Research into Cryolithozone Spatial Pattern Changes Based on the Mathematical Morphology of Landscapes

Abstract

Lacustrine thermokarst is receiving great interest as a landscape-forming process. Despite this, research dealing with the quantitative analysis of the changes in the morphological patterns of thermokarst plains under ongoing climate change is lacking. This study aims to analyze changes in the morphological patterns of cryolithozone landscapes based on models provided by the mathematical morphology of landscapes. Our research involves eight key sites within lacustrine thermokarst plains and nine key sites within thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion. These sites differ in geomorphological, geocryological, and physiographical terms, and are situated in different regions such as Yamal, Taimyr, Kolyma lowland, river Lena delta, Baffin’s Land, and Alaska. Archival Corona images (date 1) and high-resolution satellite imagery from June to August 2008–2014 (date 2) were used to obtain the model’s morphometric data. According to quantitative analysis of the models, the morphological pattern of the lacustrine thermokarst plains did not undergo significant changes during the observation period, while 20% of the key sites within the thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion underwent essential changes in lake area distributions. This difference may come from the higher reactivity of the fluvial erosion process on climate change than that of the thermokarst.

Keywords

• mathematical morphology of landscapes
• lacustrine thermokarst plains
• thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion
• integral-exponential distribution
• random process theory
• space imagery