Landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

Abstract

Although three-dimensional (3D) seismic surveys have improved the success rate of exploratory drilling for oil and gas, the impacts have received little scientific scrutiny, despite affecting more area than any other oil and gas activity. To aid policy-makers and scientists, we reviewed studies of the landscape impacts of 3D-seismic surveys in the Arctic. We analyzed a proposed 3D-seismic program in northeast Alaska, in the northern Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which includes a grid 63,000 km of seismic trails and additional camp-move trails. Current regulations are not adequate to eliminate impacts from these activities. We address issues related to the high-density of 3D trails compared to 2D methods, with larger crews, more camps, and more vehicles. We focus on consequences to the hilly landscapes, including microtopography, snow, vegetation, hydrology, active layers, and permafrost. Based on studies of 2D-seismic trails created in 1984-1985 in the same area by similar types of vehicles, under similar regulations, approximately 122 km 2 would likely sustain direct medium-to high-level disturbance from the proposed exploration, with possibly expanded impacts through permafrost degradation and hydrological connectivity. Strong winds are common, and snow cover necessary to minimize impacts from vehicles is windblown and inadequate to protect much of the area. Studies of 2D-seismic impacts have shown that moist vegetation types, which dominate the area, sustain longer-lasting damage than wet or dry types, and that the heavy vehicles used for mobile camps caused the most damage. The permafrost is ice rich, which combined with the hilly topography, makes it especially susceptible to thermokarst and erosion triggered by winter vehicle traffic. The effects of climate warming will exacerbate the impacts of winter travel due to warmer permafrost and a shift of precipitation from snow to rain. The cumulative impacts of 3D-seismic traffic in tundra areas need to be better assessed, together with the effects of climate change and the industrial development that would likely follow. Current data needs include studies of the impacts of 3D-seismic exploration, better climate records for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, especially for wind and snow; and high-resolution maps of topography, ground ice, hydrology, and vegetation.

Thermal erosion patterns of permafrost peat plateaus in northern Norway

“…The feedback between the dynamical microtopography and the lateral fluxes shows how a limited increase in snow cover (when comparing the 10-20 cm snow and the 20-30 cm snow simulations) results in a dramatically faster degradation rate. Such a sensitivity to minor perturbation resulting into major modifications of permafrost degradation finds consistency with the observed permafrost destabilization when punctually augmenting the snow depth with a fence (Hinkel and Hurd, 2006), when implanting linear road infrastructures (Deimling et al, 2020) or due to the traffic of heavy vehicle in Alaskan lowlands (Raynolds et al, 2020).…”

Lateral thermokarst patterns in permafrost peat plateaus in northern Norway

“…The snow depth is a major control for the ground thermal regime (Gisnås et al, 2014;Martin et al, 2019;Sannel, 2020;Sannel et al, 2016). Strong wind redistribution of snow from the plateau to the lower-lying mire leads to a shallow snow cover on the plateaus (Sect.…”

“…It provides the opportunity to conduct field measurements and test process-based model approaches to further understand the local drivers of permafrost peatland dynamics. Both field measurements and numerical modeling experiments have contributed to our understanding of how microtopography drives the lateral fluxes of heat, water and snow and impacts the ground thermal regime (Martin et al, 2019;Sannel, 2020;Sannel et al, 2016;Sjöberg et al, 2016). Transport of snow and water from the plateau to the surrounding mire are critical factors leading to lower ground temperatures in the peat plateaus (mean annual temperature at 1 m depth is 2 to 3 • C colder than in the mire; Martin et al, 2019), which enables the presence of permafrost even in regions where the mean annual air temperature is above 0 • C (Jones et al, 2016;Martin et al, 2019;Sannel and Kuhry, 2011).…”

Cumulative impacts of a gravel road and climate change in an ice-wedge-polygon landscape, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

“…The pads are needed to protect structures from thermokarst and thermal erosion of the permafrost beneath them, but they also alter the hydrology and snow patterns, add large volumes of dust to adjacent ecosystems, and promote a variety of other roadside impacts that cause complex cumulative impacts to the underlying permafrost and adjacent ecosystems. These impacts have been studied separately to some extent in previous studies of road-related impacts in northern Alaska (e.g., Benson et al 1975;Brown and Berg 1980;Everett 1980a;Walker and Everett 1987;Auerbach et al 1997;Kidd et al 2006;Myers-Smith et al 2006;Gill et al 2014;Walker and Peirce 2015;Raynolds et al 2014aRaynolds et al , 2020Ackerman and Finley 2019;Connor et al 2020;Schneider von Deimling et al 2021;Kanevskiy et al 2022). Here we examine the combined cumulative effects of road-and climate-related changes of a gravel road in an area of ice-rich permafrost.…”

“…Understanding the cumulative impacts of Arctic roads and climate change is especially important for cumulative impact assessments for new infrastructure in areas that have high conservation value and/or high subsistence value to local people. For example, a recent environmental impact assessment that examined potential effects of a proposed petroleum-exploration leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska (BLM 2019) was criticized for lack of attention to potential cumulative impacts that would likely follow leasing, including impacts from seismic surveys, exploration drilling, oilfield infrastructure, and climate change (Raynolds et al 2020). The Department of Interior suspended all activities related to implementation of leasing activities in the ANWR pending completion of a supplemental analysis (DOI 2021).…”