Thawing Permafrost

Thawing Permafrost PDF Author: J. van Huissteden
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030313794
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
This book provides a cross-disciplinary overview of permafrost and the carbon cycle by providing an introduction into the geographical distribution of permafrost, with a focus on the distribution of permafrost and its soil carbon reservoirs. The chapters explain the basic physical properties and processes of permafrost soils: ice, mineral and organic components, and how these interact with climate, vegetation and geomorphological processes. In particular, the book covers the role of the large quantities of ice in many permafrost soils which are crucial to understanding carbon cycle processes. An explanation is given on how permafrost becomes loaded with ice and carbon. Gas hydrates are also introduced. Structures and processes formed by the intense freeze-thaw action in the active layer are considered (e.g. ice wedging, cryoturbation), and the processes that occur as the permafrost thaws, (pond and lake formation, erosion). The book introduces soil carbon accumulation and decomposition mechanisms and how these are modified in a permafrost environment. A separate chapter deals with deep permafrost carbon, gas reservoirs and recently discovered methane emission phenomena from regions such as Northwest Siberia and the Siberian yedoma permafrost.

Thawing Permafrost

Thawing Permafrost PDF Author: J. van Huissteden
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030313794
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 520

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book provides a cross-disciplinary overview of permafrost and the carbon cycle by providing an introduction into the geographical distribution of permafrost, with a focus on the distribution of permafrost and its soil carbon reservoirs. The chapters explain the basic physical properties and processes of permafrost soils: ice, mineral and organic components, and how these interact with climate, vegetation and geomorphological processes. In particular, the book covers the role of the large quantities of ice in many permafrost soils which are crucial to understanding carbon cycle processes. An explanation is given on how permafrost becomes loaded with ice and carbon. Gas hydrates are also introduced. Structures and processes formed by the intense freeze-thaw action in the active layer are considered (e.g. ice wedging, cryoturbation), and the processes that occur as the permafrost thaws, (pond and lake formation, erosion). The book introduces soil carbon accumulation and decomposition mechanisms and how these are modified in a permafrost environment. A separate chapter deals with deep permafrost carbon, gas reservoirs and recently discovered methane emission phenomena from regions such as Northwest Siberia and the Siberian yedoma permafrost.

Once Upon the Permafrost

Once Upon the Permafrost PDF Author: Susan Alexandra Crate
Publisher: Critical Green Engagements: In
ISBN: 9780816541553
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Once Upon the Permafrost is a longitudinal climate ethnography about "knowing" a specific culture and the ecosystem that culture physically and spiritually depends on in the twenty-first-century context of climate change. Through careful integration of contemporary narratives, on-site observations, and document analysis, Susan Alexandra Crate shows how local understandings of change and the vernacular knowledge systems they are founded on provide critical information for interdisciplinary collaboration and effective policy prescriptions.

The Big Thaw

The Big Thaw PDF Author: Eric Scigliano
Publisher: Braided River, the conservation
ISBN: 9781680512472
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Permafrost--dark, ice-flaked, permanently frozen ground that lies under tundra and boreal forests across our northern regions--covers more than 12 percent of the earth's land mass. It exists in places that seem otherworldly and unimaginably remote to most of us, but the changes taking place in the permafrost layer may ultimately affect the lives of every person on Earth. InThe Big Thaw, readers meet a diverse team of scientists and students who have been studying the permafrost and what lies beneath: a vast store of ancient carbon, more than four times the quantity found in all of today's forests, which is releasing carbon dioxide and methane as the permafrost melts. The release of all this carbon would alter Earth's climate forever. Braving endless hordes of mosquitoes, quicksand, and extreme temperatures, the researchers are racing against the clock to educate us all about the changes we must make in order to preserve Earth's carbon balance.

Life of Permafrost

Life of Permafrost PDF Author: Pey-Yi Chu
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487501935
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
By tracing the English word permafrost back to its Russian roots, this unique intellectual history uncovers the multiple, contested meanings of permafrost as a scientific idea and environmental phenomenon.

Permafrost

Permafrost PDF Author: T. Neil Davis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Intended for a broad audience, this book is suitable for the science-minded layman and motivated students; it belongs in the library of anyone with more than a passing interest in the colder regions of the world. Students, permafrost specialists, and professionals in earth and environmental sciences will find most of the necessary and detailed mathematical material contained in the appendices, where it is accessible but not alarming to the less technically minded."--BOOK JACKET.

Geocryology

Geocryology PDF Author: Stuart A. Harris
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351681621
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 810

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Book Description
This book provides a general survey of Geocryology, which is the study of frozen ground called permafrost. Frozen ground is the product of cold climates as well as a variety of environmental factors. Its major characteristic is the accumulation of large quantities of ice which may exceed 90% by volume. Soil water changing to ice results in ground heaving, while thawing of this ice produces ground subsidence often accompanied by soil flowage. Permafrost is very susceptible to changes in weather and climate as well as to changes in the microenvironment. Cold weather produces contraction of the ground, resulting in cracking of the soil as well as breakup of concrete, rock, etc. Thus permafrost regions have unique landforms and processes not found in warmer lands. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 provides an introduction to the characteristics of permafrost. Four chapters deal with its definition and characteristics, the unique processes operating there, the factors affecting it, and its general distribution. Part 2 consists of seven chapters describing the characteristic landforms unique to these areas and the processes involved in their formation. Part 3 discusses the special problems encountered by engineers in construction projects including settlements, roads and railways, the oil and gas industry, mining, and the agricultural and forest industries. The three authors represent three countries and three language groups, and together have over 120 years of experience of working in permafrost areas throughout the world. The book contains over 300 illustrations and photographs, and includes an extensive bibliography in order to introduce the interested reader to the large current literature. Finalist of the 2019 PROSE Awards.

A Deadly Thaw

A Deadly Thaw PDF Author: Frederick Ross
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1525518267
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
When a team of researchers from Canada’s Arctic Institute travel to York Factory to disinter a grave, they unwittingly stumble upon more than they bargained for buried in the permafrost. Their research is focused on the old Hudson Bay Company fort cemetery, where they are attempting to find a definitive cause of the famed “York Factory Complaint” of 1833 – 1836. But alongside the now-opened grave of Joseph Charles, a “company man” who had succumbed to the “complaint” in 1836, they find a Hudson’s Bay point blanket, an artifact of particular significance to the archeologist of the team, Rachel Thompson, and an indication that Chipewyan people were likely buried there as well. Upon their return from York Factory, Thompson, another member of her team, and the bush pilot who ferried them to their research site, fall gravely ill. When infectious disease interns have the good fortune to be on hand in the remote north as part of a study, they examine the ailing pilot and are horrified to confirm that he suffers from smallpox, a disease thought eradicated worldwide in 1977. A simultaneous smallpox outbreak occurs in Russia, and suddenly the world must ask the question: how could a disease surviving only within the vault-like security of the world’s two level four containment labs have been unleashed to ravage millions? Could the melting permafrost be releasing this deadly contagion? Deadly Thaw is a richly imagined story that could be ripped from news headlines emerging from a planet struggling with the impacts of global climate change. Meticulously researched, steeped in history, and offering a touching lament for the fate of many First Nations people killed by smallpox infections carried from the “old world”, the story will have readers racing to reach its end and sleepless at imagining potential terrors that might await them.

Arctic Matters

Arctic Matters PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309371619
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
Viewed in satellite images as a jagged white coat draped over the top of the globe, the high Arctic appears distant and isolated. But even if you don't live there, don't do business there, and will never travel there, you are closer to the Arctic than you think. Arctic Matters: The Global Connection to Changes in the Arctic is a new educational resource produced by the Polar Research Board of the National Research Council (NRC). It draws upon a large collection of peer-reviewed NRC reports and other national and international reports to provide a brief, reader-friendly primer on the complex ways in which the changes currently affecting the Arctic and its diverse people, resources, and environment can, in turn, affect the entire globe. Topics in the booklet include how climate changes currently underway in the Arctic are a driver for global sea-level rise, offer new prospects for natural resource extraction, and have rippling effects through the world's weather, climate, food supply and economy.

Arctic Hydrology, Permafrost and Ecosystems

Arctic Hydrology, Permafrost and Ecosystems PDF Author: Daqing Yang
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030509303
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 907

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date assessment of the key terrestrial components of the Arctic system, i.e., its hydrology, permafrost, and ecology, drawing on the latest research results from across the circumpolar regions. The Arctic is an integrated system, the elements of which are closely linked by the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Using an integrated system approach, the book’s 30 chapters, written by a diverse team of leading scholars, carefully examine Arctic climate variability/change, large river hydrology, lakes and wetlands, snow cover and ice processes, permafrost characteristics, vegetation/landscape changes, and the future trajectory of Arctic system evolution. The discussions cover the fundamental features of and processes in the Arctic system, with a special focus on critical knowledge gaps, i.e., the interactions and feedbacks between water, permafrost, and ecosystem, such as snow pack and permafrost changes and their impacts on basin hydrology and ecology, river flow, geochemistry, and energy fluxes to the Arctic Ocean, and the structure and function of the Arctic ecosystem in response to past/future changes in climate, hydrology, and permafrost conditions. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, graduate students, environmentalists, managers, and administrators who are concerned with the northern environment and resources.

The Big Thaw

The Big Thaw PDF Author: Ed Struzik
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470737077
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
"Traveling in time and space across the Arctic, in The big Thaw Ed Struzik describes at first hand the most alarming environmental crisis of our times,. It's a land that Struzik is passionate about, and he writes of its frozen beauty with an elegance of prose not seen since Barry Lopez' Arctic Dreams." - Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers "The top of the world is profoundly different than ever before in human history. Climate change is already influencing the lives of the locals, from Inuit to polar bears. But it's poised to make life hard for the rest of us, too. Ed Struzik gives a canny and compelling tour of a world in dangerous and rapid flux." - Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy "An irresistible mix of lyrical writing, adventurous feet-on-the-ground travel, solid reporting and acute observation of the dire things that are happening in the Arctic. We should lock every politician and corporate executive into a room and keep them there until they have read and understood the message Struzik is brining us. It is that important." - Marq De Villiers, author of The End: Natural Disasters, Manmade Castastrophes, and the Future of Human Survival "All-embracing, luminous and provocative, The Big Thaw is a fascinating chronicle of an infinite, threatened Canadian Arctic. Struzik expertly melds past and present into a thought-provoking story about what the current global warming means to Canada and the world. He combines the human and scientific narratives into a wonderful synthesis amplified by his won extensive travels through the North. Everyone interested in the implications of a warming planet should read this remarkable book." - Brian Fagan, archeologist, historian and author of The Great Warming and The Little Ice Age "Ed Struzik, one of those rare journalists who can paddle a canoe and enjoy a meal of whale blubber, has written an important and shocking book that reads like some new genre of adventure and horror story. As the Arctic melts and unravels faster than the global banking system, The Big Thaw raises some stark questions: just what will Canada be without ice and snow? And what is a nation without its dreams?" - Andrew Nikiforuk, author of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent "An important book. Urgent, timely, heartfelt." - Will Ferguson, author of Beauty Tips Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada