Search for: All records

Climate change is destabilizing permafrost landscapes, affecting infrastructure, ecosystems, and human livelihoods. The rate of permafrost thaw is controlled by surface and subsurface properties and processes, all of which are potentially linked with each other. However, no standardized protocol exists for measuring permafrost thaw and related processes and properties in a linked manner. The permafrost thaw action group of the Terrestrial Multidisciplinary distributed Observatories for the Study of the Arctic Connections (T-MOSAiC) project has developed a protocol, for use by non-specialist scientists and technicians, citizen scientists, and indigenous groups, to collect standardized metadata and data on permafrost thaw. The protocol introduced here addresses the need to jointly measure permafrost thaw and the associated surface and subsurface environmental conditions. The parameters measured along transects include: snow depth, thaw depth, vegetation height, soil texture, and water level. The metadata collection includes data on timing of data collection, geographical coordinates, land surface characteristics (vegetation, ground surface, water conditions), as well as photographs. Our hope is that this openly available dataset will also be highly valuable for validation and parameterization of numerical and conceptual models, and thus to the broad community represented by the T-MOSAiC project. 

Abstract. Geography and associated hydrological, hydroclimate and land-useconditions and their changes determine the states and dynamics of wetlandsand their ecosystem services. The influences of these controls are notlimited to just the local scale of each individual wetland but extend overlarger landscape areas that integrate multiple wetlands and their totalhydrological catchment – the wetlandscape. However, the data and knowledgeof conditions and changes over entire wetlandscapes are still scarce,limiting the capacity to accurately understand and manage critical wetlandecosystems and their services under global change. We present a newWetlandscape Change Information Database (WetCID), consisting of geographic,hydrological, hydroclimate and land-use information and data for 27wetlandscapes around the world. This combines survey-based local informationwith geographic shapefiles and gridded datasets of large-scale hydroclimateand land-use conditions and their changes over whole wetlandscapes.Temporally, WetCID contains 30-year time series of data for mean monthlyprecipitation and temperature and annual land-use conditions. Thesurvey-based site information includes local knowledge on the wetlands,hydrology, hydroclimate and land uses within each wetlandscape and on theavailability and accessibility of associated local data. This novel database(available through PANGAEA https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.907398; Ghajarniaet al., 2019) can support site assessments; cross-regional comparisons; andscenario analyses of the roles and impacts of land use, hydroclimatic andwetland conditions, and changes in whole-wetlandscape functions and ecosystemservices. 

Wetlands are often vital physical and social components of a country’s natural capital, as well as providers of ecosystem services to local and national communities. We performed a network analysis to prioritize Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for sustainable development in iconic wetlands and wetlandscapes around the world. The analysis was based on the information and perceptions on 45 wetlandscapes worldwide by 49 wetland researchers of the Global Wetland Ecohydrological Network (GWEN). We identified three 2030 Agenda targets of high priority across the wetlandscapes needed to achieve sustainable development: Target 6.3—“Improve water quality”; 2.4—“Sustainable food production”; and 12.2—“Sustainable management of resources”. Moreover, we found specific feedback mechanisms and synergies between SDG targets in the context of wetlands. The most consistent reinforcing interactions were the influence of Target 12.2 on 8.4—“Efficient resource consumption”; and that of Target 6.3 on 12.2. The wetlandscapes could be differentiated in four bundles of distinctive priority SDG-targets: “Basic human needs”, “Sustainable tourism”, “Environmental impact in urban wetlands”, and “Improving and conserving environment”. In general, we find that the SDG groups, targets, and interactions stress that maintaining good water quality and a “wise use” of wetlandscapes are vital to attaining sustainable development within these sensitive ecosystems.