Changes in Ground Temperature and Dynamics in Mountain Permafrost in the Swiss Alps

Haberkorn, Anna; Kenner, Robert; Noetzli, Jeannette; Phillips, Marcia

doi:10.3389/feart.2021.626686

Cited by 40 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…With this finding along profile GG-P2 we see a similar trend as Haberkorn et al (2021), i.e. that ice-poor permafrost is affected by a more pronounced resistivity decrease than ice-rich permafrost.…”

Section: Permafrost Degradationsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…Documenting permafrost degradation by the comparison of historical and repeated ERT tomograms is based on three major processes: (1) The general atmospheric air temperature increase (MAAT) results in warmer subsurface temperatures (MAGT) in permafrost related environments (Etzelmüller et al, 2020). Subsequently, (2) this leads to a thickening of the active layer (Mewes et al, 2017;Mollaret et al, 2019), and (3) results in ice-poor permafrost responding stronger to temperature warming than ice-rich permafrost (Haberkorn et al, 2021), as more latent heat is required to thaw permafrost with high ice content than with low ice content (Harris et al, 2009).…”

Section: Permafrost Degradationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Haeberli et al, 1993). A Swiss network of thermistors installed in boreholes directly monitors ground temperatures giving the mean annual ground temperature (MAGT) (Etzelmüller et al, 2020;Vonder Mühll et al, 2008), which can be used to distinguish ice-poor from ice-rich permafrost (Haberkorn et al, 2021;Kenner et al, 2019). As the installation of boreholes is cost and time intensive, indirect methods such as geophysical measurements are often applied for subsurface ice detection and permafrost characterisation (Vonder Mühll et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical ERT-measurements

Buckel

Mudler²,

Gardeweg³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Ongoing global warming intensifies the degradation of mountainous permafrost. Permafrost thawing impacts landform evolution, reduces fresh water resources, enhances the potential of natural hazards, and thus has significant socio-economic impact. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has been widely used to map the ice-containing permafrost by its resistivity contrast compared to the surrounding non-frozen medium. This study aims to reveal the effects of ongoing climate warming on alpine permafrost by repeating historical ERT and analysing the temporal changes in the resistivity distribution. In order to facilitate the measurements, we introduce and discuss the employment of textile electrodes. These newly developed electrodes significantly reduce working effort, are easy to deploy on blocky surfaces, and yield sufficiently low contact resistances. We analyse permafrost evolution on three periglacial landforms (two rock glaciers and one talus slope) in the Swiss and Austrian Alps by repeating historical surveys after periods of 10, 12, and 16 years, respectively. The resistivity values have been significantly reduced in ice-poor permafrost landforms at all study sites. Interestingly, resistivity values related to ice-rich permafrost in the studied active rock glacier partly increased during the studied time period. To explain this apparently counterintuitive (in view of increased resistivity) observation, geomorphological circumstances such as the relief and increased creeping velocity of the active rock glacier, are discussed by using additional remote sensing data. The present study highlights ice-poor permafrost degradation in the Alps resulting from ever-accelerating global warming.

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Section: Permafrost Degradationsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Permafrost Degradationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical ERT-measurements

Buckel

Mudler²,

Gardeweg³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…While adding hazard factors does not necessarily improve the efficiency of the GLOF evaluation methods, we acknowledge that in future studies, integrating ground temperature and permafrost modelling, may provide even more robust results (Allen et al, 2019). Alpine regions elsewhere have exhibited increasing ground temperature and thawing of permafrost leading to slope failure (Haberkorn et al, 2021;Swanson, 2021), which is the key cause of dam overtopping of glacial lakes. However, our recommendations are made within the scope of freely available remote sensing imagery, although we acknowledge that novel field-based data can provide more appropriate information.…”

Section: Glof Hazard Potentialmentioning

confidence: 98%

Glacial Lake Area Change and Potential Outburst Flood Hazard Assessment in the Bhutan Himalaya

2021

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Against the background of climate change-induced glacier melting, numerous glacial lakes are formed across high mountain areas worldwide. Existing glacial lake inventories, chiefly created using Landsat satellite imagery, mainly relate to 1990 onwards and relatively long (decadal) temporal scales. Moreover, there is a lack of robust information on the expansion and the GLOF hazard status of glacial lakes in the Bhutan Himalaya. We mapped Bhutanese glacial lakes from the 1960s to 2020, and used these data to determine their distribution patterns, expansion behavior, and GLOF hazard status. 2,187 glacial lakes (corresponding to 130.19 ± 2.09 km2) were mapped from high spatial resolution (1.82–7.62 m), Corona KH-4 images from the 1960s. Using the Sentinel-2 (10 m) and Sentinel-1 (20 m × 22 m), we mapped 2,553 (151.81 ± 7.76 km2), 2,566 (152.64 ± 7.83 km2), 2,572 (153.94 ± 7.83 km2), 2,569 (153.97 ± 7.79 km2) and 2,574 (156.63 ± 7.95 km2) glacial lakes in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. The glacier-fed lakes were mainly present in the Phochu (22.63%) and the Kurichu (20.66%) basins. A total of 157 glacier-fed lakes have changed into non-glacier-fed lakes over the 60 years of lake evolution. Glacier-connected lakes (which constitutes 42.25% of the total glacier-fed lake) area growth accounted for 75.4% of the total expansion, reaffirming the dominant role of glacier-melt water in expanding glacial lakes. Between 2016 and 2020, 19 (4.82 km2) new glacial lakes were formed with an average annual expansion rate of 0.96 km2 per year. We identified 31 lakes with a very-high and 34 with high GLOF hazard levels. These very-high to high GLOF hazard lakes were primarily located in the Phochu, Kurichu, Drangmechu, and Mochu basins. We concluded that the increasing glacier melt is the main driver of glacial lake expansion. Our results imply that extending glacial lakes studies back to the 1960s provides new insights on glacial lake evolution from glacier-fed lakes to non-glacier-fed lakes. Additionally, we reaffirmed the capacity of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data to determine annual glacial lake changes. The results from this study can be a valuable basis for future glacial lake monitoring and prioritizing limited resources for GLOF mitigation programs.

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“…Other aspects of mountain environments and ecosystems are likewise responding to changing conditions. For example, species and habitats on mountain summits and across elevational gradients are redistributing [11][12][13] and mountain permafrost is degrading [14][15][16]. Given the highly interconnected nature of mountain systems, changes in individual components can propagate widely, sometimes initiating complex feedback mechanisms [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human populations in the world’s mountains: Spatio-temporal patterns and potential controls

et al. 2022

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Changing climate and human demographics in the world’s mountains will have increasingly profound environmental and societal consequences across all elevations. Quantifying current human populations in and near mountains is crucial to ensure that any interventions in these complex social-ecological systems are appropriately resourced, and that valuable ecosystems are effectively protected. However, comprehensive and reproducible analyses on this subject are lacking. Here, we develop and implement an open workflow to quantify the sensitivity of mountain population estimates over recent decades, both globally and for several sets of relevant reporting regions, to alternative input dataset combinations. Relationships between mean population density and several potential environmental covariates are also explored across elevational bands within individual mountain regions (i.e. “sub-mountain range scale”). Globally, mountain population estimates vary greatly—from 0.344 billion (<5% of the corresponding global total) to 2.289 billion (>31%) in 2015. A more detailed analysis using one of the population datasets (GHS-POP) revealed that in ∼35% of mountain sub-regions, population increased at least twofold over the 40-year period 1975–2015. The urban proportion of the total mountain population in 2015 ranged from 6% to 39%, depending on the combination of population and urban extent datasets used. At sub-mountain range scale, population density was found to be more strongly associated with climatic than with topographic and protected-area variables, and these relationships appear to have strengthened slightly over time. Such insights may contribute to improved predictions of future mountain population distributions under scenarios of future climatic and demographic change. Overall, our work emphasizes that irrespective of data choices, substantial human populations are likely to be directly affected by—and themselves affect—mountainous environmental and ecological change. It thereby further underlines the urgency with which the multitudinous challenges concerning the interactions between mountain climate and human societies under change must be tackled.

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Changes in Ground Temperature and Dynamics in Mountain Permafrost in the Swiss Alps

Cited by 40 publications

References 40 publications

Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical ERT-measurements

Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical ERT-measurements

Glacial Lake Area Change and Potential Outburst Flood Hazard Assessment in the Bhutan Himalaya

Human populations in the world’s mountains: Spatio-temporal patterns and potential controls

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