Terrestrial permafrost is any earth material that exists at or below 0° C continuously for at least two consecutive years.
Objectives
WP1 will improve the capacity to predict the impacts of permafrost thawing on land with a focus on the lateral processes most relevant to the land-sea interface. In the Nunataryuk focal areas and at Nunataryuk sites, WP1 will undertake a series of investigations to create fundamental datasets and process understanding to quantify thawing permafrost and its impact on storage and vulnerability of organic matter and contaminants on land. WP1 will sample and characterize representative permafrost catchments, including their thaw-vulnerability and thaw-impacts on lateral fluxes into the aquatic realm (together with WP2 and WP6). They will also conduct community scale analyses of infrastructure vulnerability associated with geomorphic disturbance and permafrost thaw (together with WP7). WP2 will also produce pan-Arctic datasets on infrastructure, on contaminants and on soil properties to feed into the risk mapping efforts of WP6 and into the Earth System Modelling in WP8.
The specific objectives of this workpackage are:
- O1.1: Full characterization of small permafrost stream catchments, including thaw-impacts on lateral fluxes of sediments, dissolved and particulate organic matter, nitrogen and contaminants into the aquatic realm.
- O1.2: Development of novel pan-Arctic datasets on contaminants stored in permafrost including local case studies of potential release under thaw.
- O1.3: Pan-Arctic development of multifactorial geospatial database to support Earth System Model- development with a focus on representation of lateral fluxes.
- O1.4: Local to pan-Arctic scaling and modelling of links between periglacial landforms, vulnerability to thaw and lateral fluxes of sediments, organic matter, nitrogen and contaminants from land to sea.
WP Coordination
Dr. Gustaf Hugelius, Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University
Description of deliverables
D1.1 Framework document for geospatial databases of contaminants in permafrost soils (SU) - Month 12
D1.2 Report on catchment-scale geospatial databases of thaw impacts on potential lateral flux from permafrost (SU, UNIVIE, BGEOS, UiO) - Month 24.
D1.3 Report on geospatial databases of contaminants in pan-Arctic permafrost soils (SU, CNR) - Month 54.
D1.4 Report on integrated multifactorial pan-Arctic spatial database of river catchment characteristics (SU, BGEOS) - Month 54.
D1.5 Report on data-constrained modelling of lateral fluxes of C, nitrogen and contaminants from land to sea (SU, BGEOS, UNIVIE, CNR, UiO) - Month 60.
