Geology topics

C.D. Arp

Publications and source records attributed to C.D. Arp.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2012

Assessment of pingo distribution and morphometry using an IfSAR derived digital surface model, western Arctic Coastal Plain, Northern Alaska

Pingos are circular to elongate ice-cored mounds that form by injection and freezing of pressurized water in near-surface permafrost. Here we use a digital surface model (DSM) derived from an airborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IfSAR) system to assess the distribution and morphometry of pingos within a 40,000 km 2 area on the western Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska. We have identified 1247 pingo forms in the study region, ranging in height from 2 to 21 m, with a mean height of 4.6 m. Pingos in this region are of hydrostatic origin, with 98% located within 995 drained lake basins, most of which are underlain by thick eolian sand deposits. The highest pingo density (0.18 km − 2 ) occurs where streams have reworked these deposits. Morphometric analyses indicate that most pingos are small to medium in size (< 200 m diameter), gently to moderately sloping (< 30°), circular to slightly elongate (mean circularity index of 0.88), and of relatively low height (2 to 5 m). However, 57 pingos stand higher than 10 m, 26 have a maximum slope greater than 30°, and 42 are larger than 200 m in diameter. Comparison with a legacy pingo dataset based on 1950s stereo-pair photography indicates that 66 may have partially or completely collapsed over the last half-century. However, we mapped over 400 pingos not identified in the legacy dataset, and identified only three higher than 2 m to have formed between ca. 1955 and ca. 2005, indicating that caution should be taken when comparing contemporary and legacy datasets derived by different techniques. This comprehensive database of pingo location and morphometry based on an IfSAR DSM may prove useful for land and resource managers as well as aid in the identification of pingo-like features on Mars.

Geomorphology↗

USGS2011

Modern thermokarst lake dynamics in the continuous permafrost zone, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska

Quantifying changes in thermokarst lake extent is of importance for understanding the permafrost-related carbon budget, including the potential release of carbon via lake expansion or sequestration as peat in drained lake basins. We used high spatial resolution remotely sensed imagery from 1950/51, 1978, and 2006/07 to quantify changes in thermokarst lakes for a 700 km 2 area on the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska. The number of water bodies larger than 0.1 ha increased over the entire observation period (666 to 737 or +10.7%); however, total surface area decreased (5,066 ha to 4,312 ha or -14.9%). This pattern can largely be explained by the formation of remnant ponds following partial drainage of larger water bodies. Thus, analysis of large lakes (>40 ha) shows a decrease of 24% and 26% in number and area, respectively, differing from lake changes reported from other continuous permafrost regions. Thermokarst lake expansion rates did not change substantially between 1950/51 and 1978 (0.35 m/yr) and 1978 and 2006/07 (0.39 m/yr). However, most lakes that drained did expand as a result of surface permafrost degradation before lateral drainage. Drainage rates over the observation period were stable (2.2 to 2.3 per year). Thus, analysis of decadal-scale, high spatial resolution imagery has shown that lake drainage in this region is triggered by lateral breaching and not subterranean infiltration. Future research should be directed toward better understanding thermokarst lake dynamics at high spatial and temporal resolution as these systems have implications for landscape-scale hydrology and carbon budgets in thermokarst lake-rich regions in the circum-Arctic.

Alaska↗

USGS2011

Limnological and water-quality data from Wonder Lake, Chilchukabena Lake, and Lake Minchumina, Denali National Park and Preserve and surrounding area, Alaska, June 2006-August 2008

Growing visitor traffic and resource use, as well as natural and anthropogenic land and climatic changes, can place increasing stress on lake ecosystems in Denali National Park and Preserve. Baseline data required to substantiate impact assessment in this sub-arctic region is sparse to non-existent. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, conducted a water-quality assessment of several large lakes in and around the Park from June 2006 to August 2008. Discrete water-quality samples, lake profiles of pH, specific conductivity, dissolved-oxygen concentration, water temperature, turbidity, and continuous-record temperature profile data were collected from Wonder Lake, Chilchukabena Lake, and Lake Minchumina. In addition, zooplankton, snow chemistry data, fecal coliform, and inflow/outflow water-quality samples also were collected from Wonder Lake.

Open-File Report↗

USGS2010

Lake temperature and ice cover regimes in the Alaskan Subarctic and Arctic: Integrated monitoring, remote sensing, and modeling

Lake surface regimes are fundamental attributes of lake ecosystems and their interaction with the land and atmosphere. High latitudes may be particularly sensitive to climate change, however, adequate baselines for these lakes are often lacking. In this study, we couple monitoring, remote sensing, and modeling techniques to generate baseline datasets of lake surface temperature and ice cover in the Alaskan Subarctic and Arctic. No detectable trends were observed during this study period, but a number of interesting patterns were noted among lakes and between regions. The largest Arctic lake was relatively unresponsive to air temperature, while the largest Subarctic lake was very responsive likely because it is fed by glacial runoff. Mean late summer water temperatures were higher than air temperatures with differences ranging from 1.7 to 5.4°C in Subarctic lakes and from 2.4 to 3.2°C in Arctic lakes. The warmest mean summer water temperature in both regions was in 2004, with the exception of Subarctic glacially fed lake that was highest in 2005. Ice-out timing had high coherence within regions and years, typically occurring in late May in Subarctic and in early-July in Arctic lakes. Ice-on timing was more dependent on lake size and depth, often varying among lakes within a region. Such analyses provide an important baseline of lake surface regimes at a time when there is increasing interest in high-latitude water ecosystems and resources during an uncertain climate future.

Journal of the American Water Resources Associatio↗

USGS2010

Sikuliqiruq: Ice dynamics of the Meade river - Arctic Alaska, from freezeup to breakup from time-series ground imagery

Ice formation and breakup on Arctic rivers strongly influence river flow, sedimentation, river ecology, winter travel, and subsistence fishing and hunting by Alaskan Natives. We use time-series ground imagery ofthe Meade River to examine the process at high temporal and spatial resolution. Freezeup from complete liquid cover to complete ice cover ofthe Meade River at Atqasuk, Alaska in the fall of 2008 occurred in less than three days between 28 September and 2 October 2008. Breakup in 2009 occurred in less than two hours between 23:47 UTC on 23 May 2009 and 01:27 UTC on 24 May 2009. All times in UTC. Breakup in 2009 and 2010 was ofthe thermal style in contrast to the mechanical style observed in 1966 and is consistent with a warming Arctic. ?? 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Polar Geography↗

USGS2009

Modern erosion rates and loss of coastal features and sites, Beaufort Sea coastline, Alaska

This study presents modern erosion rate measurements based upon vertical aerial photography captured in 1955, 1979, and 2002 for a 100 km segment of the Beaufort Sea coastline. Annual erosion rates from 1955 to 2002 averaged 5.6 m a-1. However, mean erosion rates increased from 5.0 m a-1 in 1955-79 to 6.2 m a-1 in 1979-2002. Furthermore, from the first period to the second, erosion rates increased at 60% (598) of the 992 sites analyzed, decreased at 31% (307), and changed less than ?? 30 cm at 9% (87). Historical observations and quantitative studies over the past 175 years allowed us to place our erosion rate measurements into a longer-term context. Several of the coastal features along this stretch of coastline received Western place names during the Dease and Simpson expedition in 1837, and the majority of those features had been lost by the early 1900s as a result of coastline erosion, suggesting that erosion has been active over at least the historical record. Incorporation of historical and modern observations also allowed us to detect the loss of both cultural and historical sites and modern infrastructure. U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps reveal a number of known cultural and historical sites, as well as sites with modern infrastructure constructed as recently as the 1950s, that had disappeared by the early 2000s as a result of coastal erosion. We were also able to identify sites that are currently being threatened by an encroaching coastline. Our modern erosion rate measurements can potentially be used to predict when a historical site or modern infrastructure will be affected if such erosion rates persist. ?? The Arctic Institute of North America.

Alaska↗

USGS2009

Modeling lakes and reservoirs in the climate system

Modeling studies examining the effect of lakes on regional and global climate, as well as studies on the influence of climate variability and change on aquatic ecosystems, are surveyed. Fully coupled atmosphere-land surface-lake climate models that could be used for both of these types of study simultaneously do not presently exist, though there are many applications that would benefit from such models. It is argued here that current understanding of physical and biogeochemical processes in freshwater systems is sufficient to begin to construct such models, and a path forward is proposed. The largest impediment to fully representing lakes in the climate system lies in the handling of lakes that are too small to be explicitly resolved by the climate model, and that make up the majority of the lake-covered area at the resolutions currently used by global and regional climate models. Ongoing development within the hydrological sciences community and continual improvements in model resolution should help ameliorate this issue.

Limnology and Oceanography↗

USGS2008

Arctic lake physical processes and regimes with implications for winter water availability and management in the national petroleum reserve alaska

Lakes are dominant landforms in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPRA) as well as important social and ecological resources. Of recent importance is the management of these freshwater ecosystems because lakes deeper than maximum ice thickness provide an important and often sole source of liquid water for aquatic biota, villages, and industry during winter. To better understand seasonal and annual hydrodynamics in the context of lake morphometry, we analyzed lakes in two adjacent areas where winter water use is expected to increase in the near future because of industrial expansion. Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery acquired between 1985 and 2007 were analyzed and compared with climate data to understand interannual variability. Measured changes in lake area extent varied by 0.6% and were significantly correlated to total precipitation in the preceding 12 months (p < 0.05). Using this relation, the modeled lake area extent from 1985 to 2007 showed no long-term trends. In addition, high-resolution aerial photography, bathymetric surveys, water-level monitoring, and lake-ice thickness measurements and growth models were used to better understand seasonal hydrodynamics, surface area-to-volume relations, winter water availability, and more permanent changes related to geomorphic change. Together, these results describe how lakes vary seasonally and annually in two critical areas of the NPRA and provide simple models to help better predict variation in lake-water supply. Our findings suggest that both overestimation and underestimation of actual available winter water volume may occur regularly, and this understanding may help better inform management strategies as future resource use expands in the NPRA. ?? 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Environmental Management↗

USGS2007

Disruptions of stream sediment size and stability by lakes in mountain watersheds: Potential effects on periphyton biomass

The location of a stream reach relative to other landforms in a watershed is an important attribute. We hypothesized that lakes disrupt the frequency of finer, more mobile sediments and thereby change sediment transport processes such that benthic substrates are more stable (i.e., less mobile) below lakes than above lakes. In turn, we hypothesized that this reduced mobility would lead to greater periphyton biomass below lakes. We tested these hypotheses in study reaches above and below lakes in 3 mountain watersheds. To expand this comparison, we analyzed the relationship between sediment attributes and periphyton biomass in one watershed with and one watershed without a lake. We hypothesized that no clear pattern or change in sediment size or chlorophyll a (chl a) would be observed over a 3-km-long study reach without a lake. In contrast, we expected a clear discontinuity in both sediment size and chl a in a 7-km-long study reach interrupted by a lake. Average median sediment size (D50) was significantly larger (p < 0.01) in lake-outlet than lake-inlet reaches (41 mm vs 10 mm). Bed sediments in lake-outlet reaches were immobile during bankfull flows, whereas sediments at lake-inlet reaches were mobile during bankfull flows. Chlorophyll a was ???10x greater in lake-outlet reaches than in lake-inlet reaches, although this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.17). The longitudinal analysis clearly showed geomorphic transitions in sediment size and mobility downstream of mountain lakes, and these geomorphic transitions might be associated with changes in periphyton biomass. Geomorphic transitions can alter sediment transport and should be considered in concert with other factors that are considered more commonly in benthic ecology, such as light, nutrients, and temperature. ?? 2007 by The North American Benthological Society.

Journal of the North American Benthological Societ↗

USGS2007

Discontinuities in stream nutrient uptake below lakes in mountain drainage networks

In many watersheds, lakes and streams are hydrologically linked in spatial patterns that influence material transport and retention. We hypothesized that lakes affect stream nutrient cycling via modifications to stream hydrogeomorphology, source-waters, and biological communities. We tested this hypothesis in a lake district of the Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho. Uptake of NO3- and PO4-3 was compared among 25 reaches representing the following landscape positions: lake inlets and outlets, reaches >1-km downstream from lakes, and reference reaches with no nearby lakes. We quantified landscape-scale hydrographic and reach-scale hydrogeomorphic, source-water, and biological variables to characterize these landscape positions and analyze relationships to nutrient uptake. Nitrate uptake was undetectable at most lake outlets, whereas PO4-3 uptake was higher at outlets as compared to reference and lake inlet reaches. Patterns in nutrient demand farther downstream were similar to lake outlets with a gradual shift toward reference-reach functionality. Nitrate uptake was most correlated to sediment mobility and channel morphology, whereas PO 4-3 uptake was most correlated to source-water characteristics. The best integrated predictor of these patterns in nutrient demand was % contributing area (the proportion of watershed area not routing through a lake). We estimate that NO3- and PO 4-3 demand returned to 50% of pre-lake conditions within 1-4-km downstream of a small headwater lake and resetting of nutrient demand was slower downstream of a larger lake set lower in a watershed. Full resetting of these nutrient cycling processes was not reached within 20-km downstream, indicating that lakes can alter stream ecosystem functioning at large spatial scales throughout mountain watersheds. ?? 2007, by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc.

Limnology and Oceanography↗