New Advances in Cold Region Hydrology

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Permafrost environments are considered sensitive to warming, most notably at the southern margins where frozen ground is often at or just below the freezing point and susceptible to thaw. Furthermore, warming is occurring most rapidly in winter compared with other seasons. At present, there is considerable uncertainty as to how permafrost watersheds will respond to change as there is conflicting scientific evidence at larger scales. This research project will improve our understanding of how alpine permafrost systems respond hydrologically to climate change by improving our understanding of storage and runoff, along with over-winter processes that are typically neglected. Two projects will improve our fundamental understanding of how thawing permafrost and current conditions influence the time water stays in the watershed and how permafrost influences flow pathways. This will be achieved by examining three watersheds along a latitudinal gradient in Yukon combined with novel numerical models capable of simulating the impact of future climate change. A second phase of the project will focus on two experiments examining over-winter water movement in soils and the formation of channel icing (aufeis) using new sensors: multi-function heat pulse probes and cosmic ray probes. Results from winter research will reveal the importance of these processes on the overall hydrology of northern systems and provide guidance as to their potential response under a changing climate.**