Abstract
The history of permafrost landscape map compilation is related to the study of ecological problems with permafrost. Permafrost-landscape studies are now widely used in geocryological mapping. Permafrost-landscape classifications and mapping are necessary for studying the trends in development of the natural environment in northern and high-altitude permafrost regions. The cryogenic factor in the permafrost zone plays a leading role in the differentiation of landscapes, so it must be considered during classification construction. In this study, a map’s special content was developed using publications about Yakutian nature, archive sources from academic institutes, the interpretation of satellite images, and special field studies. Overlays of 20 types of terrain, identified by geological and geomorphological features, and 36 types of plant groupings, allowed the systematization of permafrost temperature and active layer thickness in 145 landscape units with relatively homogeneous permafrost-landscape conditions in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic. This map serves as a basis for applied thematic maps related to the assessment and forecast of permafrost changes during climate warming and anthropogenic impacts.
Highlights
The history of the compilation of permafrost landscape maps is connected with the study of ecological problems of permafrost
We identified and display only 20 types of terrain on a permafrost-landscape map of a scale of 1:1,500,000 in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (Table 1)
The slope type of terrain is subdivided into colluvial, diluvial-colluvial, and diluvial-solifluction according to the genetic types of slope deposits. This details the content of terrain types by cryolithological features and cryogenic processes, which is important for permafrost landscapes
Summary
The history of the compilation of permafrost landscape maps is connected with the study of ecological problems of permafrost. Since the 1970s in the USA, studies have been conducted to assess the stability of the surface, which were accompanied by the compilation of maps based on the study of landscapes and permafrost [1,2,3]. Permafrost-landscape studies were carried out in the 1970s in the USSR [4] during the development of the largest oil and gas fields in the north of Western Siberia. These works became the Geosciences 2018, 8, 465; doi:10.3390/geosciences8120465 www.mdpi.com/journal/geosciences. Permafrost landscape studies are widely used in geocryological mapping for studying the dynamics and evolution of permafrost, including the problems caused by current climate warming [8,9,10,11,12,13]
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