Features, features everywhere

Continuing our site selection activities, yesterday the NGEE team flew by charter plane from Nome to Barrow, flying over or stopping at: Council, Kougarok, Kotzebue, Selewik, the Brooks Range, Ivotuk, and Atqasuk. Although in the early stages of NGEE we propose to focus our field activities on the Barrow and Council 'end-member' sites, we envision that later stages of the project will include a gradient study along a transect similar to what we flew. The beauty, vastness, and remoteness of the landscape was awe inspiring.

Over and over again, we witnessed a variety of permafrost degradation features in close proximity to each other. Being able to see these features from above - and in relation to the larger scale geology, topography and river systems - allowed us to speculate about key factors and interplay of processes that control the evolution of these features. The 'uniformity of the heterogeneity' was striking, and suggests that there is a rhyme and reason to the expressions. This is encouraging, because development of a next generation landscape simulator will require an understanding of the permafrost evolution as well as its impact on climate.

Last night (after dinner, at 11 PM at 'night', when there is still plenty of light to work....), Craig Tweedie gave the team a mini-tour of several experiments in progress in the area. This morning we will meet with community leaders in Barrow and spend the rest of the day scouting for field sites and visiting the Barrow ARM site. In contrast to Nome, the weather is gloomy here. I guess that is to be expected, for the farthest northern city in the US!

Thermokarst Exploration near Council

Today the NGEE team spent the day exploring the geomorphology, hydrology and vegetation near Council. We were able to observe an outstanding array of features indicative of the transitional nature of this landscape. On the hillslopes, we witnessed solifluction (or active layer detachment and transport) as well as shrubification. On flatter ground, we walked through many different thermokarst features, stepping from wet sedges in the middle of the thermokarsts (the first step is always a surprise...) to higher and dryer shrubs on the banks of the features.

We used a probe to measure the spatial variation in the active layer thickness , which often ranged from 30cm on the banks to >1m in the center of the thermokarsts; this variation is expected to drive a variety of above ground vegetation and below ground microbial ecosystem processes that feedback to climate. Not only were the transitions in moisture, vegetation, and active layer sharp, but the heterogeneity of features within a small distance was striking: thermokarsts, drained lakes, and patterned ground formations were all evident in close proximity. Witnessing textbook examples of such a variety of permafrost degradation features first-hand was awesome - it fostered plenty of team discussion about where to select sites for detailed study.

After investigating lodging possibilities for a field camp in Council and experiencing the generous hospitality of Council townspeople, we headed back for our last night in Nome. On the way back, we spotted reindeer and grizzly bear, as well as several large birds and small critters. What a day.

Tomorrow early morning we board a small charter plane to survey this and several other areas from the air – we expect another exhilarating day of observing these features from another perspective.

All photos in this post were taken by Roy Kaltschmidt and are under copyright by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab