Session Announcement and Call for Papers
Cryospheric Interactions and Global Connections
Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP)
29 June-3 July 2008
Fairbanks, Alaska
Abstract Submission Deadline: 1 September 2007
For further information, please go to:
http://www.nicop.org/
or contact:
Kazuyuki Saito
E-mail: ksaito [at] jamstec.go.jp
Papers are invited for the session "Cryospheric Interactions and Global
Connections" at the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP)
being held 29 June-3 July 2008 in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Session Description:
The role of permafrost and frozen ground in the climate system is
generally well appreciated. Until now, however, most studies with
climate models and data analyses on permafrost and frozen ground
characteristics tend to be limited to a 'one way' manner of thinking:
Climate controls changes in permafrost properties. Much less attention
has been given to an active role of permafrost in the climate system as
a contributor to climate change.
Partially due to the long time scales involved in altering land
conditions where underlain by permafrost, climate models have rarely
taken into account processes of the soil (below the surface) to a few
meters depth. It has not been comprehensively investigated yet how
serious such simplifications would be in terms of describing the current
status of frozen ground as well as the global or regional changes under
global warming, for example. Session conveners invite presentations that
span a variety of topics including, but not limited to, quantification
of physical processes (snow, surface conditions, river routing,
subsurface hydrology, biochemical processes, vegetation/ecology, methane
emission) associated with permafrost change, which may influence climate
on larger scales; the dependence of regional climatic forcing in
observations and models; and new methods to estimate permafrost
distribution and its change in properties at regional and larger scales.
For further information and to submit an abstract, please go to:
http://www.nicop.org/