Standardized monitoring of permafrost thaw: a user-friendly, multiparameter protocol

Julia Boike,Noah Smith,Simone M Stuenzi,Ylva Sjöberg,Sharon L Smith,Anna K Liljedahl,Lei Cai,Simon Zwieback,Dmitry A Streletskiy,Stéphanie Coulombe,Evan J Wilcox,Julia Martin,Sebastian Westermann,Martin Schneebeli,Inge H.J Althuizen,Norbert Anselm,Hanna Lee,Sarah Chadburn

doi:10.1139/as-2021-0007

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Background and General introductionNorthern landscapes and infrastructure are affected by the thaw of permafrost, especially in regions of ice-rich permafrost because thawing can lead to surface subsidence and slope instability
The parameters measured along transects are: snow depth, thaw depth, vegetation height, soil texture, and water level
Our hope is that this openly available dataset will be highly valuable for validation and parameterization of numerical and conceptual models, to the broad community represented by the T-MOSAIC project

Summary

Background and General introduction

Northern landscapes and infrastructure are affected by the thaw of permafrost, especially in regions of ice-rich permafrost because thawing can lead to surface subsidence and slope instability. Soil: organic layer depth, soil texture, ground ice. We chose the specific measurement parameters (Fig. 1) to cover the major controls of permafrost thaw with simple measurements that are accessible to non-experts, and in doing so we inevitably cannot include some commonly used parameters, such as soil temperature, due to their need for specialized equipment. Measurements of soil properties, such as organic layer thickness and soil texture are only done once along the transect – ideally during the later part of the season when the thawed layer has reached its maximum The parameters in these spheres can vary dramatically across the landscape, for example, snow depth on palsas is much shallower than on an adjacent mire (Martin et al, 2019). We give details on the scientific importance of each sphere and its interactions with permafrost thaw, as well as the rationale behind the choice of parameter to measure and the chosen measurement technique

Background

Forest sites only: Actions

Water- Water Level

Soil – Soil Pit