青藏高原东北部冬给措纳湖湖区冰缘环境探讨

冬给措纳湖位于青藏高原多年冻土区东北部,湖区高寒沼泽、冰缘环境、冻土分布及其演化在全球气候变暖条件下,有其自身特点.为探讨冬给措纳湖湖区冻土分布及冰缘环境,2009年5月9—26日,对冬给措纳湖进行了考察,发现冻融草丘、冻胀丘遗迹、寒冻裂缝、热融洼地、古冻融褶皱等现代冰缘及古冰缘现象在湖区普遍存在.湖东、西岸的沼泽湿地中,热喀斯特发育明显,形成热融洼地和冻融草丘.湖北岸阶地及草场中存在零星和岛状冻土,经钎探表明,当时融化深度为0.3～0.8m,0.4m深度处冻土有胶结冰发育.湖东冲积平原的沼泽湿地中,冻融草丘和热融洼地存在;冻胀丘遗迹、寒冻裂缝在沼泽湿地边缘泥炭覆盖地存在.湖北岸二级阶地剖面发现古冻融褶皱.     

Spatial modelling of palsa mires in relation to climate in northern Europe

Palsa mires are mire complexes that occur in the Northern Hemisphere, representing one of the most marginal permafrost features at the outer limit of the permafrost zone. A climate‐based spatial model is presented for the distribution of palsa mires in northern Europe. The model is based on an extensive spatial data of palsa mires and climatological variables from 1913 grid cells in an area of c. 240 000 km². Generalized linear modelling (GLM) with curvilinear and interaction terms is used to derive the palsa mire–climate relationships. The ?nal model correctly classi?ed 77·6 per cent of the palsa mire presence squares. The results indicate a positive association of the distribution of palsa mires with increasing frost number and continentality, whereas precipitation and temperature showed a negative correlation with the distribution of palsa mires. Additionally, interaction of thawing degree days and summer time precipitation showed a negative association. Climatologically, the optimum areas of palsa mires occur in areas of low precipitation (<450 mm) and a mean annual temperature between ?3 °C and ?5 °C. Potential reasons for the performance of the model and the sensitivity of palsa mires to climate change are discussed. The application of a GIS‐based generalized linear modelling as used here provides a versatile method to study the distribution of different geomorphological phenomena across climatological gradients. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CLIMATE ENVELOPES OF MIRE COMPLEX TYPES IN FENNOSCANDIA

Peatlands are characteristic features of the Fennoscandian landscape, about one‐quarter of the land surface being classified as peatland. The aim of this work was to determine the extent to which the distribution of four main mire complex types (aapa mire, blanket bog, palsa mire, raised bog) can be modelled on the basis of climatological parameters. Additionally, the relative importance of different climatological variables in influencing the distribution of different mire complex types was scrutinized using the variation partitioning method. Variation partitioning is a novel statistical approach that provides deeper understanding of the importance of different explanatory variable groups for geographical patterns than traditional regression methods. The variation in the distribution of mire complex types was decomposed into independent and joint effects of temperature, precipitation and spatial variables. The distributional limits of aapa mires, palsa mires and raised bogs were primarily associated with thermal factors, whereas moisture regime also played an obvious role for blanket bogs. A considerable amount of variation in the distribution of mire complex types was accounted for by the joint effects of explanatory variables and may thus be causally related to two or all three groups of variables. Although the present distribution of mire complex types corresponded well to the contemporary climate in Fennoscandia, our results indicate that the climate envelopes of palsa mires are narrow. Thus, they can be expected to be extremely sensitive to changes in future climatic conditions.     

RECONNAISSANCE SURVEYS OF CONTEMPORARY PERMAFROST ENVIRONMENTS IN CENTRAL ICELAND USING GEOELECTRICAL METHODS: IMPLICATIONS FOR PERMAFROST DEGRADATION AND SEDIMENT FLUXES

Four different sites in the highlands of central Iceland have been investigated for permafrost occurrence using two‐dimensional resistivity imaging. The results of the surveys indicate the presence of shallow permafrost of low to medium resistivity. The distribution pattern is spatially heterogeneous which is consistent with permafrost at the fringe of seasonal frost. These sites are likely to react rapidly to changes of the environmental boundary conditions, therefore future research should include monitoring for detecting the early impact of climate change on permafrost degradation. The extent to which periglacial morphodynamics and sediment fluxes are influenced by permafrost and/or seasonal frost and potential permafrost degradation is hard to determine. Hence, long‐term monitoring approaches for both permafrost and sediment dynamics are essential.