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Title: Evaporation dominates evapotranspiration on Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain

Abstract

The dynamics of evapotranspiration (ET), such as the partitioning to evaporation and transpiration, of polygonal ground on the Arctic Coastal Plain are not well understood. We assessed ET dynamics, including evaporation and transpiration partitioning, created by microtopographic features associated with high- and low-centered polygons. Chamber ET and leaf-level transpiration measurements were conducted in one-week field campaigns in two growing seasons with contrasting weather conditions. We found that ET was greater in the drier and warmer sampling period (2013) compared to the colder and wetter one (2014). Evaporation dominated ET, particularly in the wetter and colder sampling period (>90% in 2014 vs. 80% in 2013). In the 2013 sampling period, wetter and warmer conditions increased ET and the contribution of transpiration to ET. If the soils warm with degrading permafrost, ET and the fraction contributed by transpiration may increase to a certain threshold, when moisture must increase with rising temperatures to further increase these fluxes. While the fraction of transpiration may rise with warmer soils, it is unlikely that transpiration will completely dominate ET. This work highlights the complexities of understanding ET in this dynamic environment and the importance of understanding differences across polygonal ground.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [4];  [6]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States). School of Natural Resources and Extension
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States). International Arctic Research Center
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  5. Univ. of Bristol (United Kingdom). Dept. of Civil Engineering
  6. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC). Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
OSTI Identifier:
1474716
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1484658; OSTI ID: 1490699
Report Number(s):
[LA-UR-18-26200]
[Journal ID: ISSN 1523-0430]
Grant/Contract Number:  
[AC05-00OR22725; SC0006913; 1114457; 1418123; 89233218CNA000001]
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research
Additional Journal Information:
[ Journal Volume: 50; Journal Issue: 1]; Journal ID: ISSN 1523-0430
Publisher:
Taylor & Francis
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; polygonal ground; permafrost; ice wedge; plant functional type; evapotranspiration partitioning; Earth Sciences

Citation Formats

Young-Robertson, Jessica M., Raz-Yaseef, Naama, Cohen, Lily R., Newman, Brent, Rahn, Thom, Sloan, Victoria, Wilson, Cathy, and Wullschleger, Stan D. Evaporation dominates evapotranspiration on Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1080/15230430.2018.1435931.
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Young-Robertson, Jessica M., Raz-Yaseef, Naama, Cohen, Lily R., Newman, Brent, Rahn, Thom, Sloan, Victoria, Wilson, Cathy, & Wullschleger, Stan D. Evaporation dominates evapotranspiration on Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain. United States. doi:10.1080/15230430.2018.1435931.
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Young-Robertson, Jessica M., Raz-Yaseef, Naama, Cohen, Lily R., Newman, Brent, Rahn, Thom, Sloan, Victoria, Wilson, Cathy, and Wullschleger, Stan D. Mon . "Evaporation dominates evapotranspiration on Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain". United States. doi:10.1080/15230430.2018.1435931. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1474716.
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@article{osti_1474716,
title = {Evaporation dominates evapotranspiration on Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain},
author = {Young-Robertson, Jessica M. and Raz-Yaseef, Naama and Cohen, Lily R. and Newman, Brent and Rahn, Thom and Sloan, Victoria and Wilson, Cathy and Wullschleger, Stan D.},
abstractNote = {The dynamics of evapotranspiration (ET), such as the partitioning to evaporation and transpiration, of polygonal ground on the Arctic Coastal Plain are not well understood. We assessed ET dynamics, including evaporation and transpiration partitioning, created by microtopographic features associated with high- and low-centered polygons. Chamber ET and leaf-level transpiration measurements were conducted in one-week field campaigns in two growing seasons with contrasting weather conditions. We found that ET was greater in the drier and warmer sampling period (2013) compared to the colder and wetter one (2014). Evaporation dominated ET, particularly in the wetter and colder sampling period (>90% in 2014 vs. 80% in 2013). In the 2013 sampling period, wetter and warmer conditions increased ET and the contribution of transpiration to ET. If the soils warm with degrading permafrost, ET and the fraction contributed by transpiration may increase to a certain threshold, when moisture must increase with rising temperatures to further increase these fluxes. While the fraction of transpiration may rise with warmer soils, it is unlikely that transpiration will completely dominate ET. This work highlights the complexities of understanding ET in this dynamic environment and the importance of understanding differences across polygonal ground.},
doi = {10.1080/15230430.2018.1435931},
journal = {Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research},
number = [1],
volume = [50],
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {5}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
DOI:  10.1080/15230430.2018.1435931
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Map of the field study locations on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain near Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska (71.3°N, 156.5°W). The areas are the following polygon types: area A is low-centered undegraded (LC-U), area B is low-centered degraded (LC-D), area C is mixed (M), area D is high-centered degradedmore » (HC-D), and the degraded/disturbed area (turquoise-colored circle below the map legend) is characterized by multiple anthropogenic impacts, in addition to thermal degradation.« less
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