Abstract
A characteristic of frozen ground is a tendency to form banded sequences of particle-free ice lenses separated by layers of ice-infiltrated soil, which produce frost heave. In permafrost, the deformation of the ground surface caused by segregated ice harms engineering facilities and has considerable influences on regional hydrology, ecology, and climate changes. For predicting the impacts of permafrost degradation under global warming and segregated ice transformation on engineering and environmental, establishing appropriate mathematical models to describe water migration and ice behavior in frozen soil is necessary. This requires an essential understanding of water migration and segregated ice formation in frozen ground. This article reviewed mechanisms of water migration and ice formation in frozen soils and their model construction and introduced the effects of segregated ice on the permafrost environment included landforms, regional hydrological patterns, and ecosystems. Currently, the soil water potential has been widely accepted to characterize the energy state of liquid water, to further study the direction and water flux of water moisture migration. Models aimed to describe the dynamics of ice formation have successfully predicted the macroscopic processes of segregated ice, such as the rigid ice model and segregation potential model, which has been widely used and further developed. However, some difficulties to describe their theoretical basis of microscope physics still need further study. Besides, how to describe the ice lens in the landscape models is another interesting challenge that helps to understand the interaction between soil ice segregation and the permafrost environment. In the final of this review, some concerns overlooked by current research have been summarized which should be the central focus in future study.
Highlights
Frozen ground, defined as soil or rock containing ice that remains at or below 0°C, is widely distributed globally (Qin, 2016)
We focus on the processes involved in segregated ice formation, which mostly describes the warmest or first ice lens ice based on the frozen fringe
Since Taber realized that frost heaving mainly comes from liquid water migration that supplies growing ice lenses, people have put forward to various theoretical models to improve the understanding of their mechanism
Summary
Frozen ground, defined as soil or rock containing ice that remains at or below 0°C, is widely distributed globally (Qin, 2016). This article reviewed mechanisms of water migration and ice formation in frozen soils and their model construction and introduced the effects of segregated ice on the permafrost environment included landforms, regional hydrological patterns, and ecosystems. The lack of detailed representation of water migration and ice formation in models probably increases uncertainty in the simulation of soil water content and temperature conditions (Pitman et al, 1999), leading to deviations in the assessment of the ecological and hydrological effects of permafrost at the landscape scale.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
