ALBERT

Description: Permafrost temperatures are increasing in Alaska due to climate change and in some cases permafrost is thawing and degrading. In areas where degradation has already occurred the effects can be dramatic, resulting in changing ecosystems, carbon release, and damage to infrastructure. However, in many areas we lack baseline data, such as subsurface temperatures, needed to assess future changes and potential risk areas. Besides climate, the physical properties of the vegetation cover and subsurface material have a major influence on the thermal state of permafrost. These properties are often directly related to the type of ecosystem overlaying permafrost. In this paper we demonstrate that classifying the landscape into general ecotypes is an effective way to scale up permafrost thermal data collected from field monitoring sites. Additionally, we find that within some ecotypes the absence of a moss layer is indicative of the absence of near-surface permafrost. As a proof of concept, we used the ground temperature data collected from the field sites to recode an ecotype land cover map into a map of mean annual ground temperature ranges at 1 m depth based on analysis and clustering of observed thermal regimes. The map should be useful for decision making with respect to land use and understanding how the landscape might change under future climate scenarios.

Description: Permafrost presence is determined by a complex interaction of climatic, topographic, and ecological conditions operating over long time scales. In particular, vegetation and organic layer characteristics may act to protect permafrost in regions with a mean annual air temperature (MAAT) above 0°C. In this study, we document the presence of residual permafrost plateaus in the western Kenai Peninsula lowlands of south-central Alaska, a region with a MAAT of 1.5+/-1 °C (1981–2010). Continuous ground temperature measurements between 16 September 2012 and 15 September 2015, using calibrated thermistor strings, documented the presence of warm permafrost (-0.04 to -0.08 °C). Field measurements (probing) on several plateau features during the fall of 2015 showed that the depth to the permafrost table averaged 1.48m but at some locations was as shallow as 0.53 m. Late winter surveys (augering, coring, and GPR) in 2016 showed that the average seasonally frozen ground thickness was 0.45 m, overlying a talik above the permafrost table. Measured permafrost thickness ranged from 0.33 to 〉6.90 m. Manual interpretation of historic aerial photography acquired in 1950 indicates that residual permafrost plateaus covered 920 ha as mapped across portions of four wetland complexes encompassing 4810 ha. However, between 1950 and ca. 2010, permafrost plateau extent decreased by 60.0 %, with lateral feature degradation accounting for 85.0% of the reduction in area. Permafrost loss on the Kenai Peninsula is likely associated with a warming climate, wildfires that remove the protective forest and organic layer cover, groundwater flow at depth, and lateral heat transfer from wetland surface waters in the summer. Better understanding the resilience and vulnerability of ecosystem-protected permafrost is critical for mapping and predicting future permafrost extent and degradation across all permafrost regions that are currently warming. Further work should focus on reconstructing permafrost history in south-central Alaska as well as additional contemporary observations of these ecosystem-protected permafrost sites south of the regions with relatively stable permafrost.

Description: Permafrost presence is determined by a complex interaction of climatic, topographic, and ecological conditions operating over long time scales. In particular, vegetation and organic layer characteristics may act to protect permafrost in regions with a mean annual air temperature (MAAT) above 0 °C. In this study, we document the presence of residual permafrost plateaus on the western Kenai Peninsula lowlands of southcentral Alaska, a region with a MAAT of 1.5 ± 1 °C (1981 to 2010). Continuous ground temperature measurements between 16 September 2012 and 15 September 2015, using calibrated thermistor strings, documented the presence of warm permafrost (−0.04 to −0.08 °C). Field measurements (probing) on several plateau features during the fall of 2015 showed that the depth to the permafrost table averaged 1.48 m but was as shallow as 0.53 m. Late winter surveys (drilling, coring, and GPR) in 2016 showed that the average seasonally frozen ground thickness was 0.45 m, overlying a talik above the permafrost table. Measured permafrost thickness ranged from 0.33 to 〉 6.90 m. Manual interpretation of historic aerial photography acquired in 1950 indicates that residual permafrost plateaus covered 920 ha as mapped across portions of four wetland complexes encompassing 4810 ha. However, between 1950 and ca. 2010, permafrost plateau extent decreased by 60 %, with lateral feature degradation accounting for 85 % of the reduction in area. Permafrost loss on the Kenai Peninsula is likely associated with a warming climate, wildfires that remove the protective forest and organic layer cover, groundwater flow at depth, and lateral heat transfer from wetland surface waters in the summer. Better understanding the resilience and vulnerability of ecosystem-protected permafrost is critical for mapping and predicting future permafrost extent and degradation across all permafrost regions that are currently warming. Further work should focus on reconstructing permafrost history in southcentral Alaska as well as additional contemporary observations of these ecosystem-protected permafrost sites lying south of the regions with relatively stable permafrost.

Description: Coastal erosion and flooding transform terrestrial landscapes into marine environments. In the Arctic, these processes inundate terrestrial permafrost with seawater and create submarine permafrost. Permafrost begins to warm under marine conditions, which can destabilize the sea floor and may release greenhouse gases. We report on the transition of terrestrial to submarine permafrost at a site where the timing of inundation can be inferred from the rate of coastline retreat. On Muostakh Island in the central Laptev Sea, East Siberia, changes in annual coastline position have been measured for decades and vary highly spatially. We hypothesize that these rates are inversely related to the inclination of the upper surface of submarine ice-bonded permafrost (IBP) based on the consequent duration of inundation with increasing distance from the shoreline. We compared rapidly eroding and stable coastal sections of Muostakh Island and find permafrost-table inclinations, determined using direct current resistivity, of 1 and 5 %, respectively. Determinations of submarine IBP depth from a drilling transect in the early 1980s were compared to resistivity profiles from 2011. Based on borehole observations, the thickness of unfrozen sediment overlying the IBP increased from 0 to 14m below sea level with increasing distance from the shoreline. The geoelectrical profiles showed thickening of the unfrozen sediment overlying ice-bonded permafrost over the 28 years since drilling took place. We use geoelectrical estimates of IBP depth to estimate permafrost degradation rates since inundation. Degradation rates decreased from over 0.4ma-1 following inundation to around 0.1ma-1 at the latest after 60 to 110 years and remained constant at this level as the duration of inundation increased to 250 years. We suggest that long-term rates are lower than these values, as the depth to the IBP increases and thermal and porewater solute concentration gradients over depth decrease. For the study region, recent increases in coastal erosion rate and changes in benthic temperature and salinity regimes are expected to affect the depth to submarine permafrost, leading to coastal regions with shallower IBP.

Description: Sources and Transformations of Anthropogenic Nitrogen along an Urban River-Estuarine Continuum Michael J. Pennino, Sujay S. Kaushal, Sudhir Murthy, Joel Blomquist, Jeff Cornwell, and Lora Harris Biogeosciences Discuss., doi:10.5194/bg-2016-264,2016 Manuscript under review for BG (discussion: open, 0 comments) The results of this manuscript report the analysis of the fate and transport of wastewater and anthropogenic nitrogen along the Potomac River Estuary, from Washington D.C. to the Chesapeake Bay. In conjunction with a mass balance approach, nitrate isotopes were used to estimate fluxes and trace the sources and transformations N along the estuary. This study shows that estuaries have a large capacity to transform N inputs, but with large seasonal variability due to hydrological extremes.

Description: We present experimental results obtained under normal gravity on the dynamics of solid particles in periodic oscillatory thermocapillary-driven flows in a non-isothermal liquid bridge made of decane. Inertial particles of different densities and in the size range approximately 0.75 − 75 μ m are able to form stable coherent structures (particle accumulation structures, or PASs). Two image processing techniques were developed and successfully applied to compute time required for an ensemble of particles to form a structure. It is shown that the formation time grows with the decrease of the Stokes number. The observations indicate the probable irrelevance of the memory term for these experiments. Two types of PAS were observed—single (SL-I) and double-loop (SL-II)—which sometimes co-existed. Only large or very dense particles may form an SL-II type structure. A number of novel features of the system were perceived. In some cases, intermittently stable structures emerged (their dynamics is characterized by alternating time intervals during which a structure exists and is destroyed). Whereas in most experiments we observed a conventional symmetric and centered PAS, there were cases when a long-term stable asymmetric structure appeared. Experiments wherein two different types of PAS-forming particles were used simultaneously revealed the destructive role of collisions between the particles on formation of structures.

Description: Boreal fire records in Northern Hemisphere ice cores: A review Michel Legrand, Joseph McConnell, Hubertus Fischer, Eric W. Wolff, Susanne Preunkert, Nathan Chellman, Daiana Leuenberger, Olivia Maselli, Michael Sigl, Simon Schüpbach, and Mike Flannigan Clim. Past Discuss., doi:10.5194/cp-2016-70,2016 Manuscript under review for CP (discussion: open, 0 comments) Here we review previous attempts made to reconstruct past forest fire using chemical signals recorded in Greenland ice. We showed that the Greenland ice records of ammonium, found to be a good fire proxy, consistently indicate changing fire activity in Canada in response to past climatic conditions that occurred since the last 15 000 years including the little ice age and the last large climatic transition.

Description: A three-dimensional model is presented to investigate helium plasma generated by microwave under atmospheric pressure in this paper, which includes the physical processes of electromagnetic wave propagation, electron and heavy species transport, gas flow, and heat transfer. The model is based on the fluid approximation calculation and local thermodynamic equilibrium assumption. The simulation results demonstrate that the maxima of the electron density and gas temperature are 4.79 × 10 17  m −3 and 1667 K, respectively, for the operating conditions with microwave power of 500 W, gas flow rate of 20 l/min, and initial gas temperature of 500 K. The electromagnetic field distribution in the plasma source is obtained by solving Helmholtz equation. Electric field strength of 2.97 × 10 4  V/m is obtained. There is a broad variation on microwave power, gas flow rate, and initial gas temperature to obtain deeper information about the changes of the electron density and gas temperature.

Description: The paper analyzes the dielectric breakdown properties of N 2 –O 2 mixtures at different O 2 concentrations and gas pressures, taking into account electron detachments from negative ions. The reduced effective ionization coefficients α(eff)/N in N 2 –O 2 mixtures at different O 2 concentrations and gas pressures were calculated and analyzed, by considering electron detachments. The critical reduced electric fields (E/N) cr and the critical electron temperature T b were then determined. The result indicates a clear enhancement of α(eff)/N by collisional detachments, which causes a reduction in the (E/N) cr . In addition, a synergistic effect in the N 2 –O 2 mixture was also observed in both (E/N) cr and T b . The value of T b was decreased by the increase of pd product, however, T b tended to be constant at relatively high pd products.

Description: Tectonothermal evolution in the core of an arcuate fold and thrust belt: the south-eastern sector of the Cantabrian Zone (Variscan belt, north-western Spain) María Luz Valín, Susana García-López, Covadonga Brime, Fernando Bastida, and Jesús Aller Solid Earth, 7, 1003-1022, doi:10.5194/se-7-1003-2016, 2016 The tectonothermal evolution of an area located in the core of the Ibero-Armorican Arc (Variscan belt) has been determined by using the conodont colour alteration index (CAI), Kübler index of illite (KI), the Árkai index of chlorite (AI) and the analysis of clay minerals and rock cleavage. The area is part of the Cantabrian Zone (CZ), which represents the foreland fold and thrust belt of the orogen. It has been thrust by several large units of the CZ, what resulted in the generation of a large number of synorogenic Carboniferous sediments. CAI, KI and AI values show an irregular distribution of metamorphic grade, independent of stratigraphic position. Two tectonothermal events have been distinguished in the area. The first one, poorly defined, is mainly located in the northern part. It gave rise to very-low-grade metamorphism in some areas and it was associated with a deformation event that resulted in the emplacement of the last large thrust unit and development of upright folds and associated cleavage ( S 1 ). The second tectonothermal event gave rise to low-grade metamorphism and cleavage ( S 2 ) crosscutting earlier upright folds in the central, western and southern parts of the study area. The event continued with the intrusion of small igneous rock bodies, which gave rise to contact metamorphism and hydrothermal alteration. This event was linked to an extensional episode due to a gravitational instability at the end of the Variscan deformation. This tectonothermal evolution occurred during the Gzhelian–Sakmarian. Subsequently, several hydrothermal episodes took place and local crenulation cleavage developed during the Alpine deformation.