TY  - JOUR
A1  - Nitze, Ingmar
A1  - Grosse, Guido
A1  - Jones, Benjamin M.
A1  - Romanovsky, Vladimir E.
A1  - Boike, Julia
T1  - Remote sensing quantifies widespread abundance of permafrost region disturbances across the Arctic and Subarctic
T2  - Nature Communications
N2  - Local observations indicate that climate change and shifting disturbance regimes are causing permafrost degradation. However, the occurrence and distribution of permafrost region disturbances (PRDs) remain poorly resolved across the Arctic and Subarctic. Here we quantify the abundance and distribution of three primary PRDs using time-series analysis of 30-m resolution Landsat imagery from 1999 to 2014. Our dataset spans four continental-scale transects in North America and Eurasia, covering similar to 10% of the permafrost region. Lake area loss (-1.45%) dominated the study domain with enhanced losses occurring at the boundary between discontinuous and continuous permafrost regions. Fires were the most extensive PRD across boreal regions (6.59%), but in tundra regions (0.63%) limited to Alaska. Retrogressive thaw slumps were abundant but highly localized (< 10(-5)%). Our analysis synergizes the global-scale importance of PRDs. The findings highlight the need to include PRDs in next-generation land surface models to project the permafrost carbon feedback.
Y1  - 2018
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/51444
SN  - 2041-1723
VL  - 9
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  -