Permafrost is the only part of cryosphere inhabited by people, thus, permafrost thawhave become a multi-dimensional problem of environmental, economic, and social relevance. Widespread thawing of permafrost is expected in a warmer future and modeling studies suggest large-scale degradation of near-surface permafrost at the end of the 21st century. Concurring evidence from recent studies suggests that permafrost landscapes will undergo significant transformations, with unprecedented consequences for Arctic societies and direct impact on human infrastructure. In this session, we invite research covering a wide range of topics including permafrost thaw impacts to natural resources such as water and food production, human infrastructure such as roads and buildings, and societal challenges such as indigenous groups, herding, and culture. We encourage researchers from various disciplines from natural science, engineering, and social sciences to submit their scientific research findings. This session will focus on scientific findings and additionally we will host a parallel workshop that will focus on discussion of these topics.
permafrost, infrastructure, society, climate
Moritz Langer | Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Germany
Lei Cai | NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Norway
Yes Anna Liljedahl | Woods Hole Research Center, USA
Permafrost dynamics include multidimensional interactions and should be seen from a diversity of perspectives, incl. different sciences, engineering, and local resource use. This half-day workshop will combine different domains of scientific and local knowledge, to work out strategies for communication and dissemination. (1) Inhabitants of permafrost regions, engineers, and scientists from different disciplines will compare the role permafrost plays in their everyday work, how they experience it, how they observe/measure it. The aim is to reach a common ground of understanding methods and meanings of studying/working with permafrost. (2) What experiences have we had with science communication and public relations so far? How do we perceive media reporting? What messages are most relevant for the global public and how do we get them across? (3) How can we organise field schools and lecture series in a format attractive for the next generation of students and specialists? What are the targeted groups?
knowledge production, media, methods, outreach, permafrost
Joachim Otto HABECK | Universität Hamburg
Mathias ULRICH | Universität Leipzig
Permafrost thaw due to continued climate change and anthropogenic influences has significant impact on local and regional hydrology and biogeochemistry. The release of previously sequestered organic matter via greenhouse gas emissions has implications for global climate projections, and changing permafrost landscape dynamics has wide reaching impacts on water quality and aquatic ecosystem equilibrium. Due to the complex interplay between climate, permafrost, and people, there is strong need for cross-discipline collaboration and input from local populations. We welcome studies which focus on the interactions between climate change and permafrost dynamics and the effects of these interactions on biogeochemical and hydrological systems at different temporal and spatial scales.
Permafrost, greenhouse gas emissions, hydrology, biogeochemistry, aquatic ecosystems
Lara Hughes-Allen | Université Paris Saclay
Frédéric Bouchard | Université Paris Saclay
Ylva Sjöberg | University of Copenhagen
The Arctic changes faster than any other region on Earth, and is becoming warmer and wetter at rates that far outpace the planetary average. This amplified response has global climate impacts as Arctic glacier loss spurs sea-level rise, increased meltwater run-off perturbs ocean circulation, while changes in snow and ice cover alter the planet`s albedo. In the region, this transformation is manifested by dramatic surface changes: open waters and thawing permafrost erode coastlines, melting glaciers leave tracts of easily re-mobilized sediment in their wake or expose new lakes that may trigger outburst floods, and larger river discharges intensify fluvial processes. This session invites contributions that investigate this “geomorphological sensitivity” of a warmer and wetter Arctic and its global links using (a combination of) observational data (e.g. remote-sensing), reconstructions from past analogues and modelling approaches. Our main goal is to highlight how these changes will impact the environment and society in the near-future. We particularly welcome work that advances the state-of-the-art by presenting method innovations, applications in poorly investigated areas, or cases with societal relevance (e.g. hazard risk assessments).
climate change, geomorphological sensitivity, Arctic, hazards, risk assessment
Willem G.M. van der Bilt | Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research
Jostein Bakke | University of Bergen
Permafrost and periglacial processes are largely affected by climatic changes and are thus being studied by a variety of disciplines using a large diversity of methods continuously undergoing innovation. We invite contributions from all cold climatic areas in both the Arctic and Antarctic, but also from alpine environments, to present new observation or modelling based research, education and/or outreach outputs. Interdisciplinary work will be very welcome with having a very wide focus from engineering to societal implications expected. Just as national, regional or local scale results within specific disciplines studying permafrost and periglacial processes will also be welcome. We also encourage presentation of the new methodological approaches and novel research questions for permafrost and periglacial processes. This way the session will be able to present several good examples of regional changes in permafrost and periglacial processes, hopefully providing input to an improved overall global understanding.
Permafrost, periglacial, Arctic, Antarctic, alpine
Hanne H. Christiansen | The University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS, Norway
Michael Krautblatter | Technical University Munich, Germany
Closed on December 10, 2020