@phdthesis{Grosse2005,
  author    = {Grosse, Guido},
  title     = {Characterisation and evolution of periglacial landscapes in Northern Siberia during the Late Quaternary : remote sensing and GIS studies},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-5544},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  year      = {2005},
  abstract  = {About 24 \% of the land surface in the northern hemisphere are underlayed by permafrost in various states. Permafrost aggradation occurs under special environmental conditions with overall low annual precipitation rates and very low mean annual temperatures. Because the general permafrost occurrence is mainly driven by large-scale climatic conditions, the distribution of permafrost deposits can be considered as an important climate indicator. The region with the most extensive continuous permafrost is Siberia. In northeast Siberia, the ice- and organic-rich permafrost deposits of the Ice Complex are widely distributed. These deposits consist mostly of silty to fine-grained sandy sediments that were accumulated during the Late Pleistocene in an extensive plain on the then subaerial Laptev Sea shelf. One important precondition for the Ice Complex sedimentation was, that the Laptev Sea shelf was not glaciated during the Late Pleistocene, resulting in a mostly continuous accumulation of permafrost sediments for at least this period. This shelf landscape became inundated and eroded in large parts by the Holocene marine transgression after the Last Glacial Maximum. Remnants of this landscape are preserved only in the present day coastal areas. Because the Ice Complex deposits contain a wide variety of palaeo-environmental proxies, it is an excellent palaeo-climate archive for the Late Quaternary in the region. Furthermore, the ice-rich Ice Complex deposits are sensible to climatic change, i.e. climate warming. Because of the large-scale climatic changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, the Ice Complex was subject to extensive thermokarst processes since the Early Holocene. Permafrost deposits are not only an environmental indicator, but also an important climate factor. Tundra wetlands, which have developed in environments with aggrading permafrost, are considered a net sink for carbon, as organic matter is stored in peat or is syn-sedimentary frozen with permafrost aggradation. Contrary, the Holocene thermokarst development resulted in permafrost degradation and thus the release of formerly stored organic carbon. Modern tundra wetlands are also considered an important source for the climate-driving gas methane, originating mainly from microbial activity in the seasonal active layer. Most scenarios for future global climate development predict a strong warming trend especially in the Arctic. Consequently, for the understanding of how permafrost deposits will react and contribute to such scenarios, it is necessary to investigate and evaluate ice-rich permafrost deposits like the widespread Ice Complex as climate indicator and climate factor during the Late Quaternary. Such investigations are a pre-condition for the precise modelling of future developments in permafrost distribution and the influence of permafrost degradation on global climate. The focus of this work, which was conducted within the frame of the multi-disciplinary joint German-Russian research projects "Laptev Sea 2000" (1998-2002) and "Dynamics of Permafrost" (2003-2005), was twofold. First, the possibilities of using remote sensing and terrain modelling techniques for the observation of periglacial landscapes in Northeast Siberia in their present state was evaluated and applied to key sites in the Laptev Sea coastal lowlands. The key sites were situated in the eastern Laptev Sea (Bykovsky Peninsula and Khorogor Valley) and the western Laptev Sea (Cape Mamontovy Klyk region). For this task, techniques using CORONA satellite imagery, Landsat-7 satellite imagery, and digital elevation models were developed for the mapping of periglacial structures, which are especially indicative of permafrost degradation. The major goals were to quantify the extent of permafrost degradation structures and their distribution in the investigated key areas, and to establish techniques, which can be used also for the investigation of other regions with thermokarst occurrence. Geographical information systems were employed for the mapping, the spatial analysis, and the enhancement of classification results by rule-based stratification. The results from the key sites show, that thermokarst, and related processes and structures, completely re-shaped the former accumulation plain to a strongly degraded landscape, which is characterised by extensive deep depressions and erosional remnants of the Late Pleistocene surface. As a results of this rapid process, which in large parts happened within a short period during the Early Holocene, the hydrological and sedimentological regime was completely changed on a large scale. These events resulted also in a release of large amounts of organic carbon. Thermokarst is now the major component in the modern periglacial landscapes in terms of spatial extent, but also in its influence on hydrology, sedimentation and the development of vegetation assemblages. Second, the possibilities of using remote sensing and terrain modelling as a supplementary tool for palaeo-environmental reconstructions in the investigated regions were explored. For this task additionally a comprehensive cryolithological field database was developed for the Bykovsky Peninsula and the Khorogor Valley, which contains previously published data from boreholes, outcrops sections, subsurface samples, and subsurface samples, as well as additional own field data. The period covered by this database is mainly the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene, but also the basal deposits of the sedimentary sequence, interpreted as Pliocene to Early Pleistocene, are contained. Remote sensing was applied for the observation of periglacial strucures, which then were successfully related to distinct landscape development stages or time intervals in the investigation area. Terrain modelling was used for providing a general context of the landscape development. Finally, a scheme was developed describing mainly the Late Quaternary landscape evolution in this area. A major finding was the possibility of connecting periglacial surface structures to distinct landscape development stages, and thus use them as additional palaeo-environmental indicator together with other proxies for area-related palaeo-environmental reconstructions. In the landscape evolution scheme, i.e. of the genesis of the Late Pleistocene Ice Complex and the Holocene thermokarst development, some new aspects are presented in terms of sediment source and general sedimentation conditions. This findings apply also for other sites in the Laptev Sea region.},
  subject      = {Dauerfrostboden},
  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}
}
@article{PalagushkinaWetterichBiskabornetal.2017,
  author    = {Palagushkina, Olga and Wetterich, Sebastian and Biskaborn, Boris and Nazarova, Larisa B. and Schirrmeister, Lutz and Lenz, Josefine and Schwamborn, Georg and Grosse, Guido},
  title     = {Diatom records and tephra mineralogy in pingo deposits of Seward Peninsula, Alaska},
  series = {Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences},
  volume    = {479},
  journal   = {Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0031-0182},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.04.006},
  pages     = {1 -- 15},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Vast areas of the terrestrial Subarctic and Arctic are underlain by permafrost. Landscape evolution is therefore largely controlled by climate-driven periglacial processes. The response of the frozen ground to late Quaternary warm and cold stages is preserved in permafrost sequences, and deducible by multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental approaches. Here, we analyse radiocarbon-dated mid-Wisconsin Interstadial and Holocene lacustrine deposits preserved in the Kit-1 pingo permafrost sequence combined with water and surface sediment samples from nine modern water bodies on Seward Peninsula (NW Alaska) to reconstruct thermokarst dynamics and determine major abiotic factors that controlled the aquatic ecosystem variability. Our methods comprise taxonomical diatom analyses as well as Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Redundancy Analysis (RDA). Our results show, that the fossil diatom record reflects thermokarst lake succession since about 42 C-14 kyr BP. Different thermolcarst lake stages during the mid-Wisconsin Interstadial, the late Wisconsin and the early Holocene are mirrored by changes in diatom abundance, diversity, and ecology. We interpret the taxonomical changes in the fossil diatom assemblages in combination with both modern diatom data from surrounding ponds and existing micropalaeontological, sedimentological and mineralogical data from the pingo sequence. A diatom based quantitative reconstruction of lake water pH indicates changing lake environments during mid-Wisconsin to early Holocene stages. Mineralogical analyses indicate presence of tephra fallout and its impact on fossil diatom communities. Our comparison of modern and fossil diatom communities shows the highest floristic similarity of modern polygon ponds to the corresponding initial (shallow water) development stages of thermolcarst lakes. We conclude, that mid-Wisconsin thermokarst processes in the study area could establish during relatively warm interstadial climate conditions accompanied by increased precipitation due to approaching coasts, while still high continentality and hence high seasonal temperature gradients led to warm summers in the central part of Beringia. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{StraussSchirrmeisterGrosseetal.2017,
  author    = {Strauss, Jens and Schirrmeister, Lutz and Grosse, Guido and Fortier, Daniel and Hugelius, Gustaf and Knoblauch, Christian and Romanovsky, Vladimir E. and Schadel, Christina and von Deimling, Thomas Schneider and Schuur, Edward A. G. and Shmelev, Denis and Ulrich, Mathias and Veremeeva, Alexandra},
  title     = {Deep Yedoma permafrost: A synthesis of depositional characteristics and carbon vulnerability},
  series = {Earth science reviews : the international geological journal bridging the gap between research articles and textbooks},
  volume    = {172},
  journal   = {Earth science reviews : the international geological journal bridging the gap between research articles and textbooks},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0012-8252},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.07.007},
  pages     = {75 -- 86},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Permafrost is a distinct feature of the terrestrial Arctic and is vulnerable to climate warming. Permafrost degrades in different ways, including deepening of a seasonally unfrozen surface and localized but rapid development of deep thaw features. Pleistocene ice-rich permafrost with syngenetic ice-wedges, termed Yedoma deposits, are widespread in Siberia, Alaska, and Yukon, Canada and may be especially prone to rapid-thaw processes. Freeze-locked organic matter in such deposits can be re-mobilized on short time-scales and contribute to a carbon-cycle climate feedback. Here we synthesize the characteristics and vulnerability of Yedoma deposits by synthesizing studies on the Yedoma origin and the associated organic carbon pool. We suggest that Yedoma deposits accumulated under periglacial weathering, transport, and deposition dynamics in non-glaciated regions during the late Pleistocene until the beginning of late glacial warming. The deposits formed due to a combination of aeolian, colluvial, nival, and alluvial deposition and simultaneous ground ice accumulation. We found up to 130 gigatons organic carbon in Yedoma, parts of which are well-preserved and available for fast decomposition after thaw. Based on incubation experiments, up to 10\% of the Yedoma carbon is considered especially decomposable and may be released upon thaw. The substantial amount of ground ice in Yedoma makes it highly vulnerable to disturbances such as thermokarst and thermo-erosion processes. Mobilization of permafrost carbon is expected to increase under future climate warming. Our synthesis results underline the need of accounting for Yedoma carbon stocks in next generation Earth-System-Models for a more complete representation of the permafrost-carbon feedback.},
  language  = {en}
}