January 14, 2019

Paper on Permafrost-Landscape Map of Yakutia published in Geosciences

A paper titled "Permafrost-Landscape Map of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) on a Scale 1:1,500,000" by A.N. Fedorov et al. has been published in Geosciences (available open-access at https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/8/12/465). The map was compiled at MPI in 2017 as part of the Second Yakutia Multi-Disciplinary Expedition program (2010–2020). The mapping was undertaken to revise the 1:2,500,000-scale map created in 1991, using the new datasets from about 800 field sites and the GIS and remote sensing technologies. Yakutia, over 3 million square kilometers in area, has diverse landscapes controlled both by latitude and altitude, ranging from Arctic tundra to sand deserts and from boreal forests to alpine tundra. Its permafrost is equally diverse, varying greatly in areal extent, temperature, ice content, seasonal thaw depth, and surface features. The map identifies 20 terrain types and 36 plant associations, with 143 additional land units with relatively homogeneous relationships of terrain (geology and geomorphology), vegetation and permafrost characteristics. The map provides a basis on which to develop thematic geocryological maps required for solving environmental and economic problems in Yakutia, now and in the future. A full-scale PDF file can be downloaded from the MPI website http://mpi.ysn.ru/images/mlk20182.pdf.

Permafrost Landscape Map Yakutia