Recent Changes in Groundwater and Surface Water in Large Pan-Arctic River Basins

Hong Lin,Lei Zheng,Wei Feng,Xiaoqing Peng,Xiao Cheng,Fukai Peng

doi:10.3390/rs14030607

Abstract

Surface and groundwater in large pan-Arctic river basins are changing rapidly. High-quality estimates of these changes are challenging because of the limits on the data quality and time span of satellite observations. Here, the term pan-Arctic river refers to the rivers flowing to the Arctic Ocean basin. In this study, we provide a new evaluation of groundwater storage (GWS) changes in the Lena, Ob, Yenisei, Mackenzie and Yukon River basins from the GRACE total water storage anomaly product, in situ runoff, soil moisture form models and a snow water equivalent product that has been significantly improved. Seasonal Trend decomposition using Loess was utilized to obtain trends in GWS. Changes in surface water (SW) between 1984 and 2019 in these basins were also examined based on the Joint Research Centre Global Surface Water Transition data. Results suggested that there were great GWS losses in the North American river basins, totaling approximately −219 km3, and GWS gains in the Siberian river basins, totaling ~340 km3, during 2002–2017. New seasonal and permanent SWs are the primary contributors to the SW transition, accounting for more than 50% of the area of the changed SW in each basin. Changes in the Arctic hydrological system will be more significant and various in the case of rapid and continuous changes in permafrost.

Highlights

Surface water and groundwater are changing rapidly because of significant climate warming in the Arctic region [1,2,3,4,5]
groundwater storage (GWS) changes in the five large pan-Arctic river basins during 2002–2017 were obtained based on GRACE-derived total water storage anomaly (TWSA), snow water equivalent (SWE) from remote sensing products, soil moisture from models, and in situ runoff
We found that over the past 15 years (2002–2017), GWS increased in the Siberian river basins, totaling

Summary

Introduction

Surface water and groundwater are changing rapidly because of significant climate warming in the Arctic region [1,2,3,4,5]. Arctic amplification has intensified the melting of snow cover and glaciers, as well as widespread permafrost degradation [8,9,10]. Permafrost degradation affects the hydrology [11] and increases the probability of natural disasters in high-altitude zones [12]. The five large river basins of the Arctic Ocean (Figure 1: Lena, Yenisei, Ob, Mackenzie, and Yukon) are largely covered by permafrost [14]. The hydrology in these basins exhibits strong responses to permafrost degradation. Large pan-Arctic river basins are considered representative of the cooling mechanism of the Earth’s engine [11]

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Discussion

Conclusion