Permafrost Table Depth in Soils of Eastern Antarctica Oases, King George and Ardley Islands (South Shetland Islands)
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CZECH POLAR REPORTS 10 (1): 7-22, 2020 Permafrost table depth in soils of Eastern Antarctica oases, King George and Ardley Islands (South Shetland Islands) Ivan Alekseev*, Evgeny Abakumov Saint Petersburg State University, Department of Applied Ecology, 16th line of Vasilevsky island, 29, 199178, Saint Petersburg, Russia Abstract This study was aimed to investigate the electrical resistivity in soils and permafrost of various ice-free areas of Antarctica and Sub-Antarctica (from coastal Eastern Antarctica oases to Maritime Antarctica). Measurements of electrical resistivity of soil and perma- frost strata were performed with a portable device LandMapper. It was found that the permafrost table depth ranged 82 to106 cm in Bunger Hills, 95 to 122 cm in Larsemann Hills, 27 to 106 in Thala Hills, and 89 to 100 cm on King George Island and Ardley Island. Presence (and thickness) of organic layer and influence of snow patches melting were found the main reasons for differentiation of permafrost table depth in the studied ice-free areas. Anthropogenic disturbance at waste disposal sites resulted in more pronounced soil profile heterogeneity and formation of scattered electrical resistivity profiles. Permafrost layer was found less homogenous in the upper part of permafrost strata compared to the lower part. An application of vertical electrical resistivity sounding (VERS) may be very useful for evaluation of active layer thickness in Antarctic environments, especially when they are facing severe anthropogenic influence due to maintaining of numerous Antarctic research stations and logistical operations Key words: Antarctica, soils, electrical resistivity, permafrost table, active layer DOI: 10.5817/CPR2020-1-2 Introduction Three climatic zones can be distin- free areas (oases) are isolated from each guished in Antarctica (Bockheim and Hall other and have no biological or even cli- 2002): Subantarctic (including the South matic connection, so they are more like is- Shetland Islands), Antarctic coastal and lands in the ocean. Antarctic continental zone. In general, Ant- The main limiting factor for soil for- arctica weakly obeys the general geograph- mation in Eastern Antarctica oases is the ic law of latitudinal zoning. Remote ice- lack of moisture. Melting snow in the sum- ——— Received November 18, 2019, accepted April 29, 2020. *Corresponding author: I. Alekseev <[email protected]> Acknowledgements: This study was supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant 18-04-00900 “Ornithogenic soils of Antarctica: formation, geography, biogeochemistry and bioindication”, grant 19-54-18003 “Assessment of regional contribution of Antarctic soils into global carbon balance considering stabilization and humification of organic matter” and Grant of Saint Petersburg State University “Urbanized ecosystems of the Russian Arctic: dynamics, state and sustainable development”. The authors gratefully acknowledge Russian Antarctic Expedition, especially the head of seasonal expedition 2017-2018 V.N. Churun, for providing scientific and logistic support during the field work. 7 I. ALEKSEEV and E. ABAKUMOV mer months is the determining regulator of layer and near-surface permafrost to cli- bio- and pedological diversity (Mergelov et mate change over long (multi-decadal) time al. 2015). The other sources, i.e. liquid pre- scales covers, consist of more than 200 sites cipitation, and low air humidity are much in both hemispheres. Recently, review on less effective compared to melt water avail- active layer monitoring in Antarctica was able from snow patches during austral sum- published (Hrbáček et al. 2018). The au- mer season. thors point out the spatial, qualitative and Eastern Antarctica oases are character- quantitative differences on monitoring data ized by climatic extremality, which in turn derived in various regions of Antarctica. determines the specificity of soil formation. Moreover, they mention that information Lack of moisture, UV radiation, rapid tem- on the active layer depth is still sparse in perature changes, and strong winds signifi- many regions and the monitoring needs to cantly reduce the primary production of or- be extended. That is why the development ganic matter and the formation of organo- of uniform non-direct methods for monitor- genic horizons on the surfaces of loose and ing of permafrost is required. rocky substrates that prevail in Eastern Results on the thermal state of perma- Antarctica oases (Mergelov et al. 2015). An frost and the active layer in the Antarctic important feature of the landscapes of the are presented in Vieira et al. (2007). The oases is that most of the soil biomass is authors show that permafrost temperatures concentrated beneath the mineral surface, are much lower in continental Antarctica. which greatly changes the vertical organi- A review work on recent advances in stud- zation of the soil strata. ying active layer was presented by Oliva et Due to the higher air temperature and al. (2017). Comprehensive study of geo- the amount of liquid precipitation in Sub- cryological conditions of Antarctica re- antarctic than Arctic regins, the soils are vealed regional severity consequence from strikingly different from those described sub-Antarctic islands, Bunger Hills, Schir- in coastal oases of Eastern Antarctica. macher Hills, Larsemann Hills, Thala Hills, Frequent transitions of soil temperature Marie Byrd Land, Wilson Hills (Abramov through zero values, frequent cycles of et al. 2011). freezing-thawing of soil may cause inten- Air and surface temperatures are perma- sive degradation of parent materials. At the nently recorded at the year-round polar sta- same time, the availability of moisture and tions, however, data on temperature regime high biological activity increase the role of soils are very limited (Gilichinsky et al. of biological and chemical weathering of 2010). Study of Abakumov and Andreev rocks, as well as the content of organic (2011) focused on soil temperature regime carbon in soils. In addition, all the condi- of King George Island. They showed how tions mentioned above lead to the forma- different plant communities (lichens, moss- tion of clay secondary minerals. es, vascular plants) density affect the peri- Climate change effects in polar regions od of biological activity (t > 5oC). The or- has been accelerated in last decade. Per- ganogenic horizon of soil under Descham- mafrost properties and active layer dy- psia antarctica shows higher mean annual namics are two key indicators of climate temperatures, however, it is warming up change in the polar region (Burgess et al. slower than organogenic horizons under 2000). However, distribution and proper- lichens and mosses. The role of topogra- ties of permafrost and active-layer dynam- phy in active layer dynamics has been stud- ics in the Subantarctic region are still poor- ied by Oliva et al. (2017). It was shown ly understood. Circumpolar Active Layer that topography has a strong influence on Monitoring (CALM) program, which is snow cover duration, which in turn affects aimed to observe the response of the active frozen ground conditions. 8 PERMAFROST TABLE DEPTH IN SOILS OF ANTARCTICA Conventional methods of soil analysis, ground water level in grounds (Samouë- which are widely used in modern soil sci- lian et al. 2005), ground water contamina- ence, usually require the collection of dis- tion (Karlik et al. 2001), and mapping of turbed soil samples (from soil profile) and oil spills in Antarctic environments (Pet- subsequent laboratory analysis (Murad tersson and Nobes 2003). 2012). Electrical geophysical methods, such Recently, permafrost-affected soils are as self-potential (SP), four electrode probe of increased interest in context of studying method, electrical profiling (EP), vertical their electrical properties. Indeed, for sea- electrical resistivity sounding (VERS), and sonal-freezing soils of zonal sequence it non-contact electromagnetic profiling (NEP) makes sense to discuss electrical proper- allow to perform rapid measurements of ties in context of their correlation with soil electrical properties, such as electrical such basic soil parameters as organic car- conductivity and electrical resistivity (ER) bon content, cation exchange capacity, or directly from the soil surface to any depth physical clay content. However, perma- without any disturbance of soil cover. The frost-affected soils have a huge difference method could be applied in e.g. determina- in ER values between soil layer and per- tion of soil salinization and excess mois- mafrost layer. Therefore, finding clear re- ture in different environments (Pozdnya- lationships between ER and basic soil pa- kov 2008), soil texture mapping (Triantafi- rameters is not easy. Based on several inves- lis and Lesch 2005); assessment of coarse tigations performed, we can draw a valid element content in soils (Tetegan et al. conclusion that ER values are about 1000- 2012); the study of soil structure and com- 5000 m for permafrost layer, while un- paction (Besson et al. 2004), prognosis of frozen clayey and sandy layers of soil are floodings in urban areas (Smernikov et al. characterized by much lower values (Pozd- 2008), investigation of urban soils (Pozd- nyakov 2008, Gibas et al. 2005, Hauck et nyakov and Eliseev 2012), or agricultural al. 2003, Michels Turu and Ros Visus 2013, management (Jaynes et al. 2005, Andrenel- Smernikov et al. 2008, Vanhala et al. 2009). li et al. 2013, André et al. 2012). Previously The aim of this study was to determine