| Title | Standardized monitoring of permafrost thaw: a user-friendly, multiparameter protocol |
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| Author | Boike, J; Chadburn, S; Martin, J; Zwieback, S; Althuizen, I H J; Anselm, N; Cai, L; Coulombe, S; Lee, H; Liljedahl, A K; Schneebeli, M; Sjöberg, Y; Smith, N; Smith, S L ; Streletskiy, D A; Stuenzi, S M; Westermann, S; Wilcox, E J |
| Source | Arctic Science 2021 p. 1-30, https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2021-0007  Open Access |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2021 |
| Alt Series | Natural Resources Canada, Contribution Series 20200690 |
| Publisher | Canadian Science Publishing |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; digital; on-line |
| File format | pdf; html |
| Subjects | surficial geology/geomorphology; environmental geology; Science and Technology; Nature and Environment; permafrost; ground ice; climate effects; snow; vegetation; soils; textures; water levels;
modelling; Terrestrial Multidisciplinary distributed Observatories for the Study of the Arctic Connections (T-MOSAiC); permafrost thaw; monitoring; Methodology; Protocol; Climate change; Metadata; Geographic data; cumulative effects |
| Illustrations | tables; schematic representations; photographs; flow diagrams; cartoons; schematic diagrams |
| Program | Climate Change
Geoscience Permafrost |
| Released | 2021 07 29 |
| Abstract | Climate change is destabilizing permafrost landscapes, affecting infrastructure, ecosystems, and human livelihoods. The rate of permafrost thaw is controlled by surface and subsurface properties and
processes, all of which are potentially linked with each other. However, no standardized protocol exists for measuring permafrost thaw and related processes and properties in a linked manner. The permafrost thaw action group of the Terrestrial
Multidisciplinary distributed Observatories for the Study of the Arctic Connections (T-MOSAiC) project has developed a protocol, for use by non-specialist scientists and technicians, citizen scientists, and indigenous groups, to collect standardized
metadata and data on permafrost thaw. The protocol introduced here addresses the need to jointly measure permafrost thaw and the associated surface and subsurface environmental conditions. The parameters measured along transects include: snow depth,
thaw depth, vegetation height, soil texture, and water level. The metadata collection includes data on timing of data collection, geographical coordinates, land surface characteristics (vegetation, ground surface, water conditions), as well as
photographs. Our hope is that this openly available dataset will also be highly valuable for validation and parameterization of numerical and conceptual models, and thus to the broad community represented by the T-MOSAiC project. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
This paper outlines the development of a standardized protocol for monitoring permafrost thaw. The protocol is designed to facilitate observations by
non-specialists, citizen scientists, government agencies and indigenous groups, to collect standardized metadata and data on permafrost thaw. The protocol addresses the need to jointly measure permafrost thaw and the associated surface and subsurface
environmental conditions such as snow and vegetation height, soil properties and water level along transects. Simple equipment is used for measurements which are recorded using an app. The protocol supports community-based monitoring and also
increases the data collected to better assess impacts of climate change and model validation for prediction of future conditions. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 327979 |
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