"Sensitivity of the permafrost system's water and energy balance under changing climate: a multiscale perspective"

Permafrost regions occupy approximately 24 % of the Northern Hemisphere's land area. The seasonally freezing and thawing upper ground, the active layer, plays a significant role in the land surface energy and moisture balance, and thus in the climate and hydrologic system. The main goal is to elucidate the two major cycles (water and heat) in the complex Arctic landscape system at scales from metres to kilometres (meso-scale). This will allow us to close the gap between our small-scale process understanding and the large scale that is accessible to satellite remote sensing. The goals of the project are: (i) establishing spatial and temporal linkages between water and energy fluxes at the plot and landscape scales of different permafrost affected ecosystems; (ii) developing a process-oriented model for the typical Arctic permafrost system to predict subsurface processes (soil water and heat). Already established instrumentation on soil thermal and hydrologic dynamic and micrometeorology was augmented with spatially distributed measurements. In addition, innovative aerial imaging methods were used including telescopic rods, mobile tram systems and drones. Long term monitoring of data, identification of key processes that determine the systems, modelling and highly resolved remote sensing studies at the meso-scale at three circumpolar study sites in Canada, Spitsbergen and Siberia are currently employed. Circumpolar extrapolation will aid in the understanding of how changes in annual and inter-annual heat and water interact and potentially offset the balance and stability of the Arctic climate system. This is of central importance for the understanding of the earth system under the predicted climate change.


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