Search for: All records

Abstract Accelerated climate warming has caused the majority of marine-terminating glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere to retreat substantially during the twenty-first century. While glacier retreat and changes in mass balance are widely studied on a global scale, the impacts of deglaciation on adjacent coastal geomorphology are often overlooked and therefore poorly understood. Here we examine changes in proglacial zones of marine-terminating glaciers across the Northern Hemisphere to quantify the length of new coastline that has been exposed by glacial retreat between 2000 and 2020. We identified a total of 2,466 ± 0.8 km (123 km a⁻¹) of new coastline with most (66%) of the total length occurring in Greenland. These young paraglacial coastlines are highly dynamic, exhibiting high sediment fluxes and rapidly evolving landforms. Retreating glaciers and associated newly exposed coastline can have important impacts on local ecosystems and Arctic communities. 

This project is part of Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) which addresses converging scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. Specifically, the goal of this project, is to better understand the effects climate change imposes on society and the built environment and develop risk assessments for future adaptive planning. This dataset provides ground temperature data in the active layer and near-surface permafrost to provide a baseline for assessing the future changes in the near-surface temperatures in the natural and disturbed environment in the vicinity of the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, United States and the city of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Collected ground temperature data are intended to help researchers, communities and public with ongoing activities to mitigate a threat of thawing permafrost on the local and regional scale, and to provide spatial data for validation of climate scenario models and temperature reanalysis approaches. 

This project is part of Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) which addresses converging scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. Specifically, the goal of this project is to better understand ice-rich permafrost at local, regional, and circumpolar scales. This dataset provides ground temperature data in the active layer and near-surface permafrost to provide a baseline for assessing the future changes in the near-surface temperatures in the natural environment and next to the infrastructure/disturbed environment at Utqiagvik, Point Lay, and Wainwright in Alaska. Collected ground temperature data are intended to help researchers, communities and public with ongoing activities to mitigate a threat of thawing permafrost on the local and regional scale, and to provide spatial data for validation of climate scenario models and temperature reanalysis approaches. Update: Filename nomenclature has been changed from US_PIP_### to US_UTQ_### in order to separate different site location data. 

Abstract High-latitude and altitude cold regions are affected by climate warming and permafrost degradation. One of the major concerns associated with degrading permafrost is thaw subsidence (TS) due to melting of excess ground ice and associated thaw consolidation. Field observations, remote sensing, and numerical modeling are used to measure and estimate the extent and rates of TS across broad spatial and temporal scales. Our new data synthesis effort from diverse permafrost regions of North America and Eurasia, confirms widespread TS across the panarctic permafrost domain with rates of up to 2 cm yr⁻¹in the areas with low ice content and more than 3 cm yr⁻¹in regions with ice-rich permafrost. Areas with human activities or areas affected by wildfires exhibited higher subsidence rates. Our findings suggest that permafrost landscapes are undergoing geomorphic change that is impacting hydrology, ecosystems, and human infrastructure. The development of a systematic TS monitoring is urgently needed to deliver consistent and continuous exchange of data across different permafrost regions. Integration of coordinated field observations, remote sensing, and modeling of TS across a range of scales would contribute to better understanding of rapidly changing permafrost environments and resulting climate feedbacks. 

Abstract The thawing of permafrost in the Arctic has led to an increase in coastal land loss, flooding, and ground subsidence, seriously threatening civil infrastructure and coastal communities. However, a lack of tools for synthetic hazard assessment of the Arctic coast has hindered effective response measures. We developed a holistic framework, the Arctic Coastal Hazard Index (ACHI), to assess the vulnerability of Arctic coasts to permafrost thawing, coastal erosion, and coastal flooding. We quantified the coastal permafrost thaw potential (PTP) through regional assessment of thaw subsidence using ground settlement index. The calculations of the ground settlement index involve utilizing projections of permafrost conditions, including future regional mean annual ground temperature, active layer thickness, and talik thickness. The predicted thaw subsidence was validated through a comparison with observed long-term subsidence data. The ACHI incorporates the PTP into seven physical and ecological variables for coastal hazard assessment: shoreline type, habitat, relief, wind exposure, wave exposure, surge potential, and sea-level rise. The coastal hazard assessment was conducted for each 1 km²coastline of North Slope Borough, Alaska in the 2060s under the Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 and 8.5 forcing scenarios. The areas that are prone to coastal hazards were identified by mapping the distribution pattern of the ACHI. The calculated coastal hazards potential was subjected to validation by comparing it with the observed and historical long-term coastal erosion mean rates. This framework for Arctic coastal assessment may assist policy and decision-making for adaptation, mitigation strategies, and civil infrastructure planning. 

This project is part of Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) which addresses converging scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. Specifically, the goal of this project, is to better understand the effects climate change imposes on society and the built environment and develop risk assessments for future adaptive planning. This dataset provides ground temperature data in the active layer and near-surface permafrost to provide a baseline for assessing the future changes in the near-surface temperatures in the natural and disturbed environment in the vicinity of the city of Fairbanks, Alaska. Collected ground temperature data are intended to help researchers, communities and public with ongoing activities to mitigate a threat of thawing permafrost on the local and regional scale, and to provide spatial data for validation of climate scenario models and temperature reanalysis approaches. 

This project is part of Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) which addresses converging scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. Specifically, the goal of this project is to better understand ice-rich permafrost at local, regional, and circumpolar scales. This dataset provides ground temperature data in the active layer and near-surface permafrost to provide a baseline for assessing the future changes in the near-surface temperatures in the natural environment and next to the infrastructure/disturbed environment at Utqiagvik, Alaska. Collected ground temperature data are intended to help researchers, communities and public with ongoing activities to mitigate a threat of thawing permafrost on the local and regional scale, and to provide spatial data for validation of climate scenario models and temperature reanalysis approaches.