Permafrost changes in the northwestern Da Xing'anling Mountains, Northeast China, in the past decade

Abstract

Under a pronounced climate warming, permafrost has been degrading in most areas globally, but it is still unclear in the northwestern part of the Da Xing'anling Mountains, Northeast China. According to a 10-year observation of permafrost and active-layer temperatures, the multi-year average of mean annual ground temperatures at 20 m was −2.83, −0.94, −0.80, −0.70, −0.60, and −0.49 ∘C, respectively, at boreholes Gen'he4 (GH4), Mangui3 (MG3), Mangui1 (MG1), Mangui2 (MG2), Gen'he5 (GH5), and Yituli'he2 (YTLH2), with the depths of the permafrost table varying from 1.1 to 7.0 m. Ground cooling at shallow depths has been detected, resulting in declining thaw depths in Yituli'he during 2009–2020, possibly due to relatively stable mean positive air temperature and declining snow cover and a dwindling local population. In most study areas (e.g., Mangui and Gen'he), permafrost warming is particularly pronounced at larger depths (even at 80 m). These results can provide important information for regional development and engineering design and maintenance and also provide a long-term ground temperature dataset for the validation of models relevant to the thermal dynamics of permafrost in the Da Xing'anling Mountains. All of the datasets are published through the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center (TPDC), and the link is https://doi.org/10.11888/Geocry.tpdc.271752 (Chang, 2021).