NSERC PermafrostNet news, updates and activities.
The NSERC PermafrostNet seminar video for November is now available.
Erika Hille presented her seminar on Characterizing the response of Arctic streams and rivers to permafrost thaw. Erika walked through her research on the relationships between thawing permafrost and water chemistry, covering Caribou creek, Rengleng river and the Miner river.
The NSERC PermafrostNet seminar video on SIKU is now available.
Sophie Crump presented her seminar on SIKU: the Indigenous Knowledge Social Network as a tool for Indigenous-led research and meaningful research engagement with Indigenous communities. Sophie presented examples of how SIKU is being used to document permafrost in the environment and opened up the discussion on using the platform for both knowledge sharing and monitoring of permafrost.
Most mountain permafrost research has been focussed on the small area of the European alps. This leads to the question, can you transfer cryosphere knowledge from the Scandes and Alps to Canada?
Emilie Stewart-Jones, has now developed a method for comparing regional climates at a coarse scale to highlight similarities and differences. Her paper “Transferring Cryosphere Knowledge between Mountains Globally: A Case Study of Western Canadian Mountains, the European Alps and the Scandes” published in the Journal of Alpine Research in November can now answer the question of whether we can transfer our knowledge of permafrost in one region to another.
The extent of permafrost thaw in the pan-Arctic remains unknown, but remote sensing, deep learning and crowdsourcing are helping to map permafrost degradation in the landscape.
The recent study by Huang et al study provides data and serves to develop a global inventory and better understand permafrost thaw in the pan-Arctic using very high resolution remote sensing. This approach could lead to a global inventory of retrogressive thaw slumps.
Lingcao Huang, Michael J. Willis, Guiye Li, Trevor C. Lantz, Kevin Schaefer, Elizabeth Wig, Guofeng Cao, Kristy F. Tiampo, Identifying active retrogressive thaw slumps from ArcticDEM, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Volume 205, 2023, Pages 301-316, ISSN 0924-2716.
A recent study by Teddi Herring suggests ways to improve how Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) is used for permafrost and highlights recent advances in this approach. ERT is a technique that is incredibly useful for studying permafrost, enabling us to see how deep the permafrost layer is and identify areas with ice content.
There has been a 10-fold increase in publications of studies using ERT to analysis permafrost in the last 20 years, and though challenges remain, and there’s no single “best way” to do it yet, the study makes recommendations for conducting ERT surveys to maximize the utility of existing and future data.
Herring T, Lewkowicz AG, Hauck C, et al. Best practices for using electrical resistivity tomography to investigate permafrost. Permafrost and Periglac Process. 2023; 34(4): 494-512. doi:10.1002/ppp.2207
A paper by the Thermokarst Mapping Collective (TMC), a research collaborative to systematically inventory indicators of permafrost thaw sensitivity by mapping and aerial assessments across the Northwest Territories (NT), Canada, has documented the first comprehensive inventory of thermokarst and thaw-sensitive terrain indicators for a 2 million km2 region of northwestern Canada.
Kokelj, S.V. et al. The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: a northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw. Arctic Science. E First. DOI: 10.1139/as-2023-0009.
Members of NSERC PermafrostNet gathered in Puigcerdà, Spain, last week for the 6th European Conference on Permafrost (EUCOP 2023). The conference brought together nearly 500 permafrost scientists from all over the world and covered a wide range of permafrost topics from research to engineering and outreach. It was a real treat to have an entire week dedicated to permafrost, something that had not happened since the last EUCOP in 2018. The relatively small number of attendants combined with the proximity that a smaller town offers were the perfect ingredients to renew and create new partnerships, exchange ideas in a casual atmosphere, and create a sense of community.
During the week, scientists attended lectures, participated in topical sessions, and discussed at ‘beer, poster, and cheese’ sessions (yes, that’s the official order from the program!). The quality and variety of presentations were outstanding, and Canadian researchers once again showed the relevance of their work and their know-how to their international colleagues. Many PermafrostNet members distinguished themselves by giving exceptional talks to the assembled participants, including Tabatha Rahman (ULaval), Hannah Macdonell (UCarleton), Adam Kirkwood (ULaval), Mahya Roustaei (UAlberta), Emma Street (UVic), and Toni Lewkowicz (UOttawa), while many others gave poster presentations.
Rounding out the week was a series of day-long field excursions on a range of topics. Participants could learn about the anthropogenic history of the region, the geological history, or explore the mountain peaks surrounding Puigcerdà in the eastern Pyrenees (Cerdanya, Núria, Andorra).
The week flew by and was inspiring and motivating. Many thanks to the organisers who worked tirelessly and pulled off an amazing conference! We look forward to welcoming all to the International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP2024) next year in Whitehorse.
In the meantime, please submit an abstract or join us at the permafrost session – Exploring the Roles of Ground Ice on Permafrost Dynamics at AGU23 on 11-15 December in San Francisco.
Two new NSERC PermafrostNet seminar recordings are now available.
Alexandre Chiasson presented his seminar on Variation in the morphology of permafrost peatlands across the transition from continuous to discontinuous permafrost, central Mackenzie Valley.
Pat Jardine presented his seminar on Field experiments investigating snowpack compaction as a method of lowering ground temperatures.
Pat Jardine will be presenting the next NSERC PermafrostNet seminar on Field experiments investigating snowpack compaction as a method of lowering ground temperatures.
Date: 31 May 2023
Time: 13:00-14:00 Eastern Time
Location: Zoom (details are posted in our Teams site).
Pat will present his work on a field experiment to assess ground surface temperature by snowpack compaction alongside two Yukon highways. This simple method can reduce the risk of damage from thawing permafrost to highway embankments.
Alexandre Chiasson will be presenting the next NSERC PermafrostNet seminar on Variation in the morphology of permafrost peatlands across the transition from continuous to discontinuous permafrost, central Mackenzie Valley.
Date: 19 April 2023
Time: 12:00-13:00 Eastern Time
Location: Zoom (details are posted in our Teams site).
Alexandre’s work focuses on peatland morphological variations through the transition from continuous to discontinuous permafrost in the central Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories and will specifically highlight the unique characteristics of dendritic peat plateaus (DPPs). Using statistical, remote-sensing, and mapping analyses, Alexandre will explore the differences in peatland morphology and how these peatland landforms responses have changed over time depending on a combination of climatic factors and environment settings. This webinar promises to provide valuable insights into the fascinating world of peatlands by highlighting new peat plateau landforms and their responses to global warming.