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Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15865· OSTI ID:1335327
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [2]
  1. United States Geological Survey (USGS), Anchorage, AK (United States). Alaska Science Center
  2. Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States)
  3. Bureau of Land Management Alaska, Anchorage, AK (United States)
  4. Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong (China)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Fire-induced permafrost degradation is well documented in boreal forests, but the role of fires in initiating thermokarst development in Arctic tundra is less well understood. Here we show that Arctic tundra fires may induce widespread thaw subsidence of permafrost terrain in the first seven years following the disturbance. Quantitative analysis of airborne LiDAR data acquired two and seven years post-fire, detected permafrost thaw subsidence across 34% of the burned tundra area studied, compared to less than 1% in similar undisturbed, ice-rich tundra terrain units. The variability in thermokarst development appears to be influenced by the interaction of tundra fire burn severity and near-surface, ground-ice content. Subsidence was greatest in severely burned, ice-rich upland terrain (yedoma), accounting for -50% of the detected subsidence, despite representing only 30% of the fire disturbed study area. Microtopography increased by 340% in this terrain unit as a result of ice wedge degradation. Increases in the frequency, magnitude, and severity of tundra fires will contribute to future thermokarst development and associated landscape change in Arctic tundra regions.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1335327
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Vol. 5; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (25)

Remote sensing quantifies widespread abundance of permafrost region disturbances across the Arctic and Subarctic journal December 2018
Revealing biogeochemical signatures of Arctic landscapes with river chemistry journal September 2019
The role of driving factors in historical and projected carbon dynamics of upland ecosystems in Alaska journal December 2017
Thaw pond development and initial vegetation succession in experimental plots at a Siberian lowland tundra site journal August 2017
Impacts of shore expansion and catchment characteristics on lacustrine thermokarst records in permafrost lowlands, Alaska Arctic Coastal Plain journal November 2016
Groundwater Controls on Postfire Permafrost Thaw: Water and Energy Balance Effects journal October 2018
Using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry to Map and Quantify Permafrost Thaw Subsidence: A Case Study of Eboling Mountain on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau journal October 2018
Plant Uptake Offsets Silica Release From a Large Arctic Tundra Wildfire journal September 2019
An overview of ABoVE airborne campaign data acquisitions and science opportunities journal July 2019
Multi-decadal patterns of vegetation succession after tundra fire on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska journal January 2020
Spatiotemporal remote sensing of ecosystem change and causation across Alaska journal May 2018
UAV photogrammetry for mapping vegetation in the low-Arctic journal September 2016
Remote sensing quantifies widespread abundance of permafrost region disturbances across the Arctic and Subarctic text January 2019
Assessment of LiDAR and Spectral Techniques for High-Resolution Mapping of Sporadic Permafrost on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska journal February 2018
Modeling Wildfire-Induced Permafrost Deformation in an Alaskan Boreal Forest Using InSAR Observations journal March 2018
Climate Sensitivity of High Arctic Permafrost Terrain Demonstrated by Widespread Ice-Wedge Thermokarst on Banks Island journal June 2018
Drivers of Landscape Changes in Coastal Ecosystems on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska journal August 2018
Regional Patterns and Asynchronous Onset of Ice-Wedge Degradation since the Mid-20th Century in Arctic Alaska journal August 2018
Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Automated Characterization of Arctic Ice-Wedge Polygons in Very High Spatial Resolution Aerial Imagery journal September 2018
Permafrost Terrain Dynamics and Infrastructure Impacts Revealed by UAV Photogrammetry and Thermal Imaging journal November 2018
Using Long-Term SAR Backscatter Data to Monitor Post-Fire Vegetation Recovery in Tundra Environment journal September 2019
Reviews and syntheses: Changing ecosystem influences on soil thermal regimes in northern high-latitude permafrost regions journal January 2018
Presence of rapidly degrading permafrost plateaus in south-central Alaska journal January 2016
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