IPY: Understanding the Impacts of Icy Permafrost Degradation and Thermokarst-Lake Dynamics in the Arctic on Carbon Cycling, CO2 and CH4 emissions, and Feedbacks to Climate Change

Active Projects | Complete Projects

Share

Project Personel

Main Contact:
Scientific Personel: K. Walter Anthony (INE), G. Grosse (GIPL), M. Edwards (UAF / University of Southampton, UK), L. Slater (Rutgers University), L. Plug (Dalhousie University, Canada)
Collaborators:
Partner Organizations:

Project duration: 
2008-2012

Project Summary

This research integrates field studies in a range of disciplines (geomorphology, geophysics, paleoecology, hydrology, limnology) with process modeling of permafrost thaw, lake formation, carbon cycling, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to understand how permafrost degradation in the Arctic, particularly thermokarst-lake evolution, affects long-term atmospheric trace gas dynamics by releasing ancient carbon (C) stored in permafrost as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4).

Publications: 
Yedoma: Late Pleistocene ice-rich syngenetic permafrost of Beringia
Thermokarst Lakes, Drainage, and Drained Basins
Modern thermokarst lake dynamics in the continuous permafrost zone, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska
Fossil organic matter characteristics in permafrost deposits of the Northeast Siberian Arctic
Vulnerability of high-latitude soil organic carbon in North America to disturbance
Vulnerability and feedbacks of permafrost to climate change
Why permafrost is thawing, not melting
Spatial analyses of thermokarst lakes and basins in Yedoma landscapes of the Lena Delta
Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental records from the western Lena Delta, Arctic Siberia
Spatial distribution of pingos in northern Asia
The mystery of Bunge Land (New Siberian Archipelago): implications for its formation based on palaeoenvironmental records, geomorphology, and remote sensing
Sedimentary characteristics and origin of the Late Pleistocene Ice Complex on North-East Siberian Arctic coastal lowlands and islands - a review
Weichselian and Holocene palaeoenvironmental history of the Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island, New Siberian Archipelago, Arctic Siberia
Arctic thermokarst lakes and the carbon cycle
Periglacial landscape evolution and environmental changes of Arctic lowland areas for the last 60,000 years (western Laptev Sea coast, Cape Mamontov Klyk)
The Yedoma Suite of the Northeastern Siberian Shelf Region: Characteristics and Concept of Formation
Thermokarst Lakes as a Source of Atmospheric CH4 During the Last Deglaciation