Climate and Hydrogeological Controls on Water Tracks in Permafrost Landscapes

Abstract

Climate change drives disturbance in hydrology and geomorphology in terrestrial polar landscapes underlain by permafrost, yet measurements of, and theories to understand, these changes are limited. Water flowing from permafrost hillslopes to channels is often modulated by water tracks, zones of enhanced soil moisture in unchannelized depressions that concentrate water flow downslope. Water tracks, which dominate hillslope hydrology in some permafrost landscapes, lack a consistent definition and identification method, and their global occurrence, morphology, climate relationships, and geomorphic roles remain understudied despite their role in the permafrost carbon cycle. Combining a literature review with a synthesis of prior work, we identify uniting and distinguishing characteristics between water tracks from disparate polar sites with a toolkit for future field and remotely sensed identification of water tracks. We place previous studies within a quantitative framework of “top-down” climate and “bottom-up” geology controls on track morphology and hydrogeomorphic function. We find the term “water track” is applied to a broad category of concentrated suprapermafrost flowpaths exhibiting varying morphology, degrees of self-organization, hydraulic characteristics, subsurface composition, vegetation, relationships to thaw tables, and stream order/hillslope position. We propose that the widespread occurrence of water tracks on both poles across varying geologic, ecologic, and climatic factors implies that water tracks are in dynamic equilibrium with the permafrost environment but that they may experience change as the climate continues to warm. Current knowledge gaps include these features' trajectories in the face of ongoing climate change and their role as an analog landform for an active Martian hydrosphere.