, a massive regression of forested areas in both hemispheres. Twomain factors have to be taken into account to explain these changes in comparison to today's potential vegetation: agenerally cooler and drier climate and a lower level of atmospheric CO2. In order to assess the relative impact of

climate and atmospheric CO2 changes on the global vegetation, we simulate the potential modern vegetation and the

glacial vegetation with the dynamical global vegetation model ORCHIDEE, driven by outputs from the IPSL_CM4_v1atmosphere-ocean general circulation model, under modern or glacial CO2 levels for photosynthesis. ORCHIDEE

correctly reproduces the broad features of the glacial vegetation. Our modelling results support the view that thephysiological effect of glacial CO2 is a key factor to explain vegetation changes during glacial times. In our simulations,

the low atmospheric CO2 is the only driver of the tropical forests regression, and explains half of the response of

temperate and boreal forests to glacial conditions. Our study shows that the sensitivity to CO2 changes depends on the

background climate over a region, and also depends on the vegetation type, needleleaf trees being much moresensitive than broadleaf trees in our model. This difference of sensitivity leads to a dominance of broadleaf types in theremaining simulated forests, which is not supported by pollen data, but nonetheless suggests a potential impact of CO2

on the glacial vegetation assemblages. It also modifies the competitivity between the trees and makes the amplitude ofthe response to CO2 dependent on the initial vegetation state.


12055533 Zech, Roland (Brown University, Geological Sciences, Providence, RI); Huang, Yongsong; Zech, Michael;Tarozo, Rafael and Zech, Wolfgang. High carbon sequestration in Siberian permafrost loess-paleosols duringglacials: Climate of the Past, 7(2), p. 501-509, illus. incl. strat. col., sketch map, 55 ref., 2011. Includes supplement:URL: http://www.clim-past.net/7/501/2011/cp-7-501-2011-supplement.pdf; published in Climate of the PastDiscussion: 15 October 2010, URL: http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/2199/2010/cpd-6-2199-2010.html; accessed inNov., 2011.

Recent findings show that the amount of organic carbon stored in high-latitude permafrost regions has been greatlyunderestimated. While concerns are rising that thawing permafrost and resultant CO2 and methane emissions are a

positive feedback mechanism at times of anthropogenic global warming, the potential role of permafrost carbondynamics on glacial-interglacial timescales has received little attention. Here we present new results from awell-studied permafrost loess-paleosol sequence in north-east Siberia that almost spans two glacial cycles (~220 ka).We analysed the deuterium/hydrogen isotopic ratios (dD) of alkanes, which serve as proxy for paleo-temperature. Thus

circumventing difficulties to obtain exact age control for such sequences, the results corroborate our previous notionthat more soil organic carbon was sequestered during glacials than during interglacials. This fact highlights the role ofpermafrost in favouring preservation of soil organic matter. Reduced biomass production during glacials may have beenof second-order importance on these timescales. Although future studies are needed to evaluate existing largeestimates of carbon dioxide releases from thawing permafrost during the last termination (>1000 Pg C), we suggestthat permafrost carbon dynamics contributed to the observed glacial-interglacial variation in atmospheric CO2 and need

to be included in carbon cycle and climate models.



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12050597 Reyes, Alberto V. (University of Alberta, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Edmonton, AB,Canada); Froese, Duane G. and Jensen, Britta J. L. Permafrost response to last interglacial warming; fieldevidence from non-glaciated Yukon and Alaska: Quaternary Science Reviews, 29(23-24), p. 3256-3274, illus. incl.sects., strat. cols., 2 tables, sketch map, 114 ref., November 2010.

We present stratigraphic observations from three sites in eastern Beringia - Ch'ijee's Bluff in northern Yukon andnearby exposures on the Old Crow River, the Palisades on the Yukon River in Alaska, and placer mining exposures atThistle Creek in west-central Yukon - which provide insight into the response of permafrost to regional warming duringthe last interglaciation. Chronology is based on the presence of Old Crow tephra, an important regional stratigraphicmarker that dates to late Marine Isotope Stage 6, supplemented by paleoecology and non-finite 14C ages on wood-richorganic silts. Old Crow tephra overlies several relict ice wedges at the Palisades and Thistle Creek, indicating thatpermafrost at these sites did not thaw completely during the last interglaciation. Prominent deposits of last interglacialwood-rich organic silt are present at multiple sites in eastern Beringia, and probably represent accumulations ofreworked forest vegetation due to thaw slumping or deposition into thermokarst ponds or depressions. Consistentstratigraphic relations between these deposits, Old Crow tephra, and ice wedge pseudomorphs at our three study sites,and at least six other sites in eastern Beringia, suggest that thaw of shallow permafrost was widespread during the lastinterglaciation. Limited stratigraphic evidence suggests that thaw was probably on the order of meters, rather than 10sof meters. The ubiquity of shallow permafrost degradation during the last interglaciation suggests that current groundwarming may foreshadow widespread near-surface thaw under even modest future warming scenarios. However, thepersistence of relict pre-last interglacial ice wedges highlights the potential for the regional antiquity of discontinuouspermafrost, and provides compelling field evidence for the long-term resilience of deep permafrost during sustainedperiods of warmer-than-present climate.

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.07.013

12048695 Fischer, Luzia (University of Zurich, Department of Geography, Glaciology, Geomorphodynamics andGeochronology, Zurich, Switzerland); Amann, Florian; Moore, Jeffrey R. and Huggel, Christian. Assessment ofperiglacial slope stability for the 1988 Tschierva rock avalanche (Piz Morteratsch, Switzerland): EngineeringGeology, 116(1-2), p. 32-43, illus., October 27, 2010. Based on Publisher-supplied data.

The Tschierva rock avalanche occurred on October 29, 1988 in the area of the Piz Morteratsch, Switzerland. Releasinga total volume of ~ 300,000 m3, the avalanche ran out over 1 km destroying a hiking trail before stopping on theTschierva Glacier. We analyze the setting of this periglacial slope failure, combining geomechanical and cryosphereinvestigations to identify the primary factors contributing to the rock avalanche. An approach to slope stabilityassessment is presented that copes with existing data limitations in an inaccessible alpine terrain. Results from theanalyses of morphology, geology, glaciation history, permafrost, hydrology, and meteorological data allowedpreliminary inferences to be made regarding the influence of these factors on slope stability. Conceptual kinematic andnumerical slope stability modeling critically analyzed the role of kinematic degrees of freedom, glacier retreat, andwater infiltration from above the detachment zone. Results highlight the strong influence of discontinuity orientationwith respect to the slope face, the role of a fault zone with increased joint density, and long-term progressive


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development of persistent discontinuities induced by glacier retreat and groundwater loading cycles in leading to therock avalanche. The role of permafrost could not be clearly assessed, however observations and analyses indicate thatpermafrost had no dominant influence on the slope failure. Extraordinary precipitation prior to the event is suggestedto have played a role in triggering the rock avalanche, especially in combination with observed superficial ice that couldhave sealed the rock face generating high water pressures. Our results emphasize the importance of analyzing multiplecontributing factors when assessing alpine rock slope failures, with careful consideration of data limitations prevailingin such areas.

DOI: 10.1016/j.enggeo.2010.07.005

12050537 Nordvik, Trond (Geological Survey of Norway, Trondheim, Norway); Blikra, Lars Harald; Nyrnes, Erik andDerron, Marc-Henri. Statistical analysis of seasonal displacements at the Nordnes rockslide, northernNorway: Engineering Geology, 114(3-4), p. 228-237, illus., August 10, 2010. Based on Publisher-supplied data.

The Nordnes rockslide in northern Norway poses a threat to local settlements along the nearby fjord due to itspotential of generating tsunamis. Therefore, a monitoring program was initiated in 2007. Evaluation of the resultingmonitoring data is expected to provide important contributions to the understanding of the sliding mechanisms. Thispaper focuses on statistical analyses of continuous laser and crackmeter measurements at the Nordnes rockslide duringa period of 16 months. Annual linear displacements and seasonal fluctuations were estimated from time series of 3lasers and 10 crackmeters. Results from the analyses show that the north-westernmost part of the area has the largestmovement of more than 5 cm per year, which makes this part the most critical in terms of generation of a rapidrockslide. The amplitudes of the seasonal fluctuations estimated from crackmeter time series were approximately 0.5mm. The largest displacements clearly occur in autumn and early winter with a stagnation or retreat phase in springand summer. Thus, the movements are not increased during snowmelt which is a normal seasonal characteristicelsewhere. Although the temperature changes have a significant effect on the observed displacements, the seasonalvariations could not fully be modelled with temperature terms in the regression models suggesting that there are otheradditional controlling factors. The rockslide is localized in arctic and periglacial conditions, and the documentedseasonal variations are interpreted to be linked to effects of deformations caused by seasonal frost and permafrost.Prediction intervals for future displacements were also derived from the current time series. These prediction intervalsare considered useful for the evaluation of future measurements and may serve as basis for defining alert thresholdsfor possible future early warning systems.

DOI: 10.1016/j.enggeo.2010.04.019

12050533 Sun Binxiang (Shaoxing University, Department of Civil Engineering, Shaoxing Zhejiang, China); YangLijun; Liu Qi and Xu Xu. Numerical modelling for crushed rock layer thickness of highway embankments inpermafrost regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: Engineering Geology, 114(3-4), p. 181-190, illus., August 10,2010. Based on Publisher-supplied data.

Under the warm and ice-rich nature of permafrost and the scenarios of climate warming on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,it will be necessary to employ new techniques of cooling the ground temperature in the construction of the proposed


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Qinghai-Tibet Express Highway. Research indicates that including of a coarsely crushed rock layer may produceenhanced cooling of the embankment and underlying foundation soils, due to natural convection during winter months.As compared with a railway embankment, a highway embankment has a much wider driving surface which consists ofasphalt and cement-stabilized sand-gravel layers above the crushed rock layer, thus resulting in increasing of yearlymean surface temperatures and decreasing of temperature differences between the lower and upper boundaries of thecrushed rock layer during winter months. For this type of the highway embankment, successful application of naturalconvection cooling concept to the crushed rock embankment of the proposed Qinghai-Tibet Express Highway still hasmany problems, such as thickness of the crushed rock layer filled in the embankment to trigger winter-time naturalconvection. Development of winter-time natural convection in the crushed rock highway embankment was studied bythe numerical simulations. The results indicate that natural convection in the highway embankment begins to occur inthe side slope regions and gradually develops from two side slope regions to the middle portion with lowering of yearlyharmonic surface temperatures. The dependence of the natural convection index on thickness of the crushed rock layerin the highway embankment exhibits three regions, i.e., with increasing of the crushed rock layer thickness, a zeroregion in which there is no obvious development of winter-time natural convection, a rapid-increase region in whichthere is a significant increase in the cooling capability of winter-time natural convection and a no-appreciable-increaseregion in which there is no appreciable increase in the cooling capability of natural convection. Crushed rock layerthicknesses in the highway embankment, corresponding to the initial point and end point of the rapid-increase region,are defined as minimum and maximum thicknesses of the crushed rock layer, which would trigger winter-time naturalconvection. The choice of the temperature difference across the crushed rock layer is a key in applying the naturalconvection index successfully to evaluating critical thicknesses of the crushed rock layer in the highway embankment.Evaluation of crushed rock layer thicknesses, with various grain sizes, was also performed.

DOI: 10.1016/j.enggeo.2010.04.014

12050667 Desilets, Darin (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM); Zreda, Marek and Ferre, Ty P. A.Nature's neutron probe; land surface hydrology at an elusive scale with cosmic rays: Water ResourcesResearch, 46(11), Citation W11505, illus., 22 ref., 2010. Includes appendices.

Fast neutrons are generated naturally at the land surface by energetic cosmic rays. These "background" neutronsrespond strongly to the presence of water at or near the land surface and represent a hitherto elusive intermediatespatial scale of observation that is ideal for land surface studies and modeling. Soil moisture, snow, and biomass eachhave a distinct influence on the spectrum, height profile, and directional intensity of neutron fluxes above the ground,suggesting that different sources of water at the land surface can be distinguished with neutron data alone.Measurements can be taken at fixed sites for long-term monitoring or in a moving vehicle for mapping over largeareas. We anticipate applications in many previously problematic contexts, including saline environments, wetlands andpeat bogs, rocky soils, the active layer of permafrost, and water and snow intercepted by vegetation, as well ascalibration and validation of data from spaceborne sensors.

DOI: 10.1029/2009WR008726

12055241 Vonk, J. E. (Stockholm University, Department of Applied Environmental Science, Stockhom, Sweden);


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Sánchez-García, L.; Semiletov, I.; Dudarev, O.; Eglinton, T.; Andersson, A. and Gustafsson, Orjan. Molecular andradiocarbon constraints on sources and degradation of terrestrial organic carbon along the Kolymapaleoriver transect, East Siberian Sea: Biogeosciences, 7(10), p. 3153-3166, illus. incl. 3 tables, sketch maps, 79ref., 2010. Part of special issue no. 76, Land-shelf-basin interactions of the Siberian Arctic, edited by Gustafsson, O, etal., URL: http://www.biogeosciences.net/special_issue76.html; includes supplement, URL:http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/3153/2010/bg-7-3153-2010-supplement.pdf; published in Biogeosciences Discussion:2 July 2010, URL: http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/7/5191/2010/bgd-7-5191-2010.html; accessed in Dec.,2011.

Climate warming in northeastern Siberia may induce thaw-mobilization of the organic carbon (OC) now held inpermafrost. This study investigated the composition of terrestrial OC exported to Arctic coastal waters to both obtain anatural integration of terrestrial permafrost OC release and to further understand the fate of released carbon in theextensive Siberian Shelf Seas. Application of a variety of elemental, molecular and isotopic (d13C and D14C) analyses of

both surface water suspended particulate matter and underlying surface sediments along a 500 km transect fromKolyma River mouth to the mid-shelf of the East Siberian Sea yielded information on the sources, degradation statusand transport processes of thaw-mobilized soil OC. A three end-member dual-carbon-isotopic mixing model was appliedto deduce the relative contributions from riverine, coastal erosion and marine sources. The mixing model was solvednumerically using Monte Carlo simulations to obtain a fair representation of the uncertainties of both end-membercomposition and the end results. Riverine OC contributions to sediment OC decrease with increasing distance offshore(35±15 to 13±9%), whereas coastal erosion OC exhibits a constantly high contribution (51±11 to 60±12%) andmarine OC increases offshore (9±7 to 36±10%). We attribute the remarkably strong imprint of OC from coastalerosion, extending up to ~500 km from the coast, to efficient offshoreward transport in these shallow waterspresumably through both the benthic boundary layer and ice-rafting. There are also indications of simultaneousselective preservation of erosion OC compared to riverine OC. Molecular degradation proxies and radiocarbon contentsindicated a degraded but young (D14C ca. -60 per mil or ca. 500 14C years) terrestrial OC pool in surface water

particulate matter, underlain by a less degraded but old (D14C ca. -500 per mil or ca. 5500 14C years) terrestrial OC

pool in bottom sediments. We suggest that the terrestrial OC fraction in surface water particulate matter is mainlyderived from surface soil and recent vegetation fluvially released as buoyant organic-rich aggregates (e.g., humics),which are subjected to extensive processing during coastal transport. In contrast, terrestrial OC in the underlyingsediments is postulated to originate predominantly from erosion of mineral-rich Pleistocene coasts (i.e., yedoma) andinland mineral soils. Sorptive association of this organic matter with mineral particles protects the OC fromremineralization and also promotes rapid settling (ballasting) of the OC. Our findings corroborate recent studies byindicating that different Arctic surface soil OC pools exhibit distinguishing susceptibilities to degradation in coastalwaters. Consequently, the general postulation of a positive feedback to global warming from degradation of permafrostcarbon may be both attenuated (by reburial of one portion) and geographically displaced (degradation of releasedterrestrial permafrost OC far out over the Arctic shelf seas).

URL: http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/3153/2010/bg-7-3153-2010.pdf

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THESIS REFERENCES

12052215 O'Donnell, Jonathan A. The effects of permafrost degradation on soil carbon dynamics in Alaska'sboreal region: 214 p., Doctoral, 2010, University of Alaska at Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. ISBN: 978-1-124-56145-5Available from: Univ. Microfilms.

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CONFERENCE REFERENCES

12056371 Allard, Michel (University Laval, Centre d'Etudes Nordiques, Quebec, QC, Canada); Fortier, Richard;Calmels, Fabrice; Gagnon, O. and L'Hérault, Emmanuel. Ground ice conditions in Salluit, northern Quebec[abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C54A-02, December2011. Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

Salluit in Northern Quebec (ca. 1300 inhabitants) faces difficult ground ice conditions for its development. The villageis located in a U-shaped valley, along a fjord that was deglaciated around 8000 cal BP. The post-glacial marine limit isat the current elevation of 150 m ASL. Among the mapped surficial geology units, three contain particularly ice-richpermafrost: marine clays, till and silty colluviums. A diamond drill was used to extract 10 permafrost cores down to 23m deep. In addition, 18 shallow cores (to 5 m deep) were extracted with a portable drill. All the frozen cores wereshipped to Quebec city where ground ice contents were measured and cryostructures were imaged by CT-Scanning.Water contents, grain-size and pore water salinity were measured. Refraction seismic profiles were run to measure thedepth to bedrock. GPR and electrical resistivity surveys helped to map ice-rich areas. Three cone penetration tests(CPT) were run in the frozen clays to depths ranging from 8 to 21 m. Maximum clay thickness is ca. 50 m deep nearthe shoreline. The cone penetration tests and all the cores in clays revealed large amounts of both segregated andaggradational ice (volumetric contents up to 93% over thicknesses of one meter) to depths varying between 2.5 and 4m, below which the ice content decreases and the salinity increases (values measured up to 42 gr/L between 4.5 and 6m deep). Chunks of organic matter buried below the actual active layer base indicate past cryoturbations under asomewhat warmer climate, most probably associated with intense frost boil action, as widely observed today. The stonytill has developed large quantities of segregation ice which can be seen in larger concentrations and as thicker lensesunder boulders and in matrix rich (>&eq;50% sand and silt) parts of the glacial sediment. As digging for a sewagepond was undertaken in winter 2008 by blasting, the clast-influenced cryostructure of the till could be observed in cutsand in large chunks of permafrost. Volumetric ice contents between 30 and 70% were measured in the till. In addition,


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low lying areas where till thickness exceeds ca 5 m contain polygons with ice wedges up to 2 m wide. Colluviums onslopes laid by sheet flow have been accumulating on two sectors of the study area, the source material being erodedclay at higher elevations; these slope sediments contain alternating layers of buried organics (C-14 date of 2300 BP atbase of the sequence), silt and lenses of aggradational ice. Although the surface geophysical methods (electricalresistivity, GPR) were essential for mapping ice rich permafrost, the detailed appraisal of ground ice conditions wasmade truly possible by drilling and extracting intact cores. The use of the Cat-scan method proved very efficient for theprecise and rapid measurement of ground ice contents and for imaging cryostructures on a large number of samples,thus providing exact information on permafrost composition and for interpreting permafrost history. The Salluit studyalso involves climate monitoring, thermal analysis and modeling, and intense community consultations.

URL: http://www.agu.org/cgi-bin/SFgate/SFgate?language=English&verbose=0&listenv=tabl ...

12056377 Bennett, K. E. (University of Alaska Fairbanks, International Arctic Research Center, Fairbanks, AK);Hinzman, L. D.; Cherry, J. E.; Walsh, J. E.; Hiemstra, Christopher A.; Balk, Ben C. and Lindsey, Scott. Hydro-climatology of a discontinuous permafrost watershed in interior Alaska [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting,American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C54A-08, December 2011. Meeting: American GeophysicalUnion 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

Hydrologic modeling in the northern interior region of Alaska is particularly challenging owing to the properties of thediscontinuous permafrost underlying watersheds and the complex interaction between topography, permafrost,vegetation, and hydro-climate. Notwithstanding the difficulty in modeling frozen soil moisture interactions indiscontinuous permafrost basins and simulating the inputs of moisture into the soil profile via snow melt; hydro-climatologic data sets in the high latitudes are often short, discontinuous, and require rigorous validation to ensuredata quality prior to their use in forcing models. This work presents results from the first phase of a broader modelingproject in the Chena River basin, a 6500 km2 watershed located in interior Alaska near the town of Fairbanks. Thisbasin has been the stage of several costly and damaging flood events that led to development of flood controlstructures by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The focus of the initial examination is on the relationships betweenbasin aspect, permafrost, vegetation and climate (temperature, precipitation and snow pack) observed in historicalrecords and satellite imagery. The goal of the work is to improve permafrost processing and snow cover observationswithin the River Forecast Center's hydrologic modeling framework (CHPS; SAC-SMA and SNOW17). The improvedmodels will eventually be used to investigate changes in historical and future patterns of extreme hydro-climateevents. North and south facing aspects are a distinct control on snow melt in this watershed, which is related to theregional hydro-climate via physiographic and vegetation controls. Identifying these relationships in the historical recordprovides important context for modeling future changes as projected by regional climate models, as future temperatureand precipitation regimes and possible threshold responses in permafrost could shift these relationships and result inchanges in extremes. These findings and the exploration intended for the broader project are anticipated to be valuablefor both engineers and forecasters who are interested in extreme hydro-climate impacts in this region of the north.


12056366 Endrizzi, Stefano (University of Zurich, Department of Glaciology and Geomorphodynamics, Zurich,


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Switzerland). The GEOtop model as a tool to describe the strongly coupled energy and water balance inpermafrost or seasonally-frozen soils [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting, American Geophysical Union FallMeeting, 2011, Abstract C53G-04, December 2011. Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9,2011, San Francisco, CA.

GEOtop is a small scale grid-based model that couples the soil heat and water budgets, represents the energyexchange with the atmosphere considering the radiative and turbulent fluxes, and describes the subsurface water flowin its fully three-dimensional nature. In particular, the model reproduces the strong coupling between water andenergy balance during soil freezing and thawing processes, considering the highly non-linear heat capacity effectresulting from phase change. In addition, it describes the water and energy budgets in the snow cover, representsblowing snow, and models the temporal evolution of the snow depth and, therefore, its effect on soil temperature.Infiltration in frozen soil and runoff are also represented. Vegetation effects are considered, in particular as regardssnow interception, trapping, and the interactions with turbulent and radiative heat exchange. GEOtop is therefore avery useful tool in several applications that involve permafrost and seasonally-frozen soils, both in high altitude andlatitude regions. In particular, GEOtop allows evaluating the effects of water lateral transport in the freezing/thawingprocess, effects that are often neglected, but may be significant. Applications are shown for i) a typical peat-coveredarctic environment, where the position of the frost table controls the runoff production rate, due to the strong decreaseof the soil hydraulic conductivity with depth; and ii) an alpine site, where borehole data are used to test the model andthe effect of the upslope drainage distance is studied.


12056364 Frampton, Andrew (Stockholm University, Physical Geography & Quaternary Geology, Stockholm,Sweden); Painter, S.; Lyon, Steve W.; Sjoberg, Ylva and Destouni, Georgia. Transient modeling of permafrostdynamics in a changing climate [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011,Abstract C53G-02, illus., December 2011. Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011,San Francisco, CA.

Analysis of permafrost dynamics is conducted with a recently developed numerical model which is capable of handling athree-phase, two-component flow system coupled to heat transport. This approach enables a thorough physically-baseddescription of permafrost flow dynamics. It can further utilize classical water-retention curves for unsaturated mediaunder non-freezing conditions, which have been complied for many soil types and are readily available in the literatureHere we consider simulation configurations representing small-scale subsurface domains with various soil texturesrelevant for high-latitude arctic and subarctic discontinuous permafrost environments. These are evaluated in terms ofhow they exhibit control on the formation and development of permafrost, together with dynamics of water flow andtransients in groundwater discharge, subject to both seasonal temperature variability and warming climate scenarios.Previous results have indicated a reduction in temporal variability of groundwater flow for a moderate temperaturetrend over a long time period of warming. Recent results indicate similar behavior also for larger rates-of-change, i.e.,faster temperature increases over shorter time periods. This implies that greater warming trends yield relatively fastchanges in annual flow variability, which may serve as early indicators for permafrost degradation rather than solelyrelying on long-term changes in mean flows. This is advantageous to performing multiple direct in-situ--and oftencostly--local measurements of permafrost degradation, since detection of changes in hydrological signals is easier to


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establish, and hydrological time series exist for relatively long time periods and encompass integrated catchment scalebehavior.


12056370 French, H. Cryostratigraphy, paleocryostratigraphy and previously frozen ground [abstr.]: in AGU2011 fall meeting, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C54A-01, December 2011. Meeting:American Geophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

Cryostratigraphy differs from traditional stratigraphy by explicitly recognizing that perennially frozen sediment androck (permafrost) contain structures that are different to those found in unfrozen sediment and rock. These differencesare usually related to either the nature of the ice contained within the frozen sediment or to weathering processes andchemical precipitates that are associated with freezing and thawing. Paleocryostratigraphy attempts to infer theprevious freezing history of currently-frozen sediment and rock. In areas where frozen ground no longer exists, as inthe mid-latitudes today, Pleistocene periglacial reconstruction employs a variety of cryostratigraphic andpaleocryostratigraphic principles.


12056374 Gilichinsky, D. (Russian Academy of Sciences, Soil Cryology Laboratory, Pushchino, Russian Federation).Terrestrial permafrost models of Martian habitats and inhabitants [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting, AmericanGeophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C54A-05, December 2011. Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

The terrestrial permafrost is the only rich depository of viable ancient microorganisms on Earth, and can be used as abridge to possible Martian life forms and shallow subsurface habitats where the probability of finding life is highest.Since there is a place for water, the requisite condition for life, the analogous models are more or less realistic. If lifeever existed on Mars, traces might have been preserved and could be found at depth within permafrost. The age of theterrestrial isolates corresponds to the longevity of the frozen state of the embedding strata, with the oldest knowndating back to the late Pliocene in Arctic and late Miocene in Antarctica. Permafrost on Earth and Mars vary in age,from a few million years on Earth to a few billion years on Mars. Such a difference in time scale would have asignificant impact on the possibility of preserving life on Mars, which is why the longevity of life forms preserved withinterrestrial permafrost can only be an approximate model for Mars. 1. A number of studies indicate that the Antarcticcryosphere began to develop on the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, after the isolation of the continent. Permafrostdegradation is only possible if mean annual ground temperature, -28°C now, rise above freezing, i.e., a significantwarming to above 25°C is required. There is no evidence of such sharp temperature increase, which indicates that theclimate and geological history was favorable to persistence of pre-Pliocene permafrost. These oldest relics (~30 Myr)are possibly to be found at high hypsometric levels of ice-free areas (Dry Valleys and nearby mountains). It is desirableto test the layers for the presence of viable cells. The limiting age, if one exists, within this ancient permafrost, wherethe viable organisms were no longer present, could be established as the limit for life preservation below 0°C. Positiveresults will extend the known temporal limits of life in permafrost. 2. Even in this case, the age of Martian permafrost


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is still 100 times older. Only one terrestrial environment is close to Mars in age - volcanoes in permafrost areas. Theage of volcanic deposits frozen after eruption is much younger than the age of surrounding permafrost. Culture- andculture-independent methods show the presence of viable thermophiles and their genes within pyroclastic frozenmaterial on Deception Island, Antarctica and Kamchatka peninsula. These bacteria and archeae have not been found inpermafrost outside the volcanic areas. The only way for thermophiles to get into frozen soil is through depositionduring eruption, i.e. the catastrophic geological events transport microbes from the depths to the surface and theysurvive at subzero temperatures. The past activity of Martian volcanoes periodically burned through the frozen strataand products of eruptions rose from the depths to the surface and froze. Images taken by the Stereo Camera on boardthe Mars Express discovered volcanoes 2-15 Myr old that date back to ages close to permafrost on Earth. Terrestrialcommunities might serve as a model of inhabitants for these young volcanoes. 3. The only opportunity for free wateron Mars is the overcooled water brines, and halo/psychrophilc community of Arctic cryopegs, sandwiched withinpermafrost, represents a plausible prototype for Martian microbial life.


12056372 Hauber, Ernst (German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Department of Planetary Geology, Berlin, Germany);Ulrich, Mathias; Reiss, Dennis; Hiesinger, H.; Balme, Matt R. and Gallagher, Colman J. Towards climatereconstruction on Mars using landscape analysis; insights from terrestrial analogues [abstr.]: in AGU 2011fall meeting, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C54A-03, December 2011. Meeting: AmericanGeophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

Many very young landforms on Mars resemble terrestrial glacial and periglacial surface features in permafrost regionsand show a latitude-dependent geographic distribution. They include surface mantling, viscous flow features,polygonally fractured ground, patterned ground, fractured mounds, and gullies. Collectively, these landforms arehypothesized to represent the geomorphological surface record of Martian ice ages that were triggered by astronomicalforcing and associated climate changes. Many previous studies of possible cold-climate features on Mars considered justone of them in isolation, e.g., polygons or fractured mounds. Such approaches do not consider the geomorphologiccontext of the landforms, and thus interpretations can be ambiguous due to the possible effect of equifinality. A morecomprehensive investigation of the full assemblage of associated landforms (landscape analysis) has the potential toreduce this ambiguity. We use the permafrost landscape of Spitsbergen (Svalbard, Norway) as an analogue for theassemblage of cold-climate landforms that is typically found in mid-latitudes on Mars. Although relatively warm andwet as compared to other cold-climate analogues on Earth, Spitsbergen is a particularly instructive morphologicalanalogue to Mars as it offers many surface features in a close spatial context that are strikingly similar to those onMars. Based on this comparison, which uses remote sensing and field data from Svalbard, we identify similarities aswell as differences, both of which are important in the use of analogues as a means to establish testable hypotheses.We then propose possible scenarios which may help to understand the evolution of Martian landforms into their presentstate. Of particular interest with respect to the habitability of Martian permafrost is whether liquid water was involvedor not. Most phenomena on Mars, but not Svalbard, can plausibly be explained by "dry" permafrost scenarios withoutthe need to invoke freeze/thaw. Examples of such processes are the slow creep of ice-debris mixtures in permafrost,such as rock glaciers or debris-covered glaciers, or the aggradation and degradation of niveo-aeolian deposits. Otherlandforms could be explained with and without the availability of liquid water. Examples are thermal contractionpolygons, which could form as ice-wedge polygons indicating thaw and liquid water, or, alternatively, as sublimation


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polygons. Former glaciers could have either been warm-based or cold-based, and therefore do not provide constraintson the history of liquid water. Some landforms such as gullies, however, seem to definitely require at least transientliquid water sometimes in the last ~10 Ma. We conclude that liquid water is unlikely to have a significant effect in thelast few million years, but could have been more important before ~5 Ma.


12056376 Henkemans, Emily (University of Waterloo, Department of Earth Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada); Frape,Shaun; Ruskeeniemi, Timo; Claesson-Liljedahl, Lillemor; Lehtinen, Anne and Annable, W. K. Hydrogeochemistry ofgroundwater as part of the Greenland analogue project in an area of continuous permafrost adjacent to theGreenland ice sheet, Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting, American GeophysicalUnion Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C54A-07, December 2011. Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011 fall meeting,Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

Studying groundwater in areas of continuous permafrost is often limited to studies of springs and open pingos (e.g.Pollard et al. 1999 and Allen et al. 1976). Boreholes in such locations are expensive, risky and logistically challenging(e.g. Stotler et al. 2011) resulting in a limited understanding of the interaction between continental scale ice sheetsand groundwater. Continental ice sheet models are often coupled to groundwater flow systems; however, there is alack of modern field data with which to compare the results of models and their treatment of groundwater flow systemsunder the influence of glaciation. The Greenland Analogue Project (GAP) aims to eliminate some of the uncertainties inmodeling ice sheets by using the Greenland ice sheet as a modern analogue for past glaciations. Since 2009, 3boreholes have been drilled, 2 of which contain sampling systems. DH-GAP01 is a 191 m deep borehole drilled at anangle into a talik and has been sampled and studied since 2009. DH-GAP04 is a 632 m deep, angled borehole thatintersects the groundwater flow system directly beneath Isunguata Sermia and is producing preliminary groundwatersamples. Additional information on groundwater in the Kangerlussuaq area comes from a spring located directly infront of the Leverett ice lobe. Geochemical and isotopic (d18O, d2H, d37Cl, 87Sr/86Sr, and d34S and d18O of SO4)

tools are used to interpret geochemical processes acting on groundwaters and provide insight into groundwater flow.Analyses of d18O and d2H in groundwaters from DH-GAP01 show the borehole waters fall along the Global Meteoric

Water Line (GMWL). Evaporation is an important process affecting the d18O-d2H of surface waters in the region

causing lakes to plot along a local evaporation line (Leng and Anderson, 2003). The waters from the Leverett springplot to the right of the GMWL as possibly a mixture of groundwater and surface evaporated fluids. However, both thewaters from DH-GAP01 and the Leverett spring show depletion relative to surface waters and precipitation in theregion. DH-GAP01 and the Leverett spring differ from each other both in chemical and isotopic composition. Thisreveals a difference in geochemical processes that may be related to the presence of what is likely more than 100 m ofglacial sediment beneath the Leverett Spring. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio of DH-GAP01 waters (0.7075) is similar to that ofwaters extracted from crush and leach experiments, ranging from 0.7061 to 0.7135, performed on sections of drill corefrom DH-GAP01 and a second borehole located 6 km away and supports water-rock interaction as the source of salinityin these dilute (<900 mS/cm) groundwaters. The strontium ratio in the Leverett spring waters falls within the range

described by surface waters in the area. Surface waters found closest to the ice sheet are strongly radiogenic (up to0.7574) compared to less radiogenic signatures (0.7298) further from the ice margin which may reflect more matureweathering profiles in areas further from the ice.


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12056378 Jin, D. (Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, South Korea); Kim, Seong and Lee, H. Research activityand infrastructure of Korea Polar Research Institute; current and future perspectives [abstr.]: in AGU 2011fall meeting, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C54B-01, December 2011. Meeting: AmericanGeophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

The Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) opened the Antarctic King Sejong research station in 1988 at the KingGeorge Island off the Antarctic Peninsula and started the polar research mainly in the fields of biology and geology withsome atmosphere observations. To extend the view of polar research, the KOPRI opened the Arctic Dasan researchstation at Ny-Alesund, Spitsbergen Island in 2002 and has studied the rapid climate change diagnostics and somemicrobiological observation. The KOPRI is now expanding the Arctic research into Alaska and Canada under theinternational collaboration, and planning to outreach to Russia to monitor the change in permafrost and to understandits impact on global warming. To deepen the views of polar research including the ice covered oceans in both poles, theice-breaking vessel, the ARAON of about 7000 ton, was launched recently and successfully finished the Arctic andAntarctic cruises for research activity on all perspectives of ocean sciences and support for the King Sejong station. TheKOPRI is now building another Antarctic research station, called Jangbogo, at the Terra Nova Bay off the Ross Sea andplan to open the station at the March of 2014. By building the second Antarctic station together with the ARAON, theKOPRI will focus its research on understanding the rapid climate change in west Antarctica such as to monitor thecalving of the Larsen Ice shelf, rapid melting of Pine Island Glacier, and upper atmosphere, to study the sea ice andecosystem change in the Amundsen Sea and the role of the southern annular mode in the west Antarctic warming,upper atmosphere and climate change, to reconstruct paleoclimate records from ice and sediment cores.


12056368 Lawrence, D. M. (National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO); Swenson, S. C.; Slater, A. G.and Lee, Hanna. Advances in modeling interactions between thermal, hydrologic, and ecosystem states inpermafrost-affected zones in the community land model [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting, AmericanGeophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C53G-06, December 2011. Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

Thermal, hydrologic, and ecosystem processes are intricately coupled in permafrost-affected environments and arechallenging processes to model. We describe a set of improvements to the Community Land Model (CLM), the landmodel used in the Community Earth System Model, that expand the model's capability to represent cold regionhydrological processes and which resolve several critical biases in the model's high latitude ecosystem simulation. Theimprovements include changes to the parameterization of vertical soil water flow into and through icy/frozen soils, arepresentation of the active layer water table position, the introduction of a surface water storage pool that permits aprognostic simulation of wetland distribution, and the introduction of a simple river flooding model. Together, theseimprovements result in a substantial improvement of the hydrologic, thermal, and ecosystem simulation in permafrost-affected zones, yielding more realistic active layer soil moisture levels which supports more realistic vegetation growth,improved river discharge hydrographs of the Arctic rivers. Prognostic wetland distribution enables a more direct and


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integrated coupling with a methane emissions model that has recently been developed for CLM. We assess the impactof the more realistic hydrologic simulation on simulations of soil thermal (e.g., active layer thickness and deep groundtemperature) and vegetation states. Additionally, we examine how the improved hydrology alters projected permafrostdegradation rates.


12056369 Lebedeva, Lyudmila (Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation) andSemenova, O. Long-term data of the Kolyma water-balance station; results of upscaling the processcomprehension to basins with limited observations [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting, American GeophysicalUnion Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C53G-07, December 2011. Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011 fallmeeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

Most basins in permafrost environment possess very limited information available and are indeed a challenge forhydrological modelling. Long-term datasets of detailed process observations are essential for processes comprehension,model conceptualization and parameters assessment, validation of developed approaches. The Kolyma water balancestation (KWBS) may be considered as the world oldest research watershed in permafrost environment beingestablished in 1948. It is located in the North-Eastern Russia within the upstreams of the Kolyma River. The stationwas intended for long-term collection of observations and investigation of runoff, variable states, water balancecomponents, etc. Such, within a territory of 22 km2 about 30 precipitation, 7 runoff gauges, and more than 20cryopedometers had been operating at the KWBS with records from 3 to 25 years. Active layer depth varies widelyfrom 0.5 to 2 m depending on a landscape and location on the slope. The previous studies have proved that thisresearch watershed is representative for a large territory of the Russian North-East covered by permafrost. The goal ofthis continuous study is the analysis of the KWBS observational dataset in terms of assessment, development andvalidation of hydrological concepts and estimation of hydrological model parameters. The Hydrograph, which is adistributed process-based runoff formation model developed in Russia, is applied. The model describes all essentialcomponents of land hydrological cycle specific for permafrost environment including snow processes, soil moisture/heatdynamics and phase change processes in thawing and frozen soils. It has been successfully tested in various geographicregions, including temperate and tropical climates but most extensively in snow-dominated basins of Eastern Siberiaand Northwestern Canada. Two major types of active layer depth formation were derived. The deepest one, up to the1.6 m, forms at the rock debris landscape. Minimum depth of thawing (0.6 m) is observed in swamped forest. Maximumsimulated thawing depth during summer period is coincident with the observed values at both landscapes whilesimulated process of soil freezing is delayed in comparison with the observed data. Maximum within-year deviation ofcalculated runoff from observed values occurs during snowmelt. Simulated and observed hydrographs agree reasonablywell for the period of late summer and autumn. To validate the developed model and test estimated values of themodel parameters the upscaling was conducted from the research watershed to larger scales. Runoff formationprocesses were simulated for four basins in the upstreams of Upper Kolyma River with area of several thousandssquare kilometers. The results of the Hydrograph model algorithm advancement based on the KWBS data and itsapplication at large-scale basins would be presented including simulations of soil active depths at different landscapesand runoff.



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12056363 Lyon, Steve W. (Stockholm University, Physical Geography & Quaternar, Stockholm, Sweden); Sjoberg,Ylva; Jantze, Elin J. and Destouni, Georgia. Estimating permafrost changes via storage-discharge dynamics[abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C53G-01, December2011. Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

Permafrost influences the hydrologic response of a catchment. As such, it makes sense to use hydrologic changes atthe catchment-scale to estimate changes in permafrost condition and distribution. This talk highlights recentadvancements on relating catchment-scale storage-discharge dynamics to long-term permafrost changes. Results areconsidered from across a variety of settings spanning arctic to alpine permafrost environments. The strength of thisapproach is that it requires only observations of streamflow to reflect changes on much larger measurement supportscales than the local scales of direct permafrost observations. In addition, by relying on a hydrologic process functionchange, rather than an absolute flow change, detection of permafrost changes are made independently of absolutestreamflow changes that integrate various subsystems and thus may mask different subsystem flow changes within acatchment. This provides information that forms a basis for development of physically-based models capable ofrepresenting groundwater-permafrost interactions and biogeochemical fluxes under climatic changes.


12056365 Quinton, W. L. (Wilfrid Laurier University, Cold Regions Research Centre, Waterloo, ON, Canada) andHayashi, M. Runoff from wetland-dominated terrains with thawing permafrost [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fallmeeting, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C53G-03, December 2011. Meeting: AmericanGeophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

This study was conducted in the wetland-dominated, southern margin of continental permafrost at Scotty Creek, NWT,Canada over the period 2001-2010 to improve the understanding and model-representation of the key water flow andstorage processes that control the hydrological response of catchments in the region. This study contributes toresolving some of the difficult challenges in understanding and modelling the storage and routing functions ofwetlands-dominated basins underlain by discontinuous permafrost that typify the southern boundary of permafrost,and provides insights into how the wide-spread permafrost thaw in this environment may alter stream flows.Permafrost thaw is one of the most important and dramatic manifestations of climate warming in Canada, and has thepotential to alter the volume and timing of runoff to downstream ecosystems. While permafrost thaw occurs in varyingdegrees throughout the North, the discontinuous permafrost zone of the subarctic is where the most dramatic thaw andresulting landscape transformations are currently observed. Forecasted dramatic changes in temperature and moistureare expected to affect the processes governing the flux and storage of water in this region where little is known aboutthe interactions between thawing permafrost and hydrology. A major challenge to northern water resourcesmanagement in the 21st century therefore lies in predicting stream flows dynamically in the context of widely-occurring permafrost thaw. This study draws on 10-years of field observation at Scotty Creek, NWT to explain: 1) aconceptual model of the hydrological interactions among the major terrain types of wetland-dominated discontinuouspermafrost that typify the southern margin of permafrost; 2) soil thaw and re-freezing processes that control runoffgeneration from permafrost plateaus; 3) the importance of vertical and horizontal heat flows in thawing permafrost;


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and 4) how thaw-induced land-cover changes can alter basin runoff production in this region. Annual and seasonalrunoff from a thawing permafrost plateau is simulated using the Cold Regions Hydrological Model and computed fromthe water balance for the period 2001-2010.


12056373 Stoker, Carol (NASA, Ames Research Center, Space Science Division, Moffett Field, CA). Permafrost as ahabitable environment on Mars; insights from the Phoenix Mars Mission [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting,American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract C54A-04, December 2011. Meeting: American GeophysicalUnion 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

The Phoenix mission landed in the northern plains of Mars (68.2°N, 234.3°E) in May 2009, at a location with groundice within 10 cm of the surface (1). A mission objective was to determine whether conditions at the surface or nearsubsurface could supporting living organisms with capabilities similar to terrestrial microbes, either at present or in therecent past (2). The lander carried a robotic arm with digging scoop to collect soil and icy material and performedvolatile mineral and organic analysis (3) and wet chemical analysis (4). Results from Phoenix along with theoreticalmodeling and other previous mission results can be used to evaluate the habitability of the landing site (2). Factorsthat characterize the environments' ability to support life as we know it are the presence of liquid water, the presenceof an energy source to support metabolism, the presence of nutrients containing the fundamental building blocks oflife, and the absence of environmental conditions that are toxic to or preclude life. Phoenix observational evidence forthe presence of liquid water (past or present) includes clean segregated ice (1), chemical etching of soil grains (2),calcite minerals in the soil (3), and variable concentrations of soluble salts (5). The present maximum surfacetemperature measured is 260K (6) so unfrozen water can form only in adsorbed films or saline brines but warmerclimates occur cyclically on geologically short time scales due to variations in orbital parameters. During the mostclement periods, temperatures allowing metabolism extend nearly a meter into the subsurface (7). Energy to drivemetabolism is available from sunlight, beneath semi-transparent soil grains that can provide shielding from UVradiation. Phoenix also discovered perchlorate (4), a chemical energy source utilized by a wide range of microbes,occurs in high soil concentrations. Biologically available C, H, N, O, P and S compounds are supplied by knownatmospheric sources or global dust. Environmental conditions are within growth tolerance for terrestrial microbes.Summer daytime temperatures are sufficient for metabolic activity, the pH is 7.8 and is well buffered (4), and theprojected water activity of a wet soil will allow growth. In summary, martian permafrost in the north polar region is aviable location for modern life. Future missions to search for modern life on Mars could target permafrost on Mars.


12056367 Ulrich, Mathias (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany);Schirrmeister, Lutz and Hauber, Ernst. Permafrost landform studies on Earth; implications for periglaciallandscape evolution and habitability on Mars [abstr.]: in AGU 2011 fall meeting, American Geophysical Union FallMeeting, 2011, Abstract C53G-05, December 2011. Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9,2011, San Francisco, CA.


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Periglacial landforms on Earth reflect cold-climate conditions in connection with permafrost (i.e. ground-ice-related)dynamics. Many geomorphological features, which are interpreted to be periglacial landforms, are in particulardistributed in Martian mid-latitudes. In this study we modeled geological and geomorphological evolution of Martianperiglacial landscapes using terrestrial analogous environments as reference, and it aimed at reconstructing processesand environmental conditions responsible for their formation. Therefore, spatial analyses of periglacial key regions onEarth and Mars using high-resolution remote-sensing data were supported by detailed terrestrial field investigations inNE Siberia (Russia) and on Svalbard (Norway). Morphometric analyses, modeling of process-controlling factors, andmultivariate statistics were conducted with focus on specific periglacial relief features, i.e. depressions formed bypermafrost degradation and polygonal patterned ground. Based on our findings, the potential of permafrostenvironments on Mars to be habitable are discussed in particular for Utopia Planitia in the Martian northernhemisphere. In this context, the influence of liquid water in periglacial landscape evolution on Mars during its recentgeological history is of special importance as liquid water is the major requirement for the existence, evolution, andpreservation of any kind of life. The insights obtained from terrestrial analogue studies are summarized to discuss pastand present subsurface and climate conditions in relation to periglacial landscape evolution on Mars. Specific climateperiods are identified for the most recent Martian history (<10 million years), which meet the requirements of distinctorbital configurations (high obliquity (>35°), high eccentricity (>0.1), and northern summer at perihelion) duringwhich thaw processes and liquid water could have had an influence on periglacial landscape evolution in Martianmid-latitudes. Liquid water involved in the evolution of permafrost landforms in Utopia Planitia might have allowed thedevelopment of habitable micro-climatic niches, which are strongly related to specific permafrost landform morphology.


12056306 Ziolkowski, L. A. (McMaster University, Origins Institute, Hamilton, ON, Canada); Mykytczuk, Nadia C.;Whyte, Lyle and Slater, G. F. Contemporary microbes in hypersaline springs that contain fossil carbon [abstr.]:in AGU 2011 fall meeting, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2011, Abstract B54B-07, December 2011.Meeting: American Geophysical Union 2011 fall meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA.

On Axel Heiberg Island, near 80°N in the Canadian Arctic, perennial hypersaline springs provide a unique environmentfor cold-active microbes. The neutral pH Gypsum Hill springs originate in a gypsum diaper and flow through 600 m ofcontinuous permafrost before reaching the surface at ~6°C, 7.5% NaCl, low dissolved inorganic carbon and rich in bothsulfate and sulfide (Pollard et al., 2009). In the first part of the year, when ambient temperatures dip as low as -40°C,filamentous streamers are abundant under the snow covered run-off channels. These microbial assemblages are notpresent during the summer, when the snow cover has melted. Culture- and molecular-based analyses of the 16S rRNAgene indicated that the streamers are dominated by a chemolithoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing Thiomicrospira speciesand under in situ conditions the streamers oxidized sulfide and thiosulfate and also fixed CO2 (Perreault et al., 2008).

We characterized the isotopic composition (13C and 14C) of the microbial community biomarkers as phospholipid fattyacid (PLFA) and glycolipid fatty acid (GLFA) methyl esters. These components represent the cell membranes of theviable microbial community, which are quickly hydrolyzed after cell death and provide insight into the carbon cycling ofthe organisms. Even though isotopic measurements of the bulk biomass indicate carbon and nitrogen limitation withinthe system, the streamers are rich in biomass with greater than 109 cells/g. While the PLFA and GLFA profiles weresimilar, indicating a predominantly gram-negative bacteria community, the 13C composition of these two lipid types wasdifferent. The PLFA d13C indicated a dominant autotrophic signal, while the d13C of the GLFA had a more heterotrophic


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signal. While the streamers grow yearly, their 14C age based on the lipid results was 6400 years, indicating utilizationof a carbon source that is 14C depleted. We hypothesize that these microbes are using 14C depleted dissolved inorganiccarbon carried by the groundwater. This is a unique system where the C utilized by a surface microbial community is infact not from the atmosphere. These results indicate that communities in extreme environments may be usinggeologically derived substrates.


12053774 Douglas, T. A. (U. S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Fort Wainwright, AK);Jacobson, A. D.; McClelland, J. W.; Barker, A. J.; Khosh, M. S. and Lehn, G. O. Permafrost active layer dynamicsinferred from major element geochemical signatures in six Arctic Alaskan rivers [abstr.]: in Goldschmidt 2011abstract volume, Mineralogical Magazine, 75(3), p. 777, June 2011. WWW. Meeting: Goldschmidt2011, Aug. 8-14,2011, Prague, Czech Republic.

Arctic climate warming is expected to degrade permafrost and affect watershed hydrogeology and biogeochemistry.Increasing temperatures could lead to the downward migration of the seasonally thawed (active) layer into previouslyfrozen soil. This could create a unique weathering signal in surface waters during late summer and early fall when theactive layer is at its deepest extent. The response of permafrost to climate warming may not lead to a simple,homogeneous increase in active layer depths. Ice lenses, peat layers, and heterogeneous soil ice (water) contents willrespond differently to warming. Our study was initiated to determine whether geochemical tracers can provide a proxyfor these active layer dynamics in Arctic watersheds. We collected up to 65 surface water samples from six ArcticAlaskan rivers from melt to freeze-up in 2009 and 2010. Watershed areas range from 1.6 to 610 km2. Two rivers wereunderlain by organic rich permafrost, two rivers drained mountainous bedrock, and two rivers were underlain by bothbedrock and organic rich permafrost. We measured the major ion geochemistry of the water samples. For most of therivers, Na, Ca, Mg, and SO4 concentrations are lower during melt runoff and steadily increase throughout the summer

into the fall. Potassium values are greatest in early melt waters and then decrease through the summer into the fall.Nitrate concentrations increase steadily in the late fall in bedrock dominated streams, suggesting a decrease in Nassimilation rates in the bedrock soils during late summer and fall. Our results suggest river chemistry is driven by flowpaths that deepen from surface to mineral soils as the melt season progresses.

URL: http://minmag.geoscienceworld.org/content/75/3/712.full.pdf+html

12055667 Ford, Derek (McMaster University, School of Geography and Earth Sciences, Hamilton, ON, Canada).From the plains of Abraham to Dodo Canyon; remarkable dolomite karst in permafrost in the MackenzieMountains, Northwest Territories, Canada [abstr.]: in 21st British Cave Research Association Cave sciencesymposium, Cave and Karst Science, 37(1), p. 25, 2010. Meeting: 21st British Cave Research Association Cave sciencesymposium, March 6, 2010, Bristol, United Kingdom.

12052899 Oliva, Marc (University of Lisbon, Institute of Geography, Lisbon, Portugal). Climate variability andperiglacial processes during the mid-late Holocene in Sierra Nevada (southern Iberian Peninsula) [abstr.]: inEuropean Geosciences Union general assembly 2010, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 12, EGU2010-2561, 2010.


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Meeting: European Geosciences Union general assembly 2010, May 2-7, 2010, Vienna, Austria.

12054450 Teodoro, L. F. A. (NASA, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA); Elphic, R. C.; Sigler, M. and Eke, V. R.Realistic models of ice distribution on the lunar sub-surface [abstr.]: in Annual meeting of the Lunar ExplorationAnalysis Group (Shearer, Charles K., convener; et al.), LPI Contribution, Rep. No. 1595, p. 69, illus., 5 ref., 2010.Meeting: Annual meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, Sept. 14-16, 2010, Washington, DC. Accessed onApril 27, 2012.

URL: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/leag2010/pdf/3080.pdf

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REPORT REFERENCES

12051482 Hill, P. R. and Mate, D. J., compilers. Five municipal case studies on adapting to climate changefor professional planners--Cinq études de cas sur les moyens d'adaptation au changement climatique àl'intention des urbanistes: Open-File Report - Geological Survey of Canada, Rep. No. 6180, 190 p., (English,French), illus., 2011. WWW. Accessed on May 16, 2012.

From 2002 to 2006, the Earth Sciences Sector of Natural Resources Canada implemented a program entitled "ReducingCanada's Vulnerability to Climate Change". Within this program, one project, "Municipal Case Studies: the planningprocess and climate change" aimed to generate scientific knowledge on a sample of the major climate change impactsfacing Canadian communities. One of the desired outcomes of this project was that professional planners would usegeoscientific information in planning for climate change. The case studies were selected to address issues such as waterresource depletion, coastal erosion due to higher sea levels, and permafrost melting. In order to make the results ofthe case studies accessible to the planning community, City Spaces Consulting Ltd., a planning consulting firm based inVictoria, British Columbia, was contracted to produce summary reports of the five case studies and draw out theplanning implications of the results. This Open File presents these summary reports in both official languages. Wewould like to acknowledge the contributions of the numerous scientific collaborators and community participants inthese studies that are listed in the individual reports. Natural Resources Canada scientists led two of the case studies(Calgary: Steve Grasby; Delta: Phil Hill). The other three were led by the University of Victoria (Graham Island: IanWalker), Universite Laval (Salluit: Michel Allard) and Environment Canada (New Brunswick coast: Real Daigle) withNRCan scientist participation.

URL: http://geopub.nrcan.gc.ca/moreinfo_e.php?id=289255


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12051596 Leblanc, A. M.; Allard, M.; Carbonneau, A. S.; Oldenborger, G. A.; L'Hérault, E.; Sladen, W. E.;Gosselin, P. and Mate, D. Assessing permafrost conditions and landscape hazards in support of climatechange adaptation in Pangnirtung, Nunavut: Open-File Report - Geological Survey of Canada, Rep. No. 6868, 65p., illus., 40 ref., 2011. WWW. Accessed on May 16, 2012.


12051602 Short, S.; Stevens, C. W. and Wolfe, S. A. Seasonal surface displacement derived from InSAR,Yellowknife and surrounding area, Northwest Territories: Open-File Report - Geological Survey of Canada, Rep.No. 7030, 11 p., tables; physiographic map, 1:15,000, 1 ref., 2011. compact disc, WWW. Accessed on May 16, 2012.

Seasonal surface displacement was mapped by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and the Geological Survey ofCanada for Yellowknife and the surrounding area using satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR).RADARSAT-2 ultra-fine scenes acquired on May 21, July 8, August 1, August 25 and September 18, 2010, wereinterferometrically stacked and the total amount of summer vertical displacement was calculated. This open filepresents the relative surface displacement in both map and digital ArcGIS form. The calculated values are portrayed interms of relative displacement that has been classified as stable, low and medium downward displacement and upwarddisplacement. At some locations a significant change in surface characteristics results in a loss of interferometriccoherence and no values were calculated. Surface displacement may be from natural and human-induced processes.This dataset provides spatial context for the variability and relative magnitude of seasonal surface displacement withinthe Yellowknife area.


12051196 Smith, I. R. The seismic shothole drillers' log database and GIS for Northwest Territories andnorthern Yukon; an archive of near-surface lithostratigraphic surficial and bedrock geology data: Open-FileReport - Geological Survey of Canada, Rep. No. 6833, 1 disc, illus. incl. tables, 2011. DVD, WWW. Accessed on May 16,2012.

The seismic shothole drillers' log database provides baseline, near-surface (3-90 m; average 18.6 m) lithostratigraphicgeoscience information on surficial, bedrock, hydro-, and permafrost geology. The revised and updated version 3database contains 343,989 individual augered, or air-rotary drilled seismic shothole drillers' log records collected from1952 to present. Originally published in 2007 as Open File 5465 (75,783 records) then updated in 2010 as Open File6049 (275,871 records), the present database represents the sum total of all available archival holdings from Industry.Compiled in a Microsoft Access database, and graphically rendered in a GIS, the shothole data span the length andbreadth of the Mackenzie corridor, Mackenzie Delta, and adjoining petroleum exploration regions of continentalNorthwest Territories and northern Yukon. The data, and numerous derivative thematic GIS and models stemmingfrom this publication, provide an unparalleled and unique source of information that will benefit a wide variety of users(e.g., aboriginal organizations, communities, government, industry, land and water boards, regulators, and scientists),and applications (e.g., environmental assessments, infrastructure development, land use planning, resource


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management, and seismic exploration).

URL: http://geoscan.ess.nrcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/starfinder/0?path=geoscan.fl&id=fastlink& ...

12051599 Stevens, C. W.; Palmer, M.; Wolfe, S. A.; Kokelj, S. and Smith, S. L. Permafrost and environmentalconditions at stream crossing sites in the northern Mackenzie Corridor, Northwest Territories: Open-FileReport - Geological Survey of Canada, Rep. No. 6976, 65 p., illus. incl. tables, 16 ref., 2011. compact disc, WWW(Northwest Territories Geoscience Office, NWT Open Report 2011-12). Accessed on May 16, 2012.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) and the Geological Survey of Canada establishedground temperature monitoring sites at three stream crossings along the northern Mackenzie Corridor in order toexamine the impact of local environmental conditions on permafrost. Ground temperatures were measured betweenAugust of 2009 and August of 2010 at hilltop, north and south facing slopes and valley bottom sites. Water and groundtemperatures beneath the stream were also measured to provide information on the thermal influence of tundrastreams on permafrost. Surface layer measurements consisting of vegetation height, active layer thaw depth and snowdepth were acquired along cross valley transects. In addition, ground penetrating radar surveys were conducted todetermine winter stream conditions at each site. This dataset improves the characterization of permafrost andenvironmental conditions at stream crossing sites where significant geotechnical challenges exist and provides usefulbaseline information necessary for the planning, design and regulation of infrastructure along the potentialdevelopment corridor.


12051603 Wolfe, S. A.; Duchesne, C.; Gaanderse, A.; Houben, A. J.; D'Onofrio, R. E.; Kokelj, S. V. andStevens, C. W. Report on 2010-11 permafrost investigations in the Yellowknife area, Northwest Territories:Open-File Report - Geological Survey of Canada, Rep. No. 6983, 75 p., illus. incl. tables, 2011. compact disc, WWW(Northwest Territories Geoscience Office, NWT Open File 2011-009). Accessed on May 16, 2012.

This open file reports on recent geoscience data collected and monitoring sites installed by the Geological Survey ofCanada (GSC) in collaboration with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC), NorthwestTerritories Geoscience Office (NTGO), Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) Environment and NaturalResources (ENR) and the Department of Transport (DOT), BGC Engineering Inc., Carleton University, and theUniversity of Ottawa. The report represents the first of several co-published GSC/NTGO Open File reports under theClimate Change Geoscience Program. A 2010-11 field program under the Transportation Risk in the Arctic to ClimaticSensitivity (TRACS) activity in the Climate Change Geoscience Program included extensive fieldwork in the Yellowknifearea between June and September, 2010. Field data collection by the Geological Survey of Canada and CarletonUniversity included 14 CRREL-cored boreholes and ecological descriptions at 48 sites. An additional 20 ecological sitedescriptions were made by University of Ottawa students. Collaborative work with BGC Engineering Inc. included fieldobservations and soil analysis (grain size and Atterberg limits) at test pits along Highway 3, and 15 water-jet drilledholes for subsequent temperature cable installations. Numerous temperature measurement sites were also establishedwith AANDC along a 170 km transect between Behchoko and Tibbitt Lake including six air temperature sites, six multi-


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channel near-surface temperature sites and seven water temperature sites. In March 2011, additional field data werecollected including snow depths at 45 sites, densities at 18 sites, and ice thicknesses at eight pond sites. Snow depthtransect surveys were also conducted at 11 sites along Highway 3, across the highway embankments and right-of-ways. These data were collected in order to provide baseline information regarding the nature and properties ofpermafrost in the Yellowknife area.


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MAP REFERENCES

12051479 Bednarski, J. M., compiler. Surficial geology, Kwokullie Lake, British Columbia: Open-File Report -Geological Survey of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, AB, Canada, Rep. No. 6562, 1 disc or 1 sheet,surficial geology map, 1:50,000, 2011. compact disc, WWW. Accessed on May 16, 2012.

Kwokullie Lake map area (NTS 94P/07) covers the northeast part of the Etsho Plateau whose northern boundary isdefined by a large meltwater channel that is now occupied by Kimea lake and creek at about 460 m above sea level(asl). The Kimea meltwater channel was cut by an ancestral Petitot River that flowed westward during deglaciationwhen the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet still covered the land to the north. Prior to this time (ca. 25 000-11 000years ago), the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered the entire map area with a dominant ice flow from the northeast. EtshoPlateau gradually rises to 720 m asl in the southeast quadrant of the map area and, although it offers some relief,most of the area is underlain by poorly-drained clayey till that is mantled by extensive organic deposits. Hummockyorganic deposits containing ground various amounts of ground ice are common on the upper plateau, especially aroundKwokullie and Desan lakes, where recent disturbances have led to thermokarst terrain. Glacial flutings and drumlinsconcentrated on the upstream flank of the Etsho Plateau indicate that at least two distinct ice lobes emanated from theice sheet at some time after the glacial maximum. A persistent northern lobe was responsible for the widespreadnortheast ice flow however, in the southeast quadrant of the map area, it was deflected by a second lobe flowingwestward up the plateau. A southwest-trending moraine system appears to mark the interlobate boundary. Subsequentepisodic retreat of the two lobes is marked by groups of recessional moraines to the north and east. There are at leasttwo main concentrations of recessional moraines on the northern flank of the plateau. Within these moraineconcentrations, cross-cutting relationships are common, indicating that many stillstands and minor readvances of thenorthern lobe occurred as it thinned and retreated to the north. In general the end moraines are thin and rise abovethe boggy terrain with only a few metres of relief. They are composed mainly of till but, in places, they also containdiscontinuous deposits of stratified material, with minor amounts of ice-thrust glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrinesediment.

URL: http://apps1.gdr.nrcan.gc.ca/mirage/mirage_list_e.php?id=289249


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Documents

May 2012 Permafrost Alert · 12051633 Heil, K. (Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany) and Schmidhalter, U. Characterisation of soil texture variability using the apparent