Holocene Environmental Change in the Maritime Antarctic.
Interactions between permafrost and the lacustrine environment (HOLOANTAR) PTDC/GIX/119582/2010
HOLOANTAR is a multidisciplinary project including researchers from the University of Lisbon (Portugal), University of Évora (Portugal), University of Alcalá (Spain), Federal University of Viçosa (Brasil), Universidad of la República (Uruguay) and also from several Spanish research centres: Centro de Estudios y Experimentación de Obras Publicas, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes, Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera and Parque Natural De Peñalara.
The project is led by the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning - Centre for Geographical Studies of the University of Lisbon through the research group Antarctic Environments and Climate Change Research Group (ANTECC). Results of HOLOANTAR project will contribute to the understanding of the landscape evolution and climate changes in the South Shetlands Islands following Holocene environmental evolution in Byers Peninsula (Livingston, Antarctica).
The South Shetlands Islands are located in the northwestern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the Earth's regions that have experienced a stronger warming signal during the second half of the 20th century. In the ice-free areas of this archipelago islands the terrestrial ecosystem is supported by permafrost, one of the key components of the cryosphere as recently defined by the World Climate Research Programme, though its reaction to climate change is still poorly known. However, in the recent years a very important effort took place to monitor the thermal state and characteristics of permafrost in order to study its response to the recent warming trend. Our team is involved on several of these long-term monitoring projects (PERMANTAR, PERMANTAR-2), but HOLOANTAR, in addition, offers a new integrated approach aiming to bridge the gap between contemporary and past changes in permafrost environments.
HOLOANTAR is based on two main hypotheses:
a) A multi-proxy analysis of lake sediments will allow reconstructing the palaeoecological evolution in the Maritime Antarctic and the role played in it by permafrost and active layer dynamics,
b) The detection of activity rates, spatial patterns and geographical controls of contemporary key-geomorphic processes and permafrost distribution, will allow defining their limiting climatic conditions that will be used to interpret the sedimentary record.
This approach is innovative since it will focus on both present and past geomorphodynamics as keys for understanding the landscape evolution. In Byers Peninsula, the largest ice-free area in the South Shetlands, where the environment is dominated by permafrost and active layer dynamics, climate variability should have induced modifications on the erosion rates at the slopes, mass movements, active layer thickness, biological activity, etc. Due to the fast rate of current change in mean annual air temperatures, it is possible that by studying similar features at different altitudes, we will find different movement rates and an altitudinal/climatic boundary for their activity may be found, thus providing important applications for the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.
The multidisciplinary team of HOLOANTAR will approach the two leading hypothesis in Byers area by executing five main tasks:
Task 1 – Geomorphological mapping
Task 2 – Geomorphological monitoring and permafrost distribution
Task 3 – Sedimentological field work
Task 4 – Laboratory analyses
Task 5 – Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction
These tasks will be supported by state-of-the-art techniques both in the field and laboratory in order to give answer to some target questions not yet solved in what concerns the dynamics of the natural system in the Maritime Antarctic:
- What is the spatial zonation of geomorphic processes controlled by permafrost and active layer dynamics?
- What are the present-day rates of permafrost and active layer related geomorphic processes?
- Which are the key factors controlling geomorphic processes in permafrost maritime environments?
- Which are the characteristics and stratigraphy of lake records in the Maritime Antarctic?
- What is the magnitude of Holocene temperature and moisture changes in the South Shetlands in relation to recent trends?
- How have permafrost and active layer reacted to Holocene climate variability in the Maritime Antarctic?
- How does the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic data from Byers integrate with other regional, hemispheric and global climate signals?
- What is the potential of use of geoindicators for monitoring future environmental change in the Maritime Antarctic?
The project is led by the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning - Centre for Geographical Studies of the University of Lisbon through the research group Antarctic Environments and Climate Change Research Group (ANTECC). Results of HOLOANTAR project will contribute to the understanding of the landscape evolution and climate changes in the South Shetlands Islands following Holocene environmental evolution in Byers Peninsula (Livingston, Antarctica).
The South Shetlands Islands are located in the northwestern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the Earth's regions that have experienced a stronger warming signal during the second half of the 20th century. In the ice-free areas of this archipelago islands the terrestrial ecosystem is supported by permafrost, one of the key components of the cryosphere as recently defined by the World Climate Research Programme, though its reaction to climate change is still poorly known. However, in the recent years a very important effort took place to monitor the thermal state and characteristics of permafrost in order to study its response to the recent warming trend. Our team is involved on several of these long-term monitoring projects (PERMANTAR, PERMANTAR-2), but HOLOANTAR, in addition, offers a new integrated approach aiming to bridge the gap between contemporary and past changes in permafrost environments.
HOLOANTAR is based on two main hypotheses:
a) A multi-proxy analysis of lake sediments will allow reconstructing the palaeoecological evolution in the Maritime Antarctic and the role played in it by permafrost and active layer dynamics,
b) The detection of activity rates, spatial patterns and geographical controls of contemporary key-geomorphic processes and permafrost distribution, will allow defining their limiting climatic conditions that will be used to interpret the sedimentary record.
This approach is innovative since it will focus on both present and past geomorphodynamics as keys for understanding the landscape evolution. In Byers Peninsula, the largest ice-free area in the South Shetlands, where the environment is dominated by permafrost and active layer dynamics, climate variability should have induced modifications on the erosion rates at the slopes, mass movements, active layer thickness, biological activity, etc. Due to the fast rate of current change in mean annual air temperatures, it is possible that by studying similar features at different altitudes, we will find different movement rates and an altitudinal/climatic boundary for their activity may be found, thus providing important applications for the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.
The multidisciplinary team of HOLOANTAR will approach the two leading hypothesis in Byers area by executing five main tasks:
Task 1 – Geomorphological mapping
Task 2 – Geomorphological monitoring and permafrost distribution
Task 3 – Sedimentological field work
Task 4 – Laboratory analyses
Task 5 – Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction
These tasks will be supported by state-of-the-art techniques both in the field and laboratory in order to give answer to some target questions not yet solved in what concerns the dynamics of the natural system in the Maritime Antarctic:
- What is the spatial zonation of geomorphic processes controlled by permafrost and active layer dynamics?
- What are the present-day rates of permafrost and active layer related geomorphic processes?
- Which are the key factors controlling geomorphic processes in permafrost maritime environments?
- Which are the characteristics and stratigraphy of lake records in the Maritime Antarctic?
- What is the magnitude of Holocene temperature and moisture changes in the South Shetlands in relation to recent trends?
- How have permafrost and active layer reacted to Holocene climate variability in the Maritime Antarctic?
- How does the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic data from Byers integrate with other regional, hemispheric and global climate signals?
- What is the potential of use of geoindicators for monitoring future environmental change in the Maritime Antarctic?
