Babin, Valery

Bourgeois, Jean

Frankl, Amaury

Goossens, Rudi

Hendrickx, Hanne

Lehmkuhl, Frank

Nyssen, Jan

Sanel, Britta

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

GEOMORPHIC RESPONSES TO PERMAFROST THAWING UNDER RAPID CLIMATE CHANGE: THE CASE OF THE RUSSIAN ALTAI MOUNTAINS  Hanne Hendrickx1, Jan Nyssen2, Britta Sannel3, Rudi Goossens4, Frank Lehmkuhl5, Valery Babin6, Jean Bourgeois7, Amaury Frankl8,  1 Ghent University, Belgium, hannehendr@gmail.com 2 Ghent University, Belgium, jan.nyssen@ugent.be 3Stockholm University, Sweden, britta.sannel@natgeo.su.se 4Ghent University, Belgium, rudi.goossens@ugent.be 5Aachen University, Germany, flehmkuhl@geo.rwth-aachen.de 6Gorno-Altaisk State University, Russia, babin@gasu.ru 7Ghent University, Belgium, jean.bourgeois@ugent.be 8 Ghent University, Belgium, amaury.frankl@ugent.be  In cold regions, climate change related permafrost thawing is causing geomorphic processes to intensify. This is especially the case in mountain regions, where several studies indicate increased geomorphic activity with the recent thawing of permafrost bodies [1, 2, 3]. In addition to the effect on geomorphic processes, permafrost degradation also results in increased CO2 and CH4 emissions [4]. This causes a positive feedback mechanism on climate change processes [5]. For both the intensity of geomorphic processes and rate of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, little information exists for mountain areas in the permafrost belt worldwide [3]. The Russian Altai Mountains are marginally glaciated and house sporadic and discontinuous permafrost [6, 7, 8]. Due to global warming, temperature and precipitation are changing rapidly in the area, at rates higher than the global average [9, 10, 11]. This result in highly dynamic environmental processes, making the Altai Mountains a potential area to understand the interrelations between geomorphology and permafrost, as influenced by climate change. Due to its marginal nature, permafrost degradation is rapid in the Russian Altai Mountains, and related geomorphological processes (e.g. landslides) are therefore accelerating [8, 12]. To study this, the general objective of this research is to understand the interrelationships between climate, permafrost and geomorphology in the climate sensitive Altai Mountains. This will be done by (i) conducting a detailed geomorphological mapping and linking the occurrence and typology of permafrost to geomorphic processes, (ii) understand and model permafrost dynamics (1960s-2100) in relation to climate trends and (iii) quantifying the magnitude of greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost. By doing so, this study expects to contribute to the understanding of the geomorphological sensitivity of cold climate mountains to climate-driven permafrost degradation, and to assess the potential of such mountains to greenhouse gas emissions (Fig. 1).   Fig. 1: Conceptual model of this study   REFERENCES  1. Vonder Mühll, D., Hauck, C. & Gubler, H. 2002. Mapping of mountain permafrost using geophysical methods. Progress in Physical Geography 26, 643–660 2. Gruber, S., Hoelzle, M. & Haeberli, W. 2004. Permafrost thaw and destabilization of Alpine rock walls in the hot summer of 2003. Geophysical Research Letters 31(13).  3. Harris, C. et al. 2009. Permafrost and climate in Europe: Monitoring and modelling thermal, geomorphological and geotechnical responses. Earth-Science Review 92, 117–171  4. Friborg, T. 2003. Siberian wetlands: Where a sink is a source. Geophys. Res. Lett. 30, 21–29  5. Desyatkin, A. R. et al. 2009. CH4 emission from different stages of thermokarst formation in Central Yakutia, East Siberia. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition 55, 558–570  6. Brown, J. et al. 2002. Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground-Ice Conditions. Version 2. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center.  7. Anisimov, O. A. 2007. Potential feedback of thawing permafrost to the global climate system through methane emission. Environmental Research Letters 2, 1–7  8. Marchenko, S., Gorbunov, A. & Romanovsky, V. 2006. Changes in Climate and Permafrost and its impact on the Frozen Tombs in the Mountains of Central Asia. in Conference proceedings, held in Gorno-Altaisk Frozen Tombs Altai Mt. Strategies and Perspective, UNESCO Work.  9. IPCC, 2007. Climate Change 2007 : An Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 446, Synthesis Report, 12–17 (Cambridge University Press) 10. Kharlamova, N. 2010. Trends of climate change in the region. Climate Change Connectivity Conservation in the Altai-Sayan Ecoregion 10–25 11. Narozhniy, Y. & Zemtsov, V. 2010. Current state of the Altai Glaciers (Russia) and trends over the period of instrumental observations 1952–2008. Ambio 40(6), 575-588 12. Jin, H., Li, S., Cheng, G., Shaoling, W. & Li, X. 2000. Permafrost and climatic change in China. Global and Planetary Change 26, 387–404    

Geomorphic responses to permafrost thawing under rapid climate change : the case of the Russian Altai mountains

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Geomorphic responses to permafrost thawing under rapid climate change : the case of the Russian Altai mountains

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