Degradation of Arable Soils in Central Yakutia: Negative Consequences of Global Warming for Yedoma Landscapes
| Autor: | Dmitry E. Konyushkov, Alexey Desyatkin, Roman V. Desyatkin, Nikolai V. Filippov, Sergey Goryachkin |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Total organic carbon
Topsoil geography permafrost thawing geography.geographical_feature_category boreal forest zone Earth science Science thermokarst formation Yedoma Permafrost Ice wedge Thermokarst abandoned arable land Soil water General Earth and Planetary Sciences Arable land Cambic Turbic Cryosols Geology Calcic Stagnic Solonetzes |
| Zdroj: | Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 9 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 2296-6463 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/feart.2021.683730/full |
| Popis: | Global warming, which is especially intensive (up to 0.08°C yr−1) in permafrost area of Central Yakutia, has dramatic consequences for scarce arable land resources in this region. In Yedoma landscapes, intense permafrost thawing on arable fields unprotected by forest vegetation transforms the surface microtopography with the formation of residual thermokarst mounds (byllars) of 6–10 m in diameter surrounded by a polygonal network of hollows of 0.3–1.5 m in depth above melting ice wedges. This process also takes place on former croplands abandoned in the recent decades because of socioeconomic reasons. It is accompanied by a significant transformation of the previously highly likely homogeneous soil cover composed of Cambic Turbic Cryosols (Sodic) into differentiated complexes of permafrost-affected Stagnic Cambisols or Calcic Solonetzes (Turbic) on the mounds and Calcic Stagnic Solonetzes (Turbic) in the microlows. Surface soil horizons on the mounds have a strongly to very strongly alkaline reaction (pH 8.5–9.5) and low (−3) because of the appearance of hollows after thawing of the ice-rich transient layer and melting of the top of ice wedges. This may be indicative of the further soil subsidence in the future and the appearance of initial thermokarst lakes (dyuedya) within the Yedoma terrain with its transformation into the alas type of landscape. Rapid thermokarst-driven development of microtopography followed by differentiation of the soil cover with increasing soil alkalinity on the microhighs and soil textural differentiation and overmoistening of deep layers in the microlows prevents the return of abandoned arable land to agriculture in Yedoma landscapes. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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