Threatened subarctic palsa mires: a new integrated approach to map and understand permafrost degradation

In northern Fennoscandia, the sporadic permafrost zone is home to a unique wetland landscape composed of raised peat mounds with a permafrost core called palsas.

As the Arctic warms, permafrost thaws, leading to transformation of the sensitive palsa mire environment and release of large amounts of stored carbon. Knowledge of permafrost dynamics and their effects are still incomplete, creating uncertainty in global climate models.

Local scale studies with high spatial detail can contribute to a clearer understanding of permafrost thaw processes in rapidly changing landscapes such as palsa mires.

The project´s purpose is to gain better understanding of the partially unknown and complex temporal dynamics of palsa permafrost thaw, as well as identify drivers and consequences of palsa thaw.

By applying high-resolution LiDAR data, ground penetrating radar, and ice microstructure analysis in our world-unique Ice Lab, we will reveal internal palsa structure and external changes over Sweden´s largest coherent palsa mire.

Climatic and environmental variables and their interactions driving the collapse of palsas will be identified and used to project future palsa mire conditions.

We will also quantify greenhouse gas fluxes which can be related to detailed internal and external palsa characteristics, and results upscaled.

Our multidisciplinary team will apply our expertise in geomorphology, remote sensing, GIS, biogeochemistry, geophysics, geology, and climate data analysis.