ALBERT

Beschreibung: As climate warming and precipitation increase at high latitudes, permafrost terrains across the circumpolar north are poised for intensified geomorphic activity and sediment mobilization that are expected to persist for millennia. In previously glaciated permafrost terrain, ice-rich deposits are associated with large stores of reactive mineral substrate. Over geological timescales, chemical weathering moderates atmospheric CO2 levels, raising the prospect that mass wasting driven by terrain consolidation following thaw (thermokarst) may enhance weathering of permafrost sediments and thus climate feedbacks. The nature of these feedbacks depends upon the mineral composition of sediments (weathering sources) and the balance between atmospheric exchange of CO2 vs. fluvial export of carbonate alkalinity (Σ[HCO3-, CO32-]). Working in the fluvially incised, ice-rich glacial deposits of the Peel Plateau in northwestern Canada, we determine the effects of slope thermokarst in the form of retrogressive thaw slump (RTS) activity on mineral weathering sources, CO2 dynamics, and carbonate alkalinity export and how these effects integrate across watershed scales (∼ 2 to 1000 km2). We worked along three transects in nested watersheds with varying connectivity to RTS activity: a 550 m transect along a first-order thaw stream within a large RTS, a 14 km transect along a stream which directly received inputs from several RTSs, and a 70 km transect along a larger stream with headwaters that lay outside of RTS influence. In undisturbed headwaters, stream chemistry reflected CO2 from soil respiration processes and atmospheric exchange. Within the RTS, rapid sulfuric acid carbonate weathering, prompted by the exposure of sulfide- and carbonate-bearing tills, appeared to increase fluvial CO2 efflux to the atmosphere and propagate carbonate alkalinity across watershed scales. Despite covering less than 1 % of the landscape, RTS activity drove carbonate alkalinity to increase by 2 orders of magnitude along the largest transect. Amplified export of carbonate alkalinity together with isotopic signals of shifting DIC and CO2 sources along the downstream transects highlights the dynamic nature of carbon cycling that may typify glaciated permafrost watersheds subject to intensification of hillslope thermokarst. The balance between CO2 drawdown in regions where carbonic acid weathering predominates and CO2 release in regions where sulfides are more prevalent will determine the biogeochemical legacy of thermokarst and enhanced weathering in northern permafrost terrains. Effects of RTSs on carbon cycling can be expected to persist for millennia, indicating a need for their integration into predictions of weathering–carbon–climate feedbacks among thermokarst terrains.

Beschreibung: Scotty Creek, Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, has been the focus of hydrological research for nearly three decades. Over this period, field and modelling studies have generated new insights into the thermal and physical mechanisms governing the flux and storage of water in the wetland-dominated regions of discontinuous permafrost that characterises much of the Canadian and circumpolar subarctic. Research at Scotty Creek has coincided with a period of unprecedented climate warming, permafrost thaw, and resulting land cover transformations including the expansion of wetland areas and loss of forests. This paper (1) synthesises field and modelling studies at Scotty Creek, (2) highlights the key insights of these studies on the major water flux and storage processes operating within and between the major land cover types, and (3) provides insights into the rate and pattern of the permafrost-thaw-induced land cover change and how such changes will affect the hydrology and water resources of the study region.

Beschreibung: Scotty Creek, Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, has been the focus of eco-hydrological research for nearly three decades. Over this period, field and modelling studies have generated new insights into the thermal and physical mechanisms governing the flux and storage of water in the wetland-dominated regions of discontinuous permafrost that characterizes much of the Canadian and circum-polar subarctic. Research at Scotty Creek has coincided with a period of unprecedented climate warming, permafrost thaw, and resulting land cover transformations including the expansion of wetland areas and loss of forests. This paper synthesizes field and modelling studies at Scotty Creek, and highlights the key insights of these studies on the major water flux and storage processes operating within and between the major land cover types. This paper also provides insights into the rate and pattern of the permafrost thaw-induced land cover change, and how such changes will affect the hydrology and water resources of the study region.

Beschreibung: Boreal peatlands are major catchment sources of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nutrients, and thus strongly regulate the landscape carbon balance, aquatic food webs, and downstream water quality. Climate change is likely to influence catchment solute yield directly through climatic controls on runoff generation, but also indirectly through altered disturbance regimes. In this study we monitored water chemistry from early spring until fall at the outlets of a 321km2 catchment that burned 3 years prior to the study and a 134km2 undisturbed catchment. Both catchments were located in the discontinuous permafrost zone of boreal western Canada and had ~60% peatland cover. The two catchments had strong similarities in the timing of DOC and nutrient yields, but a few differences were consistent with anticipated effects of wildfire based on peatland porewater analysis. The four week spring period, particularly the rising limb of spring freshet, was crucial for accurate characterization of the seasonal solute yield from both catchments. The spring period was responsible for ~65% of the seasonal DOC and nitrogen, and ~85% of the phosphorous yield. The rising limb of spring freshet was associated with high phosphorous concentrations and DOC of distinctly high aromaticity and molecular weight. Shifts in stream DOC concentrations and aromaticity outside the early spring period were consistent with shifts in relative stream-flow contribution from precipitation-like water in the spring, to mineral soil groundwater in the summer, with consistent relative contributions from organic soil porewater. Radiocarbon content (14C) of DOC at the outlets was modern throughout May to September (fM: 0.99–1.05), but likely reflected a mix of aged DOC, e.g. porewater DOC from permafrost (fM: 0.65–0.85) and non-permafrost peatlands (fM: 0.95–1.00), with modern bomb-influenced DOC, e.g. DOC leached from forest litter (fM: 1.05–1.10). The burned catchment had significantly increased total phosphorous yield, and also had greater DOC yield during summer which was characterized by a greater contribution from aged DOC. Overall, however, our results suggest that DOC composition and yield from peatland-rich catchments in the discontinuous permafrost region likely is more sensitive to climate change through impacts on runoff generation rather than through altered fire regimes.

Beschreibung: Boreal peatlands are major catchment sources of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nutrients and thus strongly regulate the landscape carbon balance, aquatic food webs, and downstream water quality. Climate change is likely to influence catchment solute yield directly through climatic controls on run-off generation, but also indirectly through altered disturbance regimes. In this study we monitored water chemistry from early spring until fall at the outlets of a 321 km2 catchment that burned 3 years prior to the study and a 134 km2 undisturbed catchment. Both catchments were located in the discontinuous permafrost zone of boreal western Canada and had  ∼  60 % peatland cover. The two catchments had strong similarities in the timing of DOC and nutrient yields, but a few differences were consistent with anticipated effects of wildfire based on peatland porewater analysis. The 4-week spring period, particularly the rising limb of the spring freshet, was crucial for accurate characterization of the seasonal solute yield from both catchments. The spring period was responsible for  ∼  65 % of the seasonal DOC and nitrogen and for  ∼  85 % of the phosphorous yield. The rising limb of the spring freshet was associated with high phosphorous concentrations and DOC of distinctly high aromaticity and molecular weight. Shifts in stream DOC concentrations and aromaticity outside the early spring period were consistent with shifts in relative streamflow contribution from precipitation-like water in the spring to mineral soil groundwater in the summer, with consistent relative contributions from organic soil porewater. Radiocarbon content (14C) of DOC at the outlets was modern throughout May to September (fraction modern carbon, fM: 0.99–1.05) but likely reflected a mix of aged DOC, e.g. porewater DOC from permafrost (fM: 0.65–0.85) and non-permafrost peatlands (fM: 0.95–1.00), with modern bomb-influenced DOC, e.g. DOC leached from forest litter (fM: 1.05–1.10). The burned catchment had significantly increased total phosphorous (TP) yield and also had greater DOC yield during summer which was characterized by a greater contribution from aged DOC. Overall, however, our results suggest that DOC composition and yield from peatland-rich catchments in the discontinuous permafrost region likely is more sensitive to climate change through impacts on run-off generation rather than through altered fire regimes.

Beschreibung: Permafrost regions have been identified to host a soil organic carbon (C) pool of global importance, storing more than 1500 PgC. A large portion of this C pool is currently frozen in deep soils and permafrost deposits. Permafrost thaw hence may result in mobilization of large amounts of C as greenhouse gases, dissolved organic C, or particulate organic matter, with substantial impacts on C cycling and C pool distribution. Understanding potential consequences and feedbacks of permafrost degradation therefore requires better quantification of processes and landforms related to thaw. While many predictive land surface models so far consider a gradual increase in the average active layer thickness across the permafrost domain, rapid shifts in landscape topography and surface hydrology caused by thaw of ice-rich permafrost are much more difficult to project. Field studies of thermokarst and thermo-erosion indicate highly complex and rapid landscape-ecosystem feedbacks. Contrary to top-down permafrost thaw that may affect any permafrost type at the surface, both thermokarst and thermo-erosion are considered pulse disturbances that are closely linked to presence of near-surface ice-rich permafrost, are active on short sub-annual to decadal time scales, and may affect C stores tens of meters deep. Here we present a comprehensive review synthesizing measured and modeled rates of thermokarst and thermo-erosion processes from the scientific literature and own observations across the northern Hemisphere permafrost regions. The goal of our synthesis is (1) to provide an overview on the range of thermokarst and thermo-erosion rates that may be used for parameterization of thermokarst and thermo-erosion in ecosystem and landscape models; and (2) to assess simple back-of-the-envelope scenarios of the magnitude of C thaw due to thermokarst and thermo-erosion versus projected active layer thickening. Example scenarios considering thermokarst lake expansion and talik growth indicate that rapid thaw processes have a high possibility to contribute substantially to permafrost C mobilization over the coming century.

Beschreibung: Methane emissions from boreal and arctic wetlands, lakes, and rivers are expected to increase in response to warming and associated permafrost thaw. However, the lack of appropriate land cover datasets for scaling field-measured methane emissions to circumpolar scales has contributed to a large uncertainty for our understanding of present-day and future methane emissions. Here we present the Boreal–Arctic Wetland and Lake Dataset (BAWLD), a land cover dataset based on an expert assessment, extrapolated using random forest modelling from available spatial datasets of climate, topography, soils, permafrost conditions, vegetation, wetlands, and surface water extents and dynamics. In BAWLD, we estimate the fractional coverage of five wetland, seven lake, and three river classes within 0.5 × 0.5∘ grid cells that cover the northern boreal and tundra biomes (17 % of the global land surface). Land cover classes were defined using criteria that ensured distinct methane emissions among classes, as indicated by a co-developed comprehensive dataset of methane flux observations. In BAWLD, wetlands occupied 3.2 × 106 km2 (14 % of domain) with a 95 % confidence interval between 2.8 and 3.8 × 106 km2. Bog, fen, and permafrost bog were the most abundant wetland classes, covering ∼ 28 % each of the total wetland area, while the highest-methane-emitting marsh and tundra wetland classes occupied 5 % and 12 %, respectively. Lakes, defined to include all lentic open-water ecosystems regardless of size, covered 1.4 × 106 km2 (6 % of domain). Low-methane-emitting large lakes (〉10 km2) and glacial lakes jointly represented 78 % of the total lake area, while high-emitting peatland and yedoma lakes covered 18 % and 4 %, respectively. Small (〈0.1 km2) glacial, peatland, and yedoma lakes combined covered 17 % of the total lake area but contributed disproportionally to the overall spatial uncertainty in lake area with a 95 % confidence interval between 0.15 and 0.38 × 106 km2. Rivers and streams were estimated to cover 0.12  × 106 km2 (0.5 % of domain), of which 8 % was associated with high-methane-emitting headwaters that drain organic-rich landscapes. Distinct combinations of spatially co-occurring wetland and lake classes were identified across the BAWLD domain, allowing for the mapping of “wetscapes” that have characteristic methane emission magnitudes and sensitivities to climate change at regional scales. With BAWLD, we provide a dataset which avoids double-accounting of wetland, lake, and river extents and which includes confidence intervals for each land cover class. As such, BAWLD will be suitable for many hydrological and biogeochemical modelling and upscaling efforts for the northern boreal and arctic region, in particular those aimed at improving assessments of current and future methane emissions. Data are freely available at https://doi.org/10.18739/A2C824F9X (Olefeldt et al., 2021).