Vegetation and Permafrost Thaw Depth 10 Years after a Tundra Fire in 2002, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

Narita, Kozo; Harada, Koichiro; Saitô, Kazuyuki; Sawada, Yuki; Fukuda, Masami; Tsuyuzaki, Shiro

doi:10.1657/aaar0013-031

Cited by 47 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Ground surface color and texture also have changed from the 2006 image, indicating a vegetation shift after the 2002 fire, as Narita et al . [] reported. The plausible cause for these drastic surface changes, seen only in areas burned between 2000 and 2006, is the 2002 wildfire.…”

Section: Interpretations and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[, ] and Narita et al . []. These studies showed that soil moisture had been higher for burned areas than for unburned ones in 2005, though this relationship has been reversed in the following years and surface soil layers at burned areas became drier.…”

Section: Interpretations and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The vegetation in the unburned area in 2007 was mixed shrub‐sedge tussock tundra, with some mosses and lichens [ Narita et al ., ]. Plant cover was continuous, with more than 95% total coverage, and the vegetation height was approximately 30–60 cm.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sphagnum mosses and lichens covered 15.3% and 7.5% of the ground surface, respectively. The 2002 wildfire altered the plant composition in the burned area, shifting from shrub‐dominated tundra to grass and sedge‐dominated tundra [ Narita et al ., ]. In this study, we have assumed that vegetation cover and underground conditions were similar, except for irreversible thermokarst deformation due to past disturbances at both sites before the 2002 fire.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geomorphological and geochemistry changes in permafrost after the 2002 tundra wildfire in Kougarok, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

et al. 2016

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Geomorphological and thermohydrological changes to tundra, caused by a wildfire in 2002 on the central Seward Peninsula of Alaska, were investigated as a case study for understanding the response from ice‐rich permafrost terrain to surface disturbance. Frozen and unfrozen soil samples were collected at burned and unburned areas, and then water isotope geochemistry and cryostratigraphy of the active layer and near‐surface permafrost were analyzed to investigate past hydrological and freeze/thaw conditions and how this information could be recorded within the permafrost. The development of thermokarst subsidence due to ice wedge melting after the fire was clear from analyses of historical submeter‐resolution remote sensing imagery, long‐term monitoring of thermohydrological conditions within the active layer, in situ surveys of microrelief, and geochemical signals recorded in the near‐surface permafrost. The resulting polygonal relief coincided with depression lines along an underground ice wedge network, and cumulative subsidence to 2013 was estimated as at least 10.1 to 12.1 cm (0.9–1.1 cm/year 11 year average). Profiles of water geochemistry in the ground indicated mixing or replenishment of older permafrost water with newer meteoric water, as a consequence of the increase in active layer thickness due to wildfire or past thaw event. Our geocryological analysis of cores suggests that permafrost could be used to reconstruct the permafrost degradation history for the study site. Distinct hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions above the Global Meteoric Water Line were found for water from these sites where permafrost degradation with geomorphological change and prolonged surface inundation were suggested.

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Section: Interpretations and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interpretations and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geomorphological and geochemistry changes in permafrost after the 2002 tundra wildfire in Kougarok, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

et al. 2016

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“…Our results support the view that burn severity is an important factor in vegetation recovery (Cai, Yang, Liu, Hu, & Weisberg, ), but suggest a caveat that there is an interaction between severity and topography that must be considered in areas where surface permafrost exists. The post‐fire recovery patterns are different between valley sites with permafrost and without permafrost (Narita et al., ; Schuur, Crummer, Vogel, & Mack, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post‐fire vegetation recovery at forest sites is affected by permafrost degradation in the Da Xing'an Mountains of northern China

Shi

Dech

Liu

et al. 2019

J Vegetation Science

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Question Vegetation recovery and succession patterns after fire are not completely explained by the interactions of climate, disturbance, and species pool. Site‐specific factors can substantially change vegetation succession. We hypothesize that on sites exposed to fire and surface permafrost degradation, successional trajectories will produce different species assemblages than typical post‐fire succession. Location Da Xing'an Mountains, northern China. Methods Vegetation and environmental data were collected at eight sites of past natural wildfire events. These sites represented different topographical situations, with four sites on slopes (lacking surface permafrost) and four sites in valleys (with surface permafrost). Three plots were established on each site, representing three different fire presence zones (burned, ecotone and unburned areas), giving a total of 24 plots. We used non‐metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) to describe post‐fire vegetation recovery at different sites and multi‐response permutation procedures (MRPP) to test our hypothesis. Results The variation in dates of last fire was similar between the slope and valley sites. Slope sites that had been burned prior to 2003 had recovered to a composition similar to unburned sites by the time the study was conducted in 2017. However, none of the burned valley sites had fully recovered, even those exposed to fire in 1986, suggesting that the surface permafrost conditions affected the recovery pattern of vegetation. On burned valley sites, shrub species that are tolerant of saturated soils had become dominant and the number of tree saplings and seedlings became significantly lower than on the slope sites. Conclusion The interaction of fire and topographic site type (through the influence of surface permafrost degradation) was revealed as a primary factor affecting species composition and tree density of post‐fire communities. On valley sites, melting of the surface permafrost after fire caused a failure of tree recruitment and prompted shrub species tolerant of saturated soils to become dominant.

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The Changing Biogeochemical Cycles of Tundra

Pries

McLaren

Vaughn

et al. 2022

Multi‐Scale Biogeochemical Processes in Soil Ecosystems

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Vegetation and Permafrost Thaw Depth 10 Years after a Tundra Fire in 2002, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

Cited by 47 publications

References 44 publications

Geomorphological and geochemistry changes in permafrost after the 2002 tundra wildfire in Kougarok, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

Geomorphological and geochemistry changes in permafrost after the 2002 tundra wildfire in Kougarok, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

Post‐fire vegetation recovery at forest sites is affected by permafrost degradation in the Da Xing'an Mountains of northern China

The Changing Biogeochemical Cycles of Tundra

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