文章基本信息

标题：Impacts of snow on soil temperature observed across the circumpolar north
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作者：Yu Zhang ; Artem B Sherstiukov ; Budong Qian 等
期刊名称：Environmental Research Letters
印刷版ISSN：1748-9326
电子版ISSN：1748-9326
出版年度：2018
卷号：13
期号：4
页码：044012
DOI：10.1088/1748-9326/aab1e7
语种：English
出版社：IOP Publishing Ltd
摘要：Climate warming has significant impacts on permafrost, infrastructure and soil organic carbon at the northern high latitudes. These impacts are mainly driven by changes in soil temperature (T_S). Snow insulation can cause significant differences between T_S and air temperature (T_A), and our understanding about this effect through space and time is currently limited. In this study, we compiled soil and air temperature observations (measured at about 0.2 m depth and 2 m height, respectively) at 588 sites from climate stations and boreholes across the northern high latitudes. Analysis of this circumpolar dataset demonstrates the large offset between mean T_S and T_A in the low arctic and northern boreal regions. The offset decreases both northward and southward due to changes in snow conditions. Correlation analysis shows that the coupling between annual T_S and T_A is weaker, and the response of annual T_S to changes in T_A is smaller in boreal regions than in the arctic and the northern temperate regions. Consequently, the inter-annual variation and the increasing trends of annual T_S are smaller than that of T_A in boreal regions. The systematic and significant differences in the relationship between T_S and T_A across the circumpolar north is important for understanding and assessing the impacts of climate change and for reconstruction of historical climate based on ground temperature profiles for the northern high latitudes.