TY - JOUR A1 - Heslop, J. K. A1 - Winkel, Matthias A1 - Anthony, K. M. Walter A1 - Spencer, R. G. M. A1 - Podgorski, D. C. A1 - Zito, P. A1 - Kholodov, A. A1 - Zhang, M. A1 - Liebner, Susanne T1 - Increasing organic carbon biolability with depth in yedoma permafrost BT - ramifications for future climate change JF - Journal of geophysical research : Biogeosciences N2 - Permafrost thaw subjects previously frozen organic carbon (OC) to microbial decomposition, generating the greenhouse gases (GHG) carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) and fueling a positive climate feedback. Over one quarter of permafrost OC is stored in deep, ice-rich Pleistocene-aged yedoma permafrost deposits. We used a combination of anaerobic incubations, microbial sequencing, and ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry to show yedoma OC biolability increases with depth along a 12-m yedoma profile. In incubations at 3 degrees C and 13 degrees C, GHG production per unit OC at 12-versus 1.3-m depth was 4.6 and 20.5 times greater, respectively. Bacterial diversity decreased with depth and we detected methanogens at all our sampled depths, suggesting that in situ microbial communities are equipped to metabolize thawed OC into CH4. We concurrently observed an increase in the relative abundance of reduced, saturated OC compounds, which corresponded to high proportions of C mineralization and positively correlated with anaerobic GHG production potentials and higher proportions of OC being mineralized as CH4. Taking into account the higher global warming potential (GWP) of CH4 compared to CO2, thawed yedoma sediments in our study had 2 times higher GWP at 12-versus 9.0-m depth at 3 degrees C and 15 times higher GWP at 13 degrees C. Considering that yedoma is vulnerable to processes that thaw deep OC, our findings imply that it is important to account for this increasing GHG production and GWP with depth to better understand the disproportionate impact of yedoma on the magnitude of the permafrost carbon feedback. KW - permafrost KW - carbon KW - yedoma KW - Alaska KW - FT-ICR MS KW - microbes Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JG004712 SN - 2169-8953 SN - 2169-8961 VL - 124 IS - 7 SP - 2021 EP - 2038 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nitze, Ingmar A1 - Grosse, Guido A1 - Jones, Benjamin M. A1 - Arp, Christopher D. A1 - Ulrich, Mathias A1 - Fedorov, Alexander A1 - Veremeeva, Alexandra T1 - Landsat-Based Trend Analysis of Lake Dynamics across Northern Permafrost Regions JF - Remote sensing N2 - Lakes are a ubiquitous landscape feature in northern permafrost regions. They have a strong impact on carbon, energy and water fluxes and can be quite responsive to climate change. The monitoring of lake change in northern high latitudes, at a sufficiently accurate spatial and temporal resolution, is crucial for understanding the underlying processes driving lake change. To date, lake change studies in permafrost regions were based on a variety of different sources, image acquisition periods and single snapshots, and localized analysis, which hinders the comparison of different regions. Here, we present a methodology based on machine-learning based classification of robust trends of multi-spectral indices of Landsat data (TM, ETM+, OLI) and object-based lake detection, to analyze and compare the individual, local and regional lake dynamics of four different study sites (Alaska North Slope, Western Alaska, Central Yakutia, Kolyma Lowland) in the northern permafrost zone from 1999 to 2014. Regional patterns of lake area change on the Alaska North Slope (-0.69%), Western Alaska (-2.82%), and Kolyma Lowland (-0.51%) largely include increases due to thermokarst lake expansion, but more dominant lake area losses due to catastrophic lake drainage events. In contrast, Central Yakutia showed a remarkable increase in lake area of 48.48%, likely resulting from warmer and wetter climate conditions over the latter half of the study period. Within all study regions, variability in lake dynamics was associated with differences in permafrost characteristics, landscape position (i.e., upland vs. lowland), and surface geology. With the global availability of Landsat data and a consistent methodology for processing the input data derived from robust trends of multi-spectral indices, we demonstrate a transferability, scalability and consistency of lake change analysis within the northern permafrost region. KW - lake dynamics KW - lake change KW - permafrost region KW - Landsat KW - Alaska KW - Siberia KW - thermokarst KW - trend analysis KW - machine-learning Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9070640 SN - 2072-4292 VL - 9 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gorum, Tolga A1 - Korup, Oliver A1 - van Westen, Cees J. A1 - van der Meijde, Mark A1 - Xu, Chong A1 - van der Meer, Freek D. T1 - Why so few? Landslides triggered by the 2002 Denali earthquake, Alaska JF - Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal N2 - The 2002 M-w 7.9 Denali Fault earthquake, Alaska, provides an unparalleled opportunity to investigate in quantitative detail the regional hillslope mass-wasting response to strong seismic shaking in glacierized terrain. We present the first detailed inventory of similar to 1580 coseismic slope failures, out of which some 20% occurred above large valley glaciers, based on mapping from multi-temporal remote sensing data. We find that the Denali earthquake produced at least one order of magnitude fewer landslides in a much narrower corridor along the fault ruptures than empirical predictions for an M 8 earthquake would suggest, despite the availability of sufficiently steep and dissected mountainous topography prone to frequent slope failure. In order to explore potential controls on the reduced extent of regional coseismic landsliding we compare our data with inventories that we compiled for two recent earthquakes in periglacial and formerly glaciated terrain, i.e. at Yushu, Tibet (M-w 6.9, 2010), and Aysen Fjord, Chile (2007 M-w 6.2). Fault movement during these events was, similarly to that of the Denali earthquake, dominated by strike-slip offsets along near-vertical faults. Our comparison returns very similar coseismic landslide patterns that are consistent with the idea that fault type, geometry, and dynamic rupture process rather than widespread glacier cover were among the first-order controls on regional hillslope erosional response in these earthquakes. We conclude that estimating the amount of coseismic hillslope sediment input to the sediment cascade from earthquake magnitude alone remains highly problematic, particularly if glacierized terrain is involved. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Earthquake KW - Landslide KW - Glacial KW - Sediment cascade KW - Denali KW - Alaska Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.04.032 SN - 0277-3791 VL - 95 SP - 80 EP - 94 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Uhlmann, Manuela A1 - Korup, Oliver A1 - Huggel, Christian A1 - Fischer, Luzia A1 - Kargel, Jeffrey S. T1 - Supra-glacial deposition and flux of catastrophic rock-slope failure debris, south-central Alaska JF - Earth surface processes and landforms : the journal of the British Geomorphological Research Group N2 - The ongoing debate over the effects of global environmental change on Earth's cryosphere calls for detailed knowledge about process rates and their variability in cold environments. In this context, appraisals of the coupling between glacier dynamics and para-glacial erosion rates in tectonically active mountains remain rare. We contribute to filling this knowledge gap and present an unprecedented regional-scale inventory of supra-glacial sediment flux and hillslope erosion rates inferred from an analysis of 123 large (> 0 center dot 1km2) catastrophic bedrock landslides that fell onto glaciers in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, as documented by satellite images obtained between 1972 to 2008. Assuming these supra-glacial landslide deposits to be passive strain markers we infer minimum decadal-scale sediment yields of 190 to 7400tkm-2yr-1 for a given glacier-surface cross-section impacted by episodic rock-slope failure. These rates compare to reported fluvial sediment yields in many mountain rivers, but are an order of magnitude below the extreme sediment yields measured at the snouts of Alaskan glaciers, indicating that the bulk of debris discharged derives from en-glacial, sub-glacial or ice-proximal sources. We estimate an average minimum para-glacial erosion rate by large, episodic rock-slope failures at 0 center dot 5-0 center dot 7mmyr-1 in the Chugach Mountains over a 50-yr period, with earthquakes likely being responsible for up to 73% of this rate. Though ranking amongst the highest decadal landslide erosion rates for this size of study area worldwide, our inferred rates of hillslope erosion in the Chugach Mountains remain an order of magnitude below the pace of extremely rapid glacial sediment export and glacio-isostatic surface uplift previously reported from the region. KW - glacier KW - landslide KW - erosion rate KW - sediment yield KW - Alaska Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3311 SN - 0197-9337 VL - 38 IS - 7 SP - 675 EP - 682 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER -