Date

Call for Papers
Past, Present, and Future of Frozen Ground Environments
Association of American Geographers 2009 Annual Meeting
Las Vegas, Nevada
22-27 March 2009

Abstract Submission Deadline: Thursday, 16 October 2008

For further information about this session, please contact:
Nikolay Shiklomanov
Phone: 302-831-1314
Email: shiklom [at] udel.edu

For further information about the meeting, please go to:
http://www.aag.org


Organizers of the session, "Past, Present, and Future of Frozen Ground
Environments," to be convened at the Association of American Geographers
(AAG) 2009 annual meeting, announce a call for papers. The meeting will
be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, 22-27 March 2009.

Session Description:
Frozen ground includes near-surface soil affected by short-term
freeze-thaw cycles, seasonally frozen ground and permafrost. In terms of
areal extent, frozen ground is the largest component of the Earth
cryosphere. It plays an important role in land surface energy and
moisture balances, hydrologic and biochemical cycles, has profound
effect on ecosystems and is characterized by unique land surface and
geomorphologic processes. Frozen ground environments are also a home of
substantial human population and the area of significant economic
activity. A wide range of environmental changes occurring over the last
few years to millennia significantly affect frozen ground regions.
Impacts of a recently warming climate are increasingly evident. These
climatic trends are producing substantive impacts on ecosystems, social
structures, geomorphology and other physical or biological processes of
frozen ground environments.

This session seeks presentations from multiple disciplines that document
and examine the nature of changes effecting frozen ground environments.
Organizers invite presentations that use models, observations,
historical and paleoclimate records, statistical inference, and process
studies addressing past present and future of frozen ground
environments. Organizers also encourage presentations addressing effects
of frozen ground changes on human population, economic activities, as
well as policy issues related to the need for multi-national
collaborations in frozen ground research and to improve the public's
awareness of climate processes and change.

For further information about the AAG meeting, please go to:
http://www.aag.org

If you plan to submit an abstract for this session, please contact:
Nikolay Shiklomanov
Department of Geography
University of Delaware
Newark DE 19716
Phone: 302-831-1314
FAX: 614-831-6654
Email: shiklom [at] udel.edu