Permafrost Hydrology Research Domain: Process-Based Adjustment
Open Access
- 7 January 2020
- Vol. 7 (1), 6
- https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology7010006
Abstract
Permafrost hydrology is an emerging discipline, attracting increasing attention as the Arctic region is undergoing rapid change. However, the research domain of this discipline had never been explicitly formulated. Both ‘permafrost’ and ‘hydrology’ yield differing meanings across languages and scientific domains; hence, ‘permafrost hydrology’ serves as an example of cognitive linguistic relativity. From this point of view, the English and Russian usages of this term are explained. The differing views of permafrost as either an ecosystem class or a geographical region, and hydrology as a discipline concerned with either landscapes or generic water bodies, maintain a language-specific touch of the research in this field. Responding to a current lack of a unified approach, we propose a universal process-based definition of permafrost hydrology, based on a specific process assemblage, specific to permafrost regions and including: (1) Unconfined groundwater surface dynamics related to the active layer development; (2) water migration in the soil matrix, driven by phase transitions in the freezing active layer; and (3) transient water storage in both surface and subsurface compartments, redistributing runoff on various time scales. This definition fills the gap in existing scientific vocabulary. Other definitions from the field are revisited and discussed. The future of permafrost hydrology research is discussed, where the most important results would emerge at the interface between permafrost hydrology, periglacial geomorphology, and geocryology.Keywords
Funding Information
- Russian Foundation for Basic Research (17-05-00948)
This publication has 85 references indexed in Scilit:
- Pan-Arctic distributions of continental runoff in the Arctic OceanScientific Reports, 2013
- Regional groundwater flow in an area mapped as continuous permafrost, NE Alaska (USA)Hydrogeology Journal, 2012
- Influence of permafrost distribution on groundwater flow in the context of climate‐driven permafrost thaw: Example from Yukon Flats Basin, Alaska, United StatesWater Resources Research, 2012
- Winter Northern Hemisphere weather patterns remember summer Arctic sea‐ice extentGeophysical Research Letters, 2009
- Contemporary estimates of Pan‐Arctic freshwater discharge from GRACE and reanalysisGeophysical Research Letters, 2007
- Linking the pacific decadal oscillation to seasonal stream discharge patterns in Southeast AlaskaJournal of Hydrology, 2002
- Large‐scale hydro‐climatology of the terrestrial Arctic drainage systemJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2002
- Thermal and hydrologic dynamics of the active layer at a continuous permafrost site (Taymyr Peninsula, Siberia)Water Resources Research, 1998
- Hydrologic and thermal properties of the active layer in the Alaskan ArcticCold Regions Science and Technology, 1991
- Permafrost hydrology in North America1Atmosphere-Ocean, 1986