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Kane, Douglas L.

Pronounced step-wise atmospheric warming during the 20th century reduced ice cover in mountains by 25-50 percent. Net changes in average annual and mean summer temperatures responsible for this remarkable deglacierization are less than 2 degrees C, a small fraction of the warming that occurred at the end of the Pleistocene. Yet the effects of these changes on mountain landscapes have been profound. Alpine permafrost, which expanded during the Little Ice Age. now appears to be thinning and disappearing in many areas. Loss of alpine permafrost and glacier downwasting appear to be partly responsible for accelerated mass wasting and catastrophic rock-slope failures in high mountains. New lakes appeared during the Little...
A soil-ecological site survey of Denali National Park and Preserve (Denali) completed in 2004 by the Natural Resources Conservation Service is used to provide a map of Gelisols. soils with permafrost within 2 m of the surface, and their sensitivity to disturbance. Three sensitivity classes are assigned, based on similarities in the degree and rapidity of change to soil properties and plant communities following disturbance, as well as return interval to the pre-disturbance condition. The model aggregates ecological sites into groups with similar plant community structure and species richness, two elements useful in evaluating wildlife habitat. Dynamic soil properties, such as thickness of organic mat. depth to water...
Pronounced step-wise atmospheric warming during the 20th century reduced ice cover in mountains by 25-50 percent. Net changes in average annual and mean summer temperatures responsible for this remarkable deglacierization are less than 2 degrees C, a small fraction of the warming that occurred at the end of the Pleistocene. Yet the effects of these changes on mountain landscapes have been profound. Alpine permafrost, which expanded during the Little Ice Age. now appears to be thinning and disappearing in many areas. Loss of alpine permafrost and glacier downwasting appear to be partly responsible for accelerated mass wasting and catastrophic rock-slope failures in high mountains. New lakes appeared during the Little...
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