Svalbards permafrost is thawing as a direct consequence of climate change. In the Low Arctic, vegetation has been shown to slow down and reduce the active layer thaw, yet it is unknown whether this also applies to High Arctic regions like Svalbard where vegetation is smaller, sparser, and thus likely less able to insulate the soil. Therefore, it remains unknown which components of High Arctic vegetation impact active layer thaw and at which temporal scale this insulation could be effective. Such knowledge is necessary to predict and understand future changes in active layer in a changing Arctic. In this study we used frost tubes placed in study grids located in Svalbard with known vegetation composition, to monitor the progression of active layer thaw and analyze the relationship between vegetation composition, vegetation structure and snow conditions, and active layer thaw early in summer. We found that moss thickness, shrub and forb height, and vascular vegetation cover delayed soil thaw immediately after snow melt. These insulating effects attenuated as thaw progressed, until no effect on thaw depth was present after 8 weeks. High Arctic mosses are expected to decline due to climate change, which could lead to a loss in insulating capacity, potentially accelerating early summer active layer thaw. This may have important repercussions for a wide range of ecosystem functions such as plant phenology and decomposition processes. Temperatures are rising in the Arctic, causing increased thaw of the layer of soil located above the permanently frozen ground. In Low Arctic regions vegetation cools the soil, which reduces the thawing. So far, we do not know whether the small plants growing in the High Arctic may be able to slow or reduce thaw. We measured soil thaw throughout the summer in High Arctic Svalbard in locations where vegetation composition is known. We also measured thickness of the moss layer, height of plants and snow depth. We found that moss thickness was the strongest factor in insulating the soil. Also the cover of plants, height of shrubs and forbs, and height of grass-like plants slowed soil thaw in the early summer. The insulating effects became less over time and no effects were found 8 weeks after onset of thaw. As climate change is causing changes in the Arctic vegetation, mosses and small shrubs are expected to decrease. As we found these to be the most important factors in insulating the soil, a future decrease in mosses and small shrubs may cause accelerated soil thaw at the start of summer. High Arctic vegetation slows active layer thaw in early summer after snow melt Mosses show a stronger negative relation with thaw depth than vascular vegetation Factors influencing active layer thaw change over time in early summer

Permafrost and ground freezing/thawing processes are physically and eco-climatologically important factors in the terrestrial cryosphere. The model reproducibility of frozen ground affects the certainty and reliability of simulated eco-climate conditions in cold regions as well as on a global scale. This study evaluated the variations and their attributes in the model performance developed and employed in the recent decade regarding the subsurface thermal state using outputs from Japanese and international model intercomparison projects and reanalysis data. The simulated surface and subsurface physical states were compared at four Arctic sites under different frozen ground conditions (Fairbanks, Kevo, Tiksi, and Yakutsk). The results showed that despite large variations in the modeled permafrost temperature, all the models, including the reanalysis data, successfully reproduced the permafrost conditions for the continuous permafrost sites. In contrast, some models failed to reproduce the presence of permafrost for the sites in the discontinuous to isolated permafrost zones. Evaluations of near-surface ground temperature variability revealed that the overall wellness of the simulated ground thermal states relied on winter reproducibility. The importance of snowpack metamorphosis for adequate thermal insulation was confirmed and demonstrated. The results at the coastal tundra site imply the importance of snow cover redistribution and wind crust formation owing to strong winds, the lack of which resulted in overestimations of thermal insulation and overcooled near-surface ground by most models.

Seasonal snow cover has an important impact on the difference between soil- and air temperature because of the insulation effect, and is therefore a key parameter in ecosystem models. However, it is still uncertain how specific variations in soil moisture, vegetation composition, and surface air warming, combined with snow dynamics such as compaction affect the difference between soil- and air temperature. Here, we present an analysis of 8 years (2012-2020) of snow dynamics in an Arctic ecosystem manipulation experiment (using snow fences) on Disko Island, West Greenland. We explore the snow insulation effect under different treatments (mesic tundra heath as a dry site and fen area as a wet site, snow addition from snow fences, warming using open top chambers, and shrub removal) on a plot-level scale. The snow fences significantly changed the inter-annual variation in snow depths and -phenology. The maximum annual mean snow depths were 90 cm on the control side and 122 cm on the snow addition side during all study years. Annual mean snow cover duration across 8 years was 234 days on the control side and 239 days on the snow addition side. The difference between soil- and air temperature was significantly higher on the snow addition side than on the control side of the snow fences. Based on a linear mixed-effects model, we conclude that the snow depth was the decisive factor affecting the difference between soil- and air temperature in the snow cover season (p < 0.0001). The change rate of the difference between soil- and air temperature, as a function of snow depth, was slower during the period before maximum snow depth than during the period between the day with maximum snow depth until snow ending day. During the snow-free season, the effects of the open top chambers were stronger than the effects of the shrub removal, and the combination of both contributed to the highest soil temperature in the dry site, but the warming effect of open top chambers was limited and shrub removal warmed soil temperature in the wet site. The warming effects of open top chambers and shrub removal were weakened on the snow addition side, which indicates a lagged effect of snow on soil temperature. This study quantifies important dynamics in soil-air temperature offsets linked to both snow and ecosystem changes mimicking climate change and provides a reference for future surface process simulations.

Leaching of nitrate (NO3 (-))-a reactive nitrogen form with impacts on ecosystem health-increases during the non-growing season (NGS) of agricultural soils under cold climates. Cover crops are effective at reducing NGS NO3 (-) leaching, but this benefit may be altered with less snow cover inducing more soil freezing under warmer winters. Our objective was to quantify the effect of winter warming on NO3 (-) leaching from cover crops for a loamy sand (LS) and a silt loam (SIL) soil. This research was conducted over 2 years in Ontario, Canada, using 18 high-precision weighing lysimeters designed to study ecosystem services from agricultural soils. Infra-red heaters were used to simulate warming in lysimeters under a wheat-corn-soybean rotation planted with a cover crop mixture with (+H) and without heating (-H). Nitrate leaching determination used NO3 (-) concentration at 90 cm (discrete sampling) and high temporal resolution drainage volume measurements. Data were analyzed for fall, overwinter, spring-thaw, post-planting, and total period (i.e., November 1 to June 30 of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019). Warming significantly affected soil temperature and soil water content-an effect that was similar for both years. As expected, experimental units under + H presented warmer soils at 5 and 10 cm, along with higher soil water content in liquid form than -H lysimeters, which translated into higher drainage values for + H than -H, especially during the overwinter period. NO3 (-) concentrations at 90 cm were only affected by winter heating for the LS soil. The drainage and NO3 (-) concentrations exhibited high spatial variation, which likely reduced the sensitivity to detect significant differences. Thus, although absolute differences in NO3 (-) leaching between LS vs. SIL and +H (LS) vs. -H (LS) were large, only a trend occurred for higher leaching in LS in 2018/2019. Our research demonstrated that soil heating can influence overwinter drainage (for LS and SIL soils) and NO3 (-) concentration at 90 cm in the LS soil-important NO3 (-) leaching controlling factors. However, contrary to our initial hypothesis, the heating regime adopted in our study did not promote colder soils during the winter. We suggest different heating regimes such as intermittent heating to simulate extreme weather freeze/thaw events as a future research topic.

With increasing global warming, the skiing season is shortened to different degrees all over the world. As a crucial way to ensure the sustainable development of the ski industry, snow storage has been gradually studied and applied in Europe. Covering thermal insulation materials is a key engineering measure for the success of snow storage. This study used numerical methods rather than an experimental method to evaluate the thermal insulation performance of nine snow storage coverage schemes in Harbin, Beijing, and Altay, China. We investigated the thermal insulation performance of nine snow storage coverage schemes (three natural materials and six artificial ones) using a solar radiation method and an implicit finite difference method. Sensitivity analyses were conducted, and the cost performance of schemes 5-9 were analyzed. Based on the cost and thermal insulation performance, we used schemes 4 (geotextile, straw bale), 5 (geotextile, extruded polystyrene foam), and 7 (geotextile, polyurethane foam) to evaluate the snow storage effects in Harbin, Beijing, and Altay. Results showed that among schemes 1-9, scheme 7 has the best thermal insulation performance. If natural materials are used, then scheme 3 gives the best thermal insulation performance. Among schemes 5-9, scheme 5 is the most economical. The heat transfer in Beijing is higher than that in Harbin and Altay, while the latter two show similar heat transfers. The combination of meteorological conditions and coverage schemes influence the melting rate of snowpacks. The melting rate of snowpacks can be reduced with an optimized coverage scheme. The proposed methods can serve the selection of coverage schemes for snow storage.

Agro-ecosystem models, such as the DNDC (DeNitrification and DeComposition) model are useful tools when assessing the sustainability of agricultural management. Accuracy in soil temperature estimations is important as it regulates many important soil biogeochemical processes that lead to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The objective of this study was to account for the effects of snow cover in terms of the measured snow depth (mm of water), soil texture and crop management in temperate latitudes in order to improve the surface soil temperature mechanism in DNDC and thereby improve GHG predictions. The estimation of soil temperature driven by the thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the soil was improved by considering the soil texture under frozen and unfrozen conditions along with the effects of crop canopy and snow depth. Calibration of the developed model mechanisms was conducted using data from Alfred, ON under two contrasting soil textures (sandy loam vs. clay). Independent validation assessments were conducted using soil temperatures at different depths for contrasting managements for two field sites located in Canada (Guelph, ON and Glenlea, MB). The validation results indicated high model accuracy (R-2 > 0.90, EF >= 0.90, RMSE < 3.00 degrees C) in capturing the effects of management on soil temperature. These developments in soil heat transfer mechanism improved the performance of the model in estimating N2O emissions during spring thaw and provide a foundation for future studies aimed at improving simulations in DNDC for better representations of other biogeochemical processes. Crown Copyright (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IAgrE. All rights reserved.

The Western Antarctic Peninsula region is one of the hot spots of climate change and one of the most ecologically sensitive regions of Antarctica, where permafrost is near its climatic limits. The research was conducted in Deception Island, an active stratovolcano in the South Shetlands archipelago off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The climate is polar oceanic, with high precipitation and mean annual air temperatures (MAAT) close to -3 degrees C. The soils are composed by ashes and pyroclasts with high porosity and high water content, with ice rich permafrost at -0.8 degrees C at the depth of zero annual amplitude, with an active layer of about 30 cm. Results from thaw depth, ground temperature and snow cover monitoring at the Crater Lake CALM-S site over the period 2006 to 2014 are analyzed. Thaw depth (TD) was measured by mechanical probing once per year in the end of January or early February in a 100 x 100 m with a 10 m spacing grid. The results show a trend for decreasing thaw depth from ci. 36 cm in 2006 to 23 cm in 2014, while MAAT, as well as ground temperatures at the base of the active layer, remained stable. However, the duration of the snow cover at the CALM-S site, measured through the Snow Pack Factor (SF) showed an increase from 2006 to 2014, especially with longer lasting snow cover in the spring and early summer. The negative correlation between SF and the thaw depth supports the significance of the influence of the increasing snow cover in thaw depth, even with no trend in the MAAT. The lack of observed ground cooling in the base of the active layer is probably linked to the high ice/water content at the transient layer. The pyroclastic soils of Deception Island, with high porosity, are key to the shallow active layer depths, when compared to other sites in the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). These findings support the lack of linearity between atmospheric warming and permafrost warming and induce an extra complexity to the understanding of the effects of climate change in the ice-free areas of the WAP, especially in scenarios with increased precipitation as snow fall. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.