Other Meetings

Thermokarst and permafrost dynamics: feedbacks with climate change

The XVIII INQUA-Congress
Bern, Switzerland
20-27 July 2011

Keynote speakers

Julian Murton, University of Sussex, UK: “Thermokarst in the geological record”
Mary Edwards, University of Southampton, UK: “Late Quaternary history of thermokarst lakes”

Abstract submission deadline:

30 November 2010

For further information, please visit the website:
http://www.inqua2011.ch/?a=programme&subnavi=sessions&id=68

Session conveners

Guido Grosse, University of Alaska Fairbanks, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Britta Sannel, Stockholm University, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Session description

 

Twenty-four percent of the Northern Hemisphere land surface is underlain by permafrost, and large areas of the permafrost domain are ice-rich terrains affected by thermokarst processes. Thermokarst is a key process for understanding the dynamics of permafrost in the context of climate change and disturbances. This session is intended to provide an overview on current understanding of permafrost and thermokarst dynamics in the northern hemisphere and their feedbacks with global climate processes during the Quaternary. Permafrost is a major factor influencing cold-region hydrology, ecosystems, and soil carbon storage over long periods of the Quaternary. In turn, key feedbacks from permafrost degradation by rapid thermokarst include changes in hydrology, geomorphology, carbon cycling, and ecosystem function and structure. Thermokarst formation since the last deglaciation has substantially reshaped high-latitude lowlands, significantly altered hydrological patterns, and contributed to the Late Glacial / Early Holocene rise of atmospheric methane. We solicit papers and discussions reflecting our current understanding of the importance of permafrost and thermokarst for past, present and future high-latitude lowland environments and their impacts on global climate dynamics in the Quaternary. In this session we are also interested in submissions from a wide range of disciplines that can provide qualitative and/or quantitative information on permafrost-thermokarst-climate feedbacks on various time-scales during the Quaternary, including but not limited to cryolithology, paleoecology, isotope chemistry, biogeochemistry, microbiology, geomorphology, hydrology, and spatially distributed modelling of permafrost, thermokarst, and their climate feedbacks.