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ARCTIC PERMAFROST THERMAL VARIABILITY ACROSS AN ENVIRONMENTAL GRADIENT FROM CONTINUOUS TO SPORADIC PERMAFROST IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE – A PAGE21 COMPILATION

Session: Characterization of Permafrost State and Variability I / Caractérisation et variabilité du pergélisol I

Hanne H. Christiansen, The University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS (Norway)
Julia Boike, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam (Germany)
J. van Huissteden, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Birger U. Hansen, Center for Permafrost, Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
Margareta Johansson, Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, University of Lund (Sweden)
Go Iwahana, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks (United States)
Boris K. Biskaborn, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam (Germany)

Permafrost temperatures are recorded in dominant ice-rich periglacial landforms in five different sites of continuous and sporadic permafrost for improved understanding of physical permafrost processes, and for the comparison of these processes between the five sites. Additionally active layer thickness from the official CALM data from each of the same sites have been compared. The landscapes vary from high-relief mountainous terrain to deltaic and floodplain lowlands, and are thus characteristic of large parts of the permafrost landscapes in the Northern Hemisphere, representing the landscape variability. Significant variation is seen in terms of the sensitivity towards climate change between the five site, ranging from relatively cold -8°C permafrost in Siberia, but with very large thermal conductivity, over warmer -4°C permafrost in Svalbard with normal thermal conductivity, to permafrost warmer than -1°C in Abisko. Thickest active layer is found in Svalbard, and thinnest in Kytalyk in Siberia, but with the peat of the sporadic permafrost in Abisko at an intermediate level.