Estimating active-layer thickness over a large region: Kuparuk River Basin, Alaska, U.S.A

Active-layer thickness was mapped over a 26,278-km2area of northern Alaska containing complex and highly variable patterns of topography, vegetation, and soil properties. Procedures included frequent probing to ascertain thaw depth in representative land-cover units, extensive thermal monitoring wit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arctic and alpine research 1997-11, Vol.29 (4), p.367-378
Main Authors: Nelson, F.E. (University of Delaware, Newark, DE.), Shiklomanov, N.I, Mueller, G.R, Hinkel, K.M, Walker, D.A, Bockheim, J.G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ALASKA
Coastal plain soils
EFECTO INVERNADERO
EFFET DE SERRE
Foothills
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
Heat sums
Land cover
Permafrost
SISTEMAS DE INFORMACION GEOGRAFICA
Soil water
SYSTEME D'INFORMATION GEOGRAPHIQUE
Tundra soils
Tundras
Vegetation
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Summary:Active-layer thickness was mapped over a 26,278-km2area of northern Alaska containing complex and highly variable patterns of topography, vegetation, and soil properties. Procedures included frequent probing to ascertain thaw depth in representative land-cover units, extensive thermal monitoring with data loggers, and application of spatial analytic techniques. Geographic information systems technology was used analytically to merge thaw-depth and temperature data with a digital land-cover map, a digital elevation model, and a topoclimatic index, yielding a spatial time series of active-layer thickness for the map area at weekly intervals over the summer of 1995. Although the maps show a strong regional trend in the thickness of the active layer, extreme local variation occurs in complex terrain and in areas with sharp discontinuities in soil moisture content. Because active-layer thickness is influenced strongly by vegetation and soil properties, the relative volume of thawed soil beneath several landscape units is not proportional to the relative surface area occupied by those units. Predicted values of active-layer thickness are within approx. 6 cm of measured mean values in representative 1-km units distributed over the latitudinal extent of the study area. If computed and averaged for a series of years (e.g, one decade), the integrated products yielded by the mapping procedures could be used as baseline documents for comparison with calculations based on climate-change simulations.
ISSN:0004-0851
2325-5153
DOI:10.2307/1551985