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Differentiating surface water change from seasonal and inter-annual variability in North Western Canada using multi-decadal time series of data
Mark
Carroll, NASA GSFC / SSAI, mark.carroll@nasa.gov
(Presenter)
Tatiana
Loboda, University of Maryland, loboda@umd.edu
Margaret
Wooten, NASA GSFC / SSAI, margaret.wooten@nasa.gov
Over the last several decades, warming in the Arctic has outpaced the already impressive
increases in global mean temperatures. The impact of these increases in temperature has been
observed in a multitude of ecological changes in North American tundra including changes in
vegetative cover, depth of active layer, and surface water extent. The low topographic relief and
continuous permafrost create an ideal environment for the formation of small water bodies—a
definitive feature of tundra surface. In this study, water bodies in Nunavut territory in northern
Canada were mapped using a long-term record of remotely sensed observations at 30 m spatial
resolution from the Landsat suite of instruments. The temporal trajectories of water extent between
1985 and 2015 were assessed. Over 675,000 water bodies have been identified over the 31-year
study period with over 168,000 showing a significant (p < 0.05) trend in surface area. Approximately
55% of water bodies with a significant trend were increasing in size while the remaining 45% were
decreasing in size. The overall net trend for water bodies with a significant trend is 0.009 ha per year
per water body.
Associated Project(s):
Poster Location ID: 10
Session Assigned: Permafrost and Hydrology
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