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.
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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Cuicui Mu, Xiaoqing Peng, Ran Du, Hebin Liu, Haodong Jin, Benben Liang, Mei Mu, Wen Sun, Chenyan Fan, Xiaodong Wu, Oliver W. Frauenfeld, and Tingjun Zhang
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.
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.
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
The Cryosphere, 16, 4823–4846, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4823-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4823-2022, 2022
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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.
Cuicui Mu, Xiaoqing Peng, Ran Du, Hebin Liu, Haodong Jin, Benben Liang, Mei Mu, Wen Sun, Chenyan Fan, Xiaodong Wu, Oliver W. Frauenfeld, and Tingjun Zhang
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
Short summary
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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
Short summary
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.
T. Qu, H. Zhang, F. Niu, X. Shi, and Z. Li
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLIII-B3-2020, 887–891, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B3-2020-887-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B3-2020-887-2020, 2020
Wenfeng Huang, Bin Cheng, Jinrong Zhang, Zheng Zhang, Timo Vihma, Zhijun Li, and Fujun Niu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 2173–2186, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2173-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2173-2019, 2019
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Up to now, little has been known on ice thermodynamics and lake–atmosphere interaction over the Tibetan Plateau during ice-covered seasons due to a lack of field data. Here, model experiments on ice thermodynamics were conducted in a shallow lake using HIGHTSI. Water–ice heat flux was a major source of uncertainty for lake ice thickness. Heat and mass budgets were estimated within the vertical air–ice–water system. Strong ice sublimation occurred and was responsible for water loss during winter.
Related subject area
Domain: ESSD – Ice | Subject: Permafrost
Multisource Synthesized Inventory of CRitical Infrastructure and HUman-Impacted Areas in AlaSka (SIRIUS)
An observational network of ground surface temperature under different land-cover types on the northeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
Modern air, englacial and permafrost temperatures at high altitude on Mt Ortles (3905 m a.s.l.), in the eastern European Alps
A new 2010 permafrost distribution map over the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau based on subregion survey maps: a benchmark for regional permafrost modeling
Soraya Kaiser, Julia Boike, Guido Grosse, and Moritz Langer
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3719–3753, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3719-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3719-2024, 2024
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Arctic warming, leading to permafrost degradation, poses primary threats to infrastructure and secondary ecological hazards from possible infrastructure failure. Our study created a comprehensive Alaska inventory combining various data sources with which we improved infrastructure classification and data on contaminated sites. This resource is presented as a GeoPackage allowing planning of infrastructure damage and possible implications for Arctic communities facing permafrost challenges.
Raul-David Şerban, Huijun Jin, Mihaela Şerban, Giacomo Bertoldi, Dongliang Luo, Qingfeng Wang, Qiang Ma, Ruixia He, Xiaoying Jin, Xinze Li, Jianjun Tang, and Hongwei Wang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1425–1446, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1425-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1425-2024, 2024
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A particular observational network for ground surface temperature (GST) has been established on the northeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, covering various environmental conditions and scales. This analysis revealed the substantial influences of the land cover on the spatial variability in GST over short distances (<16 m). Improving the monitoring of GST is important for the biophysical processes at the land–atmosphere boundary and for understanding the climate change impacts on cold environments.
Luca Carturan, Fabrizio De Blasi, Roberto Dinale, Gianfranco Dragà, Paolo Gabrielli, Volkmar Mair, Roberto Seppi, David Tonidandel, Thomas Zanoner, Tiziana Lazzarina Zendrini, and Giancarlo Dalla Fontana
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 4661–4688, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4661-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4661-2023, 2023
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This paper presents a new dataset of air, englacial, soil surface and rock wall temperatures collected between 2010 and 2016 on Mt Ortles, which is the highest summit of South Tyrol, Italy. Details are provided on instrument type and characteristics, field methods, and data quality control and assessment. The obtained data series are available through an open data repository. This is a rare dataset from a summit area lacking observations on permafrost and glaciers and their climatic response.
Zetao Cao, Zhuotong Nan, Jianan Hu, Yuhong Chen, and Yaonan Zhang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3905–3930, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3905-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3905-2023, 2023
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This study provides a new 2010 permafrost distribution map of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), using an effective mapping approach based entirely on satellite temperature data, well constrained by survey-based subregion maps, and considering the effects of local factors. The map shows that permafrost underlies about 41 % of the total QTP. We evaluated it with borehole observations and other maps, and all evidence indicates that this map has excellent accuracy.
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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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