@article{FritzWolterRudayaetal.2016, author = {Fritz, Michael and Wolter, Juliane and Rudaya, Natalia and Palagushkina, Olga and Nazarova, Larisa B. and Obu, Jaroslav and Rethemeyer, Janet and Lantuit, Hugues and Wetterich, Sebastian}, title = {Holocene ice-wedge polygon development in northern Yukon permafrost peatlands (Canada)}, series = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, volume = {147}, journal = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0277-3791}, doi = {10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.02.008}, pages = {279 -- 297}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Ice-wedge polygon (IWP) peatlands in the Arctic and Subarctic are extremely vulnerable to climatic and environmental change. We present the results of a multidisciplinary paleoenvironmental study on IWPs in the northern Yukon, Canada. High-resolution laboratory analyses were carried out on a permafrost core and the overlying seasonally thawed (active) layer, from an IWP located in a drained lake basin on Herschel Island. In relation to 14 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates spanning the last 5000 years, we report sedimentary data including grain size distribution and biogeochemical parameters (organic carbon, nitrogen, C/N ratio, delta C-13), stable water isotopes (delta O-18, delta D), as well as fossil pollen, plant macrofossil and diatom assemblages. Three sediment units (SUS) correspond to the main stages of deposition (1) in a thermokarst lake (SW : 4950 to 3950 cal yrs BP), (2) during transition from lacustrine to palustrine conditions after lake drainage (SU2: 3950 to 3120 cal yrs BP), and (3) in palustrine conditions of the IWP field that developed after drainage (SU3: 3120 cal yrs BP to 2012 CE). The lacustrine phase (pre 3950 cal yrs BP) is characterized by planktonic-benthic and pioneer diatom species indicating circumneutral waters, and very few plant macrofossils. The pollen record has captured a regional signal of relatively stable vegetation composition and climate for the lacustrine stage of the record until 3950 cal yrs BP. Palustrine conditions with benthic and acidophilic diatom species characterize the peaty shallow-water environments of the low-centered IWP. The transition from lacustrine to palustrine conditions was accompanied by acidification and rapid revegetation of the lake bottom within about 100 years. Since the palustrine phase we consider the pollen record as a local vegetation proxy dominated by the plant communities growing in the IWP. Ice-wedge cracking in water-saturated sediments started immediately after lake drainage at about 3950 cal yrs BP and led to the formation of an IWP mire. Permafrost aggradation through downward closed-system freezing of the lake talik is indicated by the stable water isotope record. The originally submerged IWP center underwent gradual drying during the past 2000 years. This study highlights the sensitivity of permafrost landscapes to climate and environmental change throughout the Holocene. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{NitzeGrosse2016, author = {Nitze, Ingmar and Grosse, Guido}, title = {Detection of landscape dynamics in the Arctic Lena Delta with temporally dense Landsat time-series stacks}, series = {Remote sensing of environment : an interdisciplinary journal}, volume = {181}, journal = {Remote sensing of environment : an interdisciplinary journal}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {New York}, issn = {0034-4257}, doi = {10.1016/j.rse.2016.03.038}, pages = {27 -- 41}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Arctic permafrost landscapes are among the most vulnerable and dynamic landscapes globally, but due to their extent and remoteness most of the landscape changes remain unnoticed. In order to detect disturbances in these areas we developed an automated processing chain for the calculation and analysis of robust trends of key land surface indicators based on the full record of available Landsat TM, ETM +, and OLI data. The methodology was applied to the similar to 29,000 km(2) Lena Delta in Northeast Siberia, where robust trend parameters (slope, confidence intervals of the slope, and intercept) were calculated for Tasseled Cap Greenness, Wetness and Brightness, NDVI, and NDWI, and NDMI based on 204 Landsat scenes for the observation period between 1999 and 2014. The resulting datasets revealed regional greening trends within the Lena Delta with several localized hot-spots of change, particularly in the vicinity of the main river channels. With a 30-m spatial resolution various permafrost-thaw related processes and disturbances, such as thermokarst lake expansion and drainage, fluvial erosion, and coastal changes were detected within the Lena Delta region, many of which have not been noticed or described before. Such hotspots of permafrost change exhibit significantly different trend parameters compared to non-disturbed areas. The processed dataset, which is made freely available through the data archive PANGAEA, will be a useful resource for further process specific analysis by researchers and land managers. With the high level of automation and the use of the freely available Landsat archive data, the workflow is scalable and transferrable to other regions, which should enable the comparison of land surface changes in different permafrost affected regions and help to understand and quantify permafrost landscape dynamics. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} }