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CHANGES IN PERMAFROST AND ACTIVE-LAYER TEMPERATURES ALONG AN ALASKAN PERMAFROST-ECOLOGICAL TRANSECT
Session: Characterization of Permafrost State and Variability I / Caractérisation et variabilité du pergélisol I
Vladimir Romanovsky, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks (United States)
William Cable, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks (United States)
Alexander Kholodov, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks (United States)
In this paper we report changes in permafrost temperatures during the last 30 years in Alaska. Most of the research sites in our network are located along an Alaskan Permafrost-Ecological Transect. This transect spans all permafrost zones in Alaska. Most of the sites in Alaska show substantial warming of permafrost since the 1980s. The magnitude of warming has varied with location, but is typically from 0.5 to 3°C. However, this warming is not linear in time and is not spatially uniform. While permafrost warming has been more or less continuous on the North Slope of Alaska with a rate between 0.2 to 0.5°C per decade, permafrost temperatures in the Alaskan Interior started to experience a slight cooling in the 2000s that has continued during the first half of the 2010s. The observed climate warming has triggered permafrost degradation in Alaska, especially in the north and at the locations which are affected by human activities.
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