Name
Long-term ground temperature and hydro-meteorological data management and applications at Trail Valley Creek Research Station
Description
Across the Pan-arctic we are observing dramatic feedback cycles between permafrost conditions, rising air temperatures and hydrology. To better understand these relationships there is a need for sustained and representative ground temperature and hydro-meteorological monitoring. Trail Valley Creek (TVC) is a long-term research basin, approximately 50 km north of Inuvik (NT, Canada) in the low Arctic tundra with scattered patches of spruce forests. It is underlain with ice-rich continuous permafrost approximately 150-350 metres in depth. Meteorological and ground temperature monitoring stations were established in 1991 by Environment and Climate Change Canada and transferred in 2014 to be operated by the Arctic Hydrology Research Group, led by Dr. Philip Marsh. Through efforts by a wide number of research teams and personnel, stations and monitoring sites have continued to be maintained and expanded, resulting in a collection of permafrost and hydro-meteorological datasets distributed across the research basin. In this paper we map out long-term ground temperature records at TVC and summarize relationships to hydro-meteorological data at the TVC main station. This review of permafrost hydrology and time series data at TVC contextualizes upcoming research and is part of larger collaborative efforts to manage a long term dataset. Moving forward these datasets will be imperative to validating and building models to better understand hydrological and hydrogeological regimes in the Western Arctic and how permafrost will respond to a changing climate and environment.