Permafrost degradation and subsurface-flow changes caused by surface warming trends

Andrew Frampton, Scott L. Painter, Georgia Destouni

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

84 Scopus citations

Abstract

Change dynamics of permafrost thaw, and associated changes in subsurface flow and seepage into surface water, are analysed for different warming trends in soil temperature at the ground surface with a three-phase two-component flow system coupled to heat transport. Changes in annual, seasonal and extreme flows are analysed for three warming-temperature trends, representing simplified climate-change scenarios. The results support previous studies of reduced temporal variability of groundwater flow across all investigated trends. Decreased intra-annual flow variability may thus serve as an early indicator of permafrost degradation before longer-term changes in mean flows are notable. This is advantageous since hydrological data are considerably easier to obtain, may be available in longer time series, and generally reflect larger-scale conditions than direct permafrost observations. The results further show that permafrost degradation first leads to increasing water discharge, which then decreases as the permafrost degradation progresses further to total thaw. The most pronounced changes occur for minimum annual flows. The configuration considered represents subsurface discharge from a generic heterogeneous soil-type domain.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)271-280
Number of pages10
JournalHydrogeology Journal
Volume21
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2013
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This study was funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR; project number 2007-8393), and is part of the research within the Climate Community of the Swedish e-Science Research Centre (SeRC).

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Heat transport
  • Multiphase flow
  • Numerical modelling
  • Permafrost hydrogeology

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