#1PermaNET • Permafrost long-term monitoring network CC BY permanet Alpine SPACE EUROPEAN TERRITORIAL COOPERATION permanet An inventory of Permafrost Evidence for the European Alps E. Cremonese [1], S. Gruber [2], M. Phillips [3], P. Pogliotti (¹), L. Boeckli [2] and J. Noetzli [2] [1] Environmental Protection Agency of Aosta Valley, ARPA Valle d'Aosta, Italy - [2] Glaciology, Geomorphodynamics and Geochronology, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland - [3] WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Switzerland The investigation and modelling of permafrost distribution, particularly in areas of discontinuous permafrost, is challenging due to spatial heterogeneity, remoteness of measurement sites and data scarcity. In the framework of the PemaNET project, we have designed a strategy for standardizing different local data sets containing evidence of the presence or absence of permafrost into an inventory for the entire European Alps. We define a permafrost evidence to be a point or an area where permafrost is known to be present during a certain time or where the absence of permafrost can be ascertained. Permafrost experts from numerous European Alpine countries (35 institutions) have contributed to the inventory which combines results obtained by many researchers and data assembled by national or regional monitoring programmes such as PERMOS (CH), PermaFRANCE (FR) or PROALP (IT). Structure of the inventory The inventory contains the following types of evidence: borehole temperature (BH), ground surface temperature (GST), rock fall scar (SC), trench or construction site (TR), surface movement (SM), geophysical prospecting (GP), other indirect evidence (OIE) and rock glaciers (RG). SC and TR are considered to be evidence of permafrost only if ice has been seen and can be excluded to be seasonal. For all types of evidence, general information (e.g. metadata) are required; additionally, optional fields available for comments and further specification are available. BH, GST and SM have specific data fields containing synthetic data such as mean active layer depth, MAGST, ... RG inventory is managed separately from the point types of evidence: individual RG inventories are supplied as a collection of polygons and/or centroids (shapefiles). 2 GP 20% BH 3 1 Permafrost Evidences Inventory Rock Glacier Inventory GST 35% BH 16% TR 12% SM 1% SC 9% OIE 8% 100 percentage 75 50 50 25 25 0 Evidence distribution GP GST SC ■ TR ■ OIE ■ SM A CH D F | countries Elevation [m asl] 3000 3500 4000 1000 1500 2000 2500 BH GP GST ΟΙΕ SC SM TR GST, BH and GP are the most common types of point evidence. Most of the points are located in Switzerland, France and Italy 2. The elevation of the permafrost evidence ranges from 1000 m a.s.l. in a cold talus slope in central Austria (Toteisboden) to 4120m a.s.l. for a GST point in the Mont Blanc Massif (Grandes Jorasses); however, the majority (>60%) is situated between 2500 and 3000 m a.s.l 3 Most of the points have slope angles in the range 10-45°. GST and SC also exist in near-vertical conditions and even some BH (Zugspitze (D), Aiguille du Midi (F), Gemsstock (CH), Grawand (IT)) are located in steep rock faces. GP, TR and SM mostly occur on gently inclined slopes. Content of the inventory The total number of point type permafrost evidence is 408 (October 2010), extending from 44.29 to 47.47° N and from 5.91 to 14.88° E and covering all Alpine countries except Monaco, Liechtenstein and Slovenia. The rock glacier dataset includes seven inventories from Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France with a total of 4795 rock glaciers 1. The seven inventories are regional (Valle d'Aosta, Piemonte, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige in Italy, Massif du Combeynot in France, Ticino in Switzerland and central and eastern Austria) and thus do not cover the entire European Alps. 4 Active Layer Depth [m] 8 10 9 4 n=30 9 00 Temperature [°C] -4 -2 0 2 4 n=32 n=112 Data access and upload The October 2010 version of the inventory will be soon available digitally at www.geo.uzh.ch/microsite/cryodata/, and trough the PermaNET website. A compressed version of the inventory can be downloaded containing point types of evidence in ASCII format. A web database is under development and will be used for maintenance and future implementation of the inventory. 2 0 BH 9- -8 BH GST MAGT min MAGST Boreholes and GST data as mean The depth of BH ranges from 5 to 133 m with a mean of 33 m. For each BH, active layer depth as well annual ground temperature (MAGT min) of the coldest sensor is reported as the mean of all available measurement years 4. As BH have variable depths, the MAGT of the coldest sensor is used as an indication for permafrost conditions. GST is mostly measured at a depth of around 10 cm (55%), with some measurements being shallower (25% at 0-2 cm) and others deeper (20% at 15-55 cm). GST is reported as the mean of all full measurement years with durations ranging from 3 to 5 years. This inventory complements monitoring programmes by providing a solid basis to advance the understanding of the spatial distribution of permafrost and its evolution in heterogeneous mountain environments. While the homogenized contents and public availability of the inventory increase the value of the data contained, the synopsis of data over a larger region additionally enables analyses that were previously not possible, as larger environmental gradients are covered and more data points available. European Geosciences Union - GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2011 - VIENNA AUSTRIA, 3-8 April 2011 THIS PROJECT IS CO-FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND investing in your future This ongoing study is carried out within the project PermaNĚT funded by the Alpine Space program. For more information please visit www.permanet-alpinespace.eu. Do you want to add your brand new permafrost evidence? contact us: [email protected]