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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 8, NUMBER 12, DECEMBER 1995

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
IMPACTS: PERMAFROST

Item #d95dec65

"Disequilibrium Response of Permafrost in Boreal Continental Western Canada to Climatic Change," L.A. Halsey (Dept. Biol. Sci., Univ. Alberta, Edmonton AB T6G 2E1, Can.), D.H. Vitt, S.C. Zoltai, Clim. Change, 30(1), 57-73, May 1995.

In this region permafrost is restricted to Sphagnum-dominated peatlands. Today, 30% of bogs contain permafrost at the -0.4° C isotherm and 50% at the -1.2° C isotherm. In the past, 30% of bogs contained permafrost at the -1.4° C isotherm and 50% at the -2.3° C isotherm. Although spatial degradation has occurred with a shifting of permafrost northwards in response to warming since the Little Ice Age, permafrost cover has increased in any given area where present-day temperatures are between 0.5 and -3.5° C.

Item #d95dec66

"Assessment of Macroclimate in the Eurasian Cryolithozone and Spread of Permafrost During Global Warming," O.A. Anisimov (State Hydrol. Inst., Russia), Russian Meteor. & Hydrol., No. 9, 7-12, 1994.

Uses a parameterized model of the interaction between the climate and permafrost to assess changes in the area of continental cryolithozone under various warming scenarios. Concludes that permafrost sensitivity to precipitation changes is relatively low.