RAPID: Geomorphic controls on sediment age, ice preservation, and carbon storage in arctic permafrost systems

The investigators will obtain permafrost cores to be collected in central Alaska by a local mining company for exploration purposes, allowing study of the physical and geochemical stability of permafrost and associated stored carbon as a function of sediment deposition and erosion. These cores will capture repeated hillslope transects in loess mantled bedrock with variable loess depth and underlying colluvium character.

They could enable quantification of feedbacks among carbon, sediment and ice dynamics using novel geochemical tracers of erosion rates and ice and sediment age in stratigraphic context. The investigators aim to inform the distribution of carbon in permafrost landscapes whose fate will contribute to the potential warming feedback with carbon release upon permafrost thaw. The project will support investigators from historically underrepresented groups.

Study of these cores will provide novel insight on geomorphic controls in permafrost environments. Understanding geomorphic and geochemical landscape legacies will inform us of the trajectory of permafrost change and its resilience to environmental perturbations. Until downslope trends and permafrost hillslope stratigraphy are linked to rates and processes of sediment transport, the provenance and fate of stored carbon in these environments cannot be fully understood.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.