Climate Change Impacts on Ground Ice, Thermokarst Processes, Geocryohydrology, and Ecosystem Dynamics of Permafrost Regions I Oral

This session solicits research on the impacts of climate change on ground ice and thermokarst dynamics, cryohydrogeology, and biogeochemical processes related to permafrost thaw. Ground ice stability is critical for permafrost dynamics as it controls thaw settlement and, therefore, thermokarst processes. As ground ice melts, new subsurface hydrological flow paths are formed, and thermokarst processes are triggered during and after phase change and land subsidence, altering the interactions between cryo-hydrogeological and biogeochemical processes from the site scale to the regional scale. These processes not only affect the geotechnical properties of infrastructure and plays a central role in periglacial landscape evolution but also dramatically modulate permafrost ecosystem carbon cycling. Monitoring and modeling the permafrost-thaw-induced thermokarst process and associated impacts on cryo-hydro-biogeochemistry and ecosystem carbon cycling are urgently needed for refining our understanding of the permafrost carbon-climate feedback. This session will address recent advances in the characterization of thermokarst, cryohydrological, and biogeochemical processes, in the understanding of the interactions between them, and in the various approaches available (e.g., in-situ, remote-sensing, process-based modeling, and machine learning approaches) to tackle related scientific questions. Specifically, we welcome studies that map, measure, characterize, and model permafrost ground ice stability, thermokarst dynamics, and their associated impacts on cryohydrological processes and permafrost carbon cycling across spatial scales.