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Changing Permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century

What is Permafrost

Permafrost is defined as ground that remains continuously or at least two consecutive years at or below 0°C. Some 24% of the land surface in the Northern Hemisphere is classified as permafrost.

Lowland permafrost regions are traditionally divided into several zones based on estimated geographic continuity in the landscape. A typical classification recognizes continuous permafrost (underlying 90-100% of the landscape); discontinuous permafrost (50-90%); and sporadic permafrost (0-50%).

Most of the permafrost existing today was formed during cold glacial periods, and has persisted through warmer interglacial periods for the past 10,000 years. In the Northern high latitudes, strong warming has been observed over the recent decades, and climate models project future warming.

A projected decline in the extent of permafrost will have a major impact on the Earth, affecting global climate through the mobilization of carbon and nitrogen stored in permafrost.

Illustration: Arctic Portal

PAGE21: The Project

PAGE21 - Changing Permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century. The project aims to understand the interactions between the global climate system and the frozen ground. It will quantify the permafrost thaw, measure the carbon and nitrogen emissions from permafrost zones and investigate the emissions’ effects on the environment.

The research outcomes will be fed into global assessments and international climate monitoring programs, in which most of the consortium members are already actively participating in leading roles. Several members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Working Group I will participate in PAGE21, ensuring a high visibility and a strong impact of the project results on global policy discussions on emission reduction targets.

Photo: P. Prokosch, grida.no. Photo: K. Piel

Photo: P. Prokosch, grida.no Photo: B. Edmaier

Photo: H. Lantuit

... permanently frozen soil ...

Partners

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, GermanyThe University Centre in Svalbard, NorwayStockholms Universitet, SwedenVrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The NetherlandsTechnical University of Vienna, AustriaUniversité Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, FranceUniversity of Exeter, United KingdomMax Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, GermanyMax Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, GermanyLund University, SwedenUniversity of Copenhagen, DenmarkUniversity of Hamburg, GermanyCommissariat ê l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies alternative, FranceMet Office, United KingdomFinnish Meteorological Institute, FinlandUniversity of Eastern Finland, FinlandInstitute for Biological Problems of Cryolithozone, RussiaArctic Portal, IcelandMoscow State University, Russia

Photo: M. Johansson

Photo: N. Weiss Photo: S. Härtel

Photo: J. Boike

Field Sites

The five primary and seven secondary PAGE21 field sites have been selected to cover a wide range of environmental conditions starting with the sporadic permafrost zone in the sub-Arctic and extending to the continuously cold permafrost zone. The project focuses on a smaller number of field sites that are able to provide a comprehensive range of monitoring parameters for the validation of Global Climate Models (GCMs) across the Arctic permafrost areas.

Primary Sites

- Abisko, Sweden - Kytalik, Russia - Samoylov, Russia - Svalbard, Norway - Zackenberg, Greenland

Secondary Sites

- Cherskii, Russia - Daring Lake, Canada - Herschel Island, Canada - Nadym, Russia - North Slope, Alaska, US - Spasskaya Pad, Russia - Vorkuta / Seida, Russia

Secondary sites

Primary sites Continuous permafrostDiscontinuous permafrostSporadic permafrostIsolated permafrost

Source: Brown et al. (1998)International Permafrost Association

For more information, please contact:

Hans-Wolfgang HubbertenProject CoordinatorAlfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine ResearchTelegrafenberg A43 , D- 14473 Potsdamhans-wolfgang.hubberten@awi.detel. +49 (0)331 288 2100

Melanie DahmsProject ManagerAlfred Wegener Institute for Polarand Marine Researchmelanie.dahms@awi.detel. +49 (0)331 288 2219

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Photos on front page:www.grida.no

gettyimagesJ. Boike