Synthesis of studies of palsa formation underlining the importance of local environmental and physical characteristics

This review presents a synthesis of four decades of palsa studies based on field experiments and observations mainly in Fennoscandia, as well as laboratory measurements. Palsas are peat-covered mounds with a permanently frozen core; in Finnish Lapland, they range from 0.5 to 7 m in height and from 2 to 150 m in diameter. These small landforms are characteristic of the southern margin of the discontinuous permafrost zone. Palsa formation requires certain environmental conditions: long-lasting air temperature below 0°C, thin snow cover, and low summer precipitation. The development and persistence of their frozen core is sensitive to the physical properties of peat. The thermal conductivity of wet and frozen peat is high, and it decreases significantly as the peat dries and thaws. This affects the development of the active layer and makes its response to climate change complex. The insulating properties of dry peat during hot and dry summers moderate the thawing of the active layer on palsas. In contrast, humid and wet weather during the summer causes deep thawing and may destroy the frozen core of palsas. Ice layers in palsas have previously been interpreted as ice segregation features but because peat is not frost-susceptible, the ice layers are now reinterpreted as resulting from ice growth at the base of a frozen core that is effectively floating in a mire.     

天然气水合物气候效应研究进展

天然气水合物富含温室气体甲烷,且资源量巨大,对气候变化又十分敏感,在全球变暖的背景下其气候效应倍受关注,近年来的研究工作又取得了一些新进展.首先,天然气水合物资源量的估算进一步精确,海洋中天然气水合物资源量的最新估算值仅为原先的1/5,从根本上限制了其气候效应的显著性;其次,大气中来自天然气水合物的甲烷通量被重新评估,...     

Warming permafrost in European mountains

Here we present the first systematic measurements of European mountain permafrost temperatures from a latitudinal transect of six boreholes extending from the Alps, through Scandinavia to Svalbard. Boreholes were drilled in bedrock to depths of at least 100 m between May 1998 and September 2000. Geothermal profiles provide evidence for regional-scale secular warming, since all are nonlinear, with near-surface warm-side temperature deviations from the deeper thermal gradient. Topographic effects lead to variability between Alpine sites. First approximation estimates, based on curvature within the borehole thermal profiles, indicate a maximum ground surface warming of +1 °C in Svalbard, considered to relate to thermal changes in the last 100 years. In addition, a 15-year time series of thermal data from the 58-m-deep Murtèl–Corvatsch permafrost borehole in Switzerland, drilled in creeping frozen ice-rich rock debris, shows an overall warming trend, but with high-amplitude interannual fluctuations that reflect early winter snow cover more strongly than air temperatures. Thus interpretation of the deeper borehole thermal histories must clearly take account of the potential effects of changing snow cover in addition to atmospheric temperatures.     

Progress in Numerical Simulation of Long-Term Impact of Thermokarst Lakes on Permafrost Thermal Regime

Thermokarst lakes are a major heat source for the adjacent permafrost and a significant source of atmospheric methane. These lakes have important impacts on the physical, chemical, biological, geomorphological and hydrological processes occurring in the ground under and around thermokarst lakes, and seriously affect the local environment and the stability of the structures constructed in permafrost regions. Numerical simulation methods provide an effective method for quantitative analysis of the long-term impact of thermokarst lakes and their evolution on permafrost surrounding the lakes, and have deepened our knowledge about the impact of thermokarst lakes immensely. Summarizing the research progresses in numerical simulation of long-term impact of thermokarst lakes on thermal regime of surrounding permafrost has an important guiding function to improve mathematical models and develop more effective models. In this study, the components, functions, advantages and defects of several typical mathematical models having developed over the past ten years or so were reviewed, such as the heat conduction model with phase change, thaw slumping model, the coupled lake-permafrost model, thaw lake expansion model combining thermal processes with mass wasting and thaw-driven subsidence, the coupled heat conduction and moisture migration model, and the moving mesh method based thermokarst lake dynamic evolution model. Several issues deserving to be paid further attention in the future researches were proposed, including creating more effective models, determining the more realistic initial condition, lucubrating thermal and physical parameters of the typical soils, consider the impact of lake water replenishment, quantitative analysis of the thermal effect of supra-permafrost water flow around the thermokarst lakes, creating the coupled governing equation of heat conduction with phase change and convective heat transfer, embed ding the effect of climate warming in the model, numerical investigation of the long-term influence of thermokarst lake drainage on the environment change in permafrost regions, analyzing the long-term joint impact of multiple lakes on adjacent permafrost, simulating the near-shore talik development process and feature beneath shallow water in expanding thermokarst lakes, and continuing to do the systemic and comprehensive field measurements.     

SBAS-InSAR技术监测青藏高原季节性冻土形变

冻土的冻结和融化的反复交替会造成地质环境与结构的破坏,从而导致房屋和道路等地面工程建筑物的地基破裂或者塌陷,还会引起山体滑坡、洪水暴发以及冰川移动等.因此,监测冻土形变对确保冻土区工程建筑的稳定性和安全性,同时保证冻土区社会经济可持续发展具有重要的意义.目前,在冻土监测方面并没有能大面积监测冻土形变时间演化情况的有效方法,本文提出将InSAR技术中的小基线集方法(SBAS-InSAR)应用于监测冻土来获取其形变时间序列中.考虑到冻土形变呈现明显的季节性特征,本文提出利用周期形变模型来代替传统SBAS方法中的线性形变模型,从而更好地分离出高程残差和大气误差.利用ENVISAT卫星获取的21景ASAR影像图作为实验数据,采用改进的SBAS技术成功获取了青藏高原从羊八井站至当雄站铁路段冻土区的地表形变时间序列图,揭示了该冻土区从2007年到2010年的季节性形变演化情况.通过与研究地区温度变化的联合分析,发现所得到的地表形变结果与冻土的物理变化规律非常吻合,证明了SBAS-InSAR技术在冻土形变监测中具有良好的发展应用前景.     

Zonation for exploitation and utilization of geothermal water in Beijing

The types, factors and formation conditions of typical geological disasters within the permafrost zone in the Greater Khingan Range area of Heilongjiang province were analysed in the paper. The formation mechanism behind geological disasters was illustrated, and the development trend, prevention programs and effects of the typical disaster on communities, agricultural lands and landscapes were reviewed.     

Technical approaches on permafrost thermal stability for Qinghai–Tibet Railway

Widespread warm permafrost with a high ice content is a key problem for the roadbed stability of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway. A new approach is proposed to alleviate the effect of global warming and engineering construction on permafrost by cooling the roadbed and positively protecting the permafrost. Measures for cooling the roadbed by adjusting solar radiation, conduction, and convection are studied and applied to prevent ground ice from thawing and to ensure roadbed stability in permafrost regions. The results of monitoring permafrost embankments at Beiluhe and along the Qinghai–Tibet Railway show that the measures adopted for cooling the roadbed are very effective in raising permafrost table and reducing the soil temperature.     

Characteristics of evapotranspiration from a permafrost black spruce forest in interior Alaska

Here, the year 2011 characteristics of evapotranspiration and the energy budget of a black spruce forest underlain by permafrost in interior Alaska were explored. Energy balance was nearly closed during summer, and the mean value of the daily energy balance ratio (the ratio of turbulent energy fluxes to available energy) from June to August was 1.00, though a large energy balance deficit was observed in the spring. Such a deficit was explained partly by the energy consumed by snowmelt. Ground heat flux played an important role in the energy balance, explaining 26.5% of net radiation during summer. The mean daily evapotranspiration of this forest during summer was 1.37 mm day^?1 – considered typical for boreal forests. The annual evapotranspiration and sublimation yielded 207.3 mm year^?1, a value much smaller than the annual precipitation. Sublimation accounted for 8.8% (18.2 mm year^?1) of the annual evapotranspiration and sublimation; thus, the sublimation is not negligible in the annual water balance in boreal forests. The daytime average decoupling coefficient was very small, and the mean value was 0.05 during summer. Thus, evapotranspiration from this forest was mostly explained by the component from the dryness of the air, resulting from the aerodynamically rough surface of this forest.     

Changes in the thermal and hydraulic regime within the active layer in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The change trends of air temperature,precipitation and evaporation from 1999 to 2008 shows that the climate in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau permafrost region had become warmer.The analysis of the systematic active-layer data monitoring network along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway indicated that the active-layer thickness had been increasing and the soil temperature was rising.The soil temperature was rising in winter but not at the end of spring or during the entire summer.With thickening and warming of the active layer,the liquid water content of the active layer had an obvious downward migration and liquid water content in the top horizons decreased,but in the deeper horizons it increased.