CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Coates, J.
Date : 2005.
Title : Immediate response of permafrost to forest fire in the Indian River Valley, Yukon.
Publication : Rapid Landscape Change and Human Response in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic. ICSU Dark Nature project - C-CIARN - IUGS Geoindicators Initiative. Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. June 15-18, 2005.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
In July and August of 2004 the Indian River area south of Dawson City was subject to a severe forest fire which burned much of the vegetation and organic soil. Immediately after the fire, detachment sliding of the active layer and organic mat was observed along burned portions of Steele Creek and the Indian River valley. In order to investigate the effects of the blackening of the ground surface and removal of the insulating organic mat upon the widespread discontinuous permafrost, five twenty-meter transects of various aspects straddling the border between burned and unburned forest were marked. Steel pipes used as temperature measurement tubes were drilled into the permafrost. Probing to determine depth to the permafrost table and temperature measurements in the temperature tubes were conducted every two weeks during the freeze-down period from late September until mid December. Degree of burn, vegetation and snow depth were also noted. A difference in depth of thaw and temperature at depth was anticipated between the burned and unburned areas. Data gathered revealed that there was no relationship between depth of thaw and burned/unburned status. Work on characterizing the Steele Creek slides and permafrost conditions will be continued during the summer of 2005 by graduate students from the University of Ottawa.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology