Susceptibility of peatland permafrost in coastal Labrador to future environmental change

拉布拉多沿海泥炭地永久冻土对未来环境变化的敏感性

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-06499
• 负责人: Way, Robert
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: Queen's University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=754836
• 关键词: Susceptibility; peatland; permafrost; coastal; Labrador

Perennially frozen soil or rock (permafrost) is a critical component of northern ecosystems, altering local hydrology, vegetation and wildlife usage. Permafrost is also the only element of the terrestrial cryosphere that allows communities and infrastructure to be permanently situated on it. Thawing of ice-rich permafrost can lead to structural damage to infrastructure and degradation of current ecosystems through subsidence and hydrological changes. A recent concern is the potential release of greenhouse gases stored in permafrost in the Arctic but also in perennially frozen Subarctic peatlands. In northern Canada, it is expected that peatland permafrost will thaw in most of the southern half of the country over the next century. This could mobilize large quantities of carbon into the atmosphere and impact local ecosystems, but several recent studies showed that peatland permafrost may be less vulnerable to climate change than originally expected. Consequently, there is considerable debate as to how and where permafrost thaw may occur in Canada in the future, and ultimately how much impact this will have on a regional basis. In coastal Labrador, peatland permafrost occurs in clusters along the entirety of the >1000 km coastline. However, a lack of prior studies on permafrost in Labrador means that the abundance of these unique environments on the landscape and their vulnerability to future warming is largely unknown. This proposal aims to characterize the distribution of peatland permafrost in coastal Labrador and to assess historical and future changes to permafrost affected peatlands that could be caused by climatic and other ecosystem modifiers. This research program will combine extensive field data collection, climate monitoring, remote sensing analysis and numerical modelling to enhance our understanding of peatland permafrost susceptibility to future warming. It will also quantify carbon quantities currently stored in frozen peatlands in the region thus contributing to global carbon cycle inventorying. On a local-scale, peatland permafrost environments are found adjacent to housing and infrastructure in two communities and are expected to occur along potential road routes north proposed for the region. Peatland permafrost environments are also locally important to Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples in coastal Labrador because they are commonly used for hunting, trapping and berry picking. The latter includes culturally valued cloudberry (`apik' in Inuktitut) which are abundant on permafrost mounds but rarely found in wetter depressions formed post permafrost thaw. Changes to the permafrost distribution in these peatlands may thus have consequences on human foraging potential and local wildlife. Through the execution of this research program knowledge gained will contribute to local ecological integrity and environmental assessment and to national and international efforts to quantify permafrost thaw and carbon stocks.

长期冷冻的土壤或岩石（多年冻土）是北部生态系统的关键组成部分，改变了局部水文学，植被和野生动植物的使用。多年冻土也是陆生冰层的唯一要素，它使社区和基础设施永久地位于其上。富含冰块的多年冻土的解冻会导致基础设施的结构损害，并通过沉降和水文变化对当前生态系统的降解。最近的一个问题是，在北极的多年冻土中储存的温室气体的潜在释放，但也存在于常年冷冻的亚北极泥炭地。在加拿大北部，预计泥炭地永久冻土将在下一世纪大部分地区融化。这可以动员大量的碳进入大气并影响当地的生态系统，但是最近的一些研究表明，泥炭地永久冻土可能比最初预期的要小于气候变化。因此，关于将来在加拿大可能发生的如何以及在何处发生的辩论，最终在区域基础上会产生多大的影响。在拉布拉多沿海地区，沿着整个> 1000公里的海岸线的群集中，泥炭兰多冻土发生。但是，在拉布拉多（Labrador）中缺乏对永久冻土的先前研究，这意味着这些独特的环境在景观上及其对未来变暖的脆弱性的丰富性在很大程度上是未知的。该提案旨在表征沿海拉布拉多沿岸泥炭地多年冻土的分布，并评估可能由气候和其他生态系统修饰符引起的多年冻土影响的泥炭地的历史和未来变化。该研究计划将结合广泛的现场数据收集，气候监测，遥感分析和数值建模，以增强我们对泥炭地永久冻土对未来变暖的敏感性的理解。它还将量化目前存储在该地区冷冻泥炭地中的碳数量，从而有助于全球碳循环库存。在地方尺度上，发现两个社区的住房和基础设施附近的泥炭地永久冻土环境，有望沿该地区北面的潜在道路路线发生。泥炭地（Peatland）多年冻土环境对拉布拉多沿海地区的土著和非土著人民也很重要，因为它们通常用于狩猎，捕获和浆果采摘。后者包括具有文化价值的Cloudberry（Inuktitut中的“ Apik”），它们在多年冻土丘上很丰富，但在湿的凹陷中很少发现，在多年冻结后形成的潮湿凹陷。因此，这些泥炭地中多年冻土分布的变化可能会对人类觅食潜力和局部野生动植物产生影响。通过执行该研究计划知识，获得的知识将有助于当地的生态完整性和环境评估，并为量化永久冻结和碳库存的国家和国际努力做出贡献。