Ground temperature records from a peatland permafrost borehole monitoring network in coastal Labrador

The coastal Labrador peatland permafrost borehole monitoring network is comprised of a series of shallow boreholes (up to 5.7 m) drilled in palsas and peat plateaus across coastal Labrador. While this region includes some of the southernmost coastal permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere, there are very few published measurements of permafrost temperatures, active layer thickness, and permafrost thickness from the area. The first four boreholes were drilled in 2014 in palsas along the southeastern Labrador Sea coastline using the water jet drilling technique. All four of the boreholes reached and exceeded the base of the permafrost. The boreholes were each instrumented at 4 to 6 depths with Hobo V2 U23-003 loggers or DS1922L High Resolution Thermochron F5 iButtons to record ground temperatures at bi-hourly or quad-hourly intervals, depending on the respective logger type that was used. This dataset corresponds to the raw bi-hourly or quad-hourly data records at these four boreholes, plus infilled hourly records using a spline function. This unique borehole network is critical for monitoring the effects of climate change on the terrestrial cryosphere, and these data provide novel insights into the sensitivity of permafrost in this understudied region (Wang et al., in review).

Tutton, Rosamond (Northern Environmental Geoscience Laboratory, Queen's University)

Colyn, Victoria (Northern Environmental Geoscience Laboratory, Queen's University)

Forget, Anika (Northern Environmental Geoscience Laboratory, Queen's University)

The coastal Labrador peatland permafrost borehole monitoring network is located across the traditional lands of Labrador Inuit, Innu, and Kallunângajuit. Research permits for work conducted at WJD01-04 were granted by the NunatuKavut Community Council Research Advisory Committee, and we are grateful to Bryn Wood, George Russell Jr., Charlene Kippenhuck, and Meredith Purcell, as well as the residents of Cartwright and Red Bay, for their support. We are also grateful to George Russell Jr., Lloyd Pardy, and Gary Bird for many meaningful and insightful conversations about peatland permafrost change in southeastern coastal Labrador that helped to motivate this research.

Nordicana D98 - Un inventaire sur le pergélisol des tourbières dans la région côtière du Labrador / Coastal Labrador peatland permafrost inventory

Published

Version 1.0 (2014-2023) - Updated March 12, 2024