Permafrost Terrain Stability and Thermokarst Monitoring: - Arctic LCC

38. Frohn, R.C., Hinkel, K.M., and Eisner, W.R., 2005, Satellite remote sensing
classification of thaw lakes and drained thaw-lake basins on the North Slope of Alaska:
Remote Sensing of Environment, v. 97, no. 1, p. 116–126.
This paper demonstrates a technique for mapping thermokarst lakes and drained lake basins
on the North Slope of Alaska using Landsat satellite imagery and an object-oriented
classification algorithm. Classification accuracy for identifying lakes and basins was greater
than 93 percent. The end result was a map showing that the western Arctic Coastal Plain was
covered with 20 percent lakes and 25 percent drained basins.
39. Gooseff, M.N., Balser, A., Bowden, W.B., and Jones, J.B., 2009, Effects of hillslope
thermokarst in northern Alaska: Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union,
v. 90, no. 4, p. 29–36.
This paper describes the possible physical, chemical, and biological changes as a result of
hillslope thermokarst in areas of continuous and discontinuous permafrost. Possible changes
include increased sediment and nutrient loading into streams and rivers and changes in
vegetation composition near affected areas. Hillslope thermokarst, or thawing of permafrost
on hillslopes, results in the failure and mass wasting (downslope movement) of overlying
soil and vegetation. Recent hillslope features observed include active layer detachments,
thermokarst gullies, and retrogressive thaw slumps. Hillslope thermokarst events are
increasing, and remote sensing and aerial photographs suggest that, in some areas of the
Arctic Coastal Plain, a greater than 200-percent increase in hillslope permafrost failures has
occurred since the 1980s.
40. Grenier, C., Régnier, D., Mouche, E., Benabderrahmane, H., Costard, F., and Davy, P.,
2013, Impact of permafrost development on groundwater flow patterns—A numerical
study considering freezing cycles on a two-dimensional vertical cut through a generic
river-plain system: Hydrogeology Journal, v. 21, no. 1, p. 257–270.
This paper used a coupled water and heat flux model to consider the importance of advective
flux to talik closure associated with a future glacial maximum. The study concerns a deep,
alluvial basin in Europe, and shows that advective transport of heat through the subsurface
prevents talik closure. This may be applicable to several settings on the Arctic Coastal Plain,
including near-stream environments, deep connections between thaw lakes, and, sometime
in the future, the duration of subsurface connections through an open talik network.
41. Grosse, G., Harden, J., Turetsky, M., McGuire, A.D., Camill, P., Tarnocai, C.,
Frolking, S., Schuur, E.A.G., Jorgenson, M.T., Marchenko, S., Romanovsky, V.E.,
Wickland, K.P., French, N., Waldrop, M., Bourgeau-Chavez, L., and Striegl, R.G.,
2011, Vulnerability of high-latitude soil organic carbon in North America to
disturbance: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 116, no. G4, G00K06.
Although the authors focus on the vulnerability of soil organic carbon, important
thermokarst and thermo-erosion processes are summarized and their effects on soils and
ecosystem characteristics are described. The authors quantify areas of 73,000 km 2 and
814,000 km 2 with Cryosols underlain by ice-rich permafrost in Alaska and Canada,
respectively. Pulse disturbances affecting soils as rapid processes such as thermokarst,
thermo-erosion, and wildfires are defined and differentiated from press disturbances
representing more gradual changes such as slow active layer deepening or changes in soil
wetness. Approaches for predicting soil and soil carbon changes owing to such disturbances
are shown and research and data gaps also are highlighted.
16