Advancing the predictive power of Earth system models through understanding
of the structure and function of Arctic terrestrial ecosystems
Science Highlights
PeRL: A Circum-Arctic Permafrost Region Pond and Lake Database
Ponds and lakes affect high-latitude carbon, water, and energy budgets, however, there is no good observationally-constrained characterization of waterbodies for high-latitude systems. The Permafrost Region Pond and Lake (PeRL) database addresses this problem. PeRL includes 69 maps covering a wide range of environmental conditions.
Integration of Unmanned Aerial System, Surface Geophysics & other Multi-Scale Data to Map Arctic Snow Depth
The ability to map snow depth in high resolution and over a large areas permits for the first time a dataset that can be used to quantify the impact of heterogeneous snow distribution on hydrology and carbon exchange.
Potential carbon emissions dominated by carbon dioxide from thawed permafrost soils
Rapid warming in the Arctic is leading to the thawing of carbon-rich soils that have been permanently frozen for millennia. The release of greenhouse gases from thawed permafrost could increase the rate of global warming, but this depends on the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, and whether carbon is released as carbon dioxide or the more potent greenhouse gas methane.
Warming increases methylmercury production in Arctic soils
Results show that climate warming and permafrost thaw could potentially enhance methylmercury toxin production by an order of magnitude, impacting Arctic terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by increased exposure to mercury through bioaccumulation and biomagnification in the food web.
Pan-Arctic ice-wedge degradation in warming permafrost and its influence on tundra hydrology
Ice wedges, which are a common subsurface feature in permafrost landscapes, appear to be rapidly melting throughout the Arctic altering the microtopography and causing succession in polygon type that has profound changes to the storage and flow of water on the landscape.