Articles | Volume 16, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2033-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2033-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Data description paper
| 
29 Apr 2024
Data description paper |
| 29 Apr 2024
| 29 Apr 2024
The first hillslope thermokarst inventory for the permafrost region of the Qilian Mountains
Xiaoqing Peng
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Observation and Research Station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Guangshang Yang
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Oliver W. Frauenfeld
Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3147, USA
Xuanjia Li
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Weiwei Tian
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Guanqun Chen
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Yuan Huang
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Gang Wei
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Jing Luo
State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Cuicui Mu
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Observation and Research Station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Fujun Niu
State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
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Climate warming is causing more landslides in thawing permafrost, endangering ecosystems and infrastructure. We created a new satellite-based method to detect hidden small landslides in China's Qilian Mountains with 93 % accuracy. Fast-moving areas (>10 mm/year) with seasonal changes proved most vulnerable. This approach helps safeguard infrastructure and enhance warnings in cold regions globally.
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Permafrost warming lead to greenhouse gases release to the atmosphere, resulting in a positive feedback to climate change. But, there are some uncertainties for lacks of observations. Here, we summarized a long-term observations on the meteorological, permafrost, and carbon to publish. This datasets include 5 meteorological stations, 21 boreholes 12 active layer sites, and 10 soil organic carbon contents. These are important to study the response of frozen ground to climate change.
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Revised manuscript not accepted
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Climate warming is causing more landslides in thawing permafrost, endangering ecosystems and infrastructure. We created a new satellite-based method to detect hidden small landslides in China's Qilian Mountains with 93 % accuracy. Fast-moving areas (>10 mm/year) with seasonal changes proved most vulnerable. This approach helps safeguard infrastructure and enhance warnings in cold regions globally.
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Measurements of the permafrost distribution are often limited to seasonally frozen soil or permafrost at a few borehole locations, and the detection of deep permafrost and sublake taliks in the QTP has rarely been attempted. We used ERT, TEM, and ground temperature measurement (GTM) methods to investigate permafrost structure and sublake talik morphologies. We determined the current permafrost structure and found that permafrost below three thermokarst lakes has thawed completely.
Jianting Zhao, Lin Zhao, Zhe Sun, Fujun Niu, Guojie Hu, Defu Zou, Guangyue Liu, Erji Du, Chong Wang, Lingxiao Wang, Yongping Qiao, Jianzong Shi, Yuxin Zhang, Junqiang Gao, Yuanwei Wang, Yan Li, Wenjun Yu, Huayun Zhou, Zanpin Xing, Minxuan Xiao, Luhui Yin, and Shengfeng Wang
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Permafrost has been warming and thawing globally; this is especially true in boundary regions. We focus on the changes and variability in permafrost distribution and thermal dynamics in the northern limit of permafrost on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) by applying a new permafrost model. Unlike previous papers on this topic, our findings highlight a slow, decaying process in the response of permafrost in the QTP to a warming climate, especially regarding areal extent.
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Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-347, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-347, 2022
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
Permafrost warming lead to greenhouse gases release to the atmosphere, resulting in a positive feedback to climate change. But, there are some uncertainties for lacks of observations. Here, we summarized a long-term observations on the meteorological, permafrost, and carbon to publish. This datasets include 5 meteorological stations, 21 boreholes 12 active layer sites, and 10 soil organic carbon contents. These are important to study the response of frozen ground to climate change.
Zhuoxuan Xia, Lingcao Huang, Chengyan Fan, Shichao Jia, Zhanjun Lin, Lin Liu, Jing Luo, Fujun Niu, and Tingjun Zhang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3875–3887, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3875-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3875-2022, 2022
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Retrogressive thaw slumps are slope failures resulting from abrupt permafrost thaw, and are widely distributed along the Qinghai–Tibet Engineering Corridor. The potential damage to infrastructure and carbon emission of thaw slumps motivated us to obtain an inventory of thaw slumps. We used a semi-automatic method to map 875 thaw slumps, filling the knowledge gap of thaw slump locations and providing key benchmarks for analysing the distribution features and quantifying spatio-temporal changes.
Dong Wang, Tonghua Wu, Lin Zhao, Cuicui Mu, Ren Li, Xianhua Wei, Guojie Hu, Defu Zou, Xiaofan Zhu, Jie Chen, Junmin Hao, Jie Ni, Xiangfei Li, Wensi Ma, Amin Wen, Chengpeng Shang, Yune La, Xin Ma, and Xiaodong Wu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3453–3465, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3453-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3453-2021, 2021
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The Third Pole regions are important components in the global permafrost, and the detailed spatial soil organic carbon data are the scientific basis for environmental protection as well as the development of Earth system models. Based on multiple environmental variables and soil profile data, this study use machine-learning approaches to evaluate the SOC storage and spatial distribution at a depth interval of 0–3 m in the frozen ground area of the Third Pole region.
Xu Chen, Cuicui Mu, Lin Jia, Zhilong Li, Chengyan Fan, Mei Mu, Xiaoqing Peng, and Xiaodong Wu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2020-378, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2020-378, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
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Thermokarst lakes have attracted significant attention because of their ability to regulate carbon cycle. Now, the distribution of thermokarst lakes on QTP remains largely unknown, hindering our understanding of the response of permafrost's carbon feedback to climate change. Here, based on the GEE platform, we examined the modern distribution (2018) of thermokarst lakes on the QTP using Sentinel-2A data. Results show that the total thermokarst lake area on the QTP is 1730.34 m2 km2.
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Short summary
It is important to know about the distribution of thermokarst landscapes. However, most work has been done in the permafrost regions of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, except for the Qilian Mountains in the northeast. Here we used satellite images and field work to investigate and analyze its potential driving factors. We found a total of 1064 hillslope thermokarst (HT) features in this area, and 82 % were initiated in the last 10 years. These findings will be significant for the next predictions.
It is important to know about the distribution of thermokarst landscapes. However, most work has...
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