Remotely Sensing the Morphometrics and Dynamics of a Cold Region Dune Field Using Historical Aerial Photography and Airborne LiDAR Data

This study uses an airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) survey, historical aerial photography and historical climate data to describe the character and dynamics of the Nogahabara Sand Dunes, a sub-Arctic dune field in interior Alaska’s discontinuous permafrost zone. The Nogahabara Sand Dunes consist of a 43-km2 area of active transverse and barchanoid dunes within a 3200-km2 area of vegetated dune and sand sheet deposits. The average dune height in the active portion of the dune field is 5.8 m, with a maximum dune height of 28 m. Dune spacing is variable with average crest-to-crest distances for select transects ranging from 66–132 m. Between 1952 and 2015, dunes migrated at an average rate of 0.52 m a−1. Dune movement was greatest between 1952 and 1978 (0.68 m a−1) and least between 1978 and 2015 (0.43 m a−1). Dunes migrated predominantly to the southeast; however, along the dune field margin, net migration was towards the edge of the dune field regardless of heading. Better constraining the processes controlling dune field dynamics at the Nogahabara dunes would provide information that can be used to model possible reactivation of more northerly dune fields and sand sheets in response to climate change, shifting fire regimes and permafrost thaw.

[1]  Andrew Baird,et al.  The dynamic effects of moisture on the entrainment and transport of sand by wind , 2004 .

[2]  Jean-Pierre Bibring,et al.  Widespread surface weathering on early Mars: A case for a warmer and wetter climate , 2015 .

[3]  E. A. Koster,et al.  Photo-interpretation map of surficial deposits and landforms of the Nogahabara sand dunes and part of the Koyukuk Lowland, Alaska , 1984 .

[4]  S. Leprince,et al.  Monitoring migration rates of an active subarctic dune field using optical imagery , 2009 .

[5]  L. King,et al.  Permafrost Thickness and Distribution in Finnish Lapland - Results of Geoelectrical Soundings , 1987 .

[6]  C. Waythomas,et al.  Late-Pleistocene Eolian Sand Sheets in Alaska , 1990, Quaternary Research.

[7]  David C. Finnegan,et al.  Sand dune movement in the Victoria Valley, Antarctica , 2009 .

[8]  Cynthia Lynn Dinwiddie,et al.  Late-Winter Phase State of Water in the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, Alaska, and Testable Hypotheses for a Perching Mechanism , 2011 .

[9]  L D Carter,et al.  A pleistocene sand sea on the alaskan arctic coastal plain. , 1981, Science.

[10]  Stephen A. Wolfe,et al.  Late Quaternary eolian deposits of northern North America: Age and extent , 2009 .

[11]  Zhiwei Han,et al.  Migration of sand dunes on the northern Alxa Plateau, Inner Mongolia, China , 2007 .

[12]  Jos W. A. Dijkmans,et al.  Morphological development of dunes in a Subarctic environment, central Kobuk Valley, northwestern Alaska , 1990 .

[13]  H. Tsoar,et al.  The ecological background, deterioration and reclamation of desert dune sand. , 1990 .

[14]  Jessica Barnes,et al.  BARCHAN DUNES ON THE KUISEB RIVER DELTA, NAMIBIA , 2001 .

[15]  H. Heywood.  The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes , 1941, Nature.

[16]  Sebastien Leprince,et al.  Retrieving sand dune movements using sub-pixel correlation of multi-temporal optical remote sensing imagery, northwest Sinai Peninsula, Egypt , 2012 .

[17]  Jeffrey D. Bond,et al.  Dune stabilization in central and southern Yukon in relation to early Holocene environmental change, northwestern North America , 2011 .

[18]  J. Overpeck,et al.  Response of Nebraska Sand Hills Natural Vegetation to Drought, Fire, Grazing, and Plant Functional Type Shifts as Simulated by the Century Model , 2004 .

[19]  Pinliang Dong,et al.  Automated measurement of sand dune migration using multi-temporal lidar data and GIS , 2015 .

[20]  R. F. Black,et al.  Eolian Deposits of Alaska , 1951 .

[21]  P. Biron,et al.  Assessing the Relationship Between River Mobility and Habitat , 2016 .

[22]  D. Lemmen,et al.  Monitoring of dune activity in the Great Sand Hills region, Saskatchewan , 1999 .

[23]  C. Kasse,et al.  Sandy aeolian deposits and environments and their relation to climate during the Last Glacial Maximum and Lateglacial in northwest and central Europe , 2002 .

[24]  Peter Worsley,et al.  A revised chronology for aeolian activity in subarctic Fennoscandia during the Holocene , 1999 .

[25]  E. Robert Thieler,et al.  The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) Version 4.0 - An ArcGIS extension for calculating shoreline change , 2009 .

[26]  Benjamin M. Jones,et al.  Increase in the rate and uniformity of coastline erosion in Arctic Alaska , 2009 .

[27]  S. Forman,et al.  Twentieth century dune migration at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado, relation to drought variability , 2005 .

[28]  A. Arbogast,et al.  Middle-Holocene mobilization of aeolian sand in western upper Michigan and the potential relationship with climate and fire , 2004 .

[29]  Bruce P. Finney,et al.  Holocene history of the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, Northwestern Alaska , 2002 .

[30]  Andrew J. Russell,et al.  Sedimentology of cold-climate aeolian sandsheet deposits in the Askja region of northeast Iceland , 2004 .

[31]  S. M. Arensa,et al.  Mobility of a remobilised parabolic dune in Kennemerland , The Netherlands , 2004 .

[32]  Kristofer D. Johnson,et al.  Distribution of near-surface permafrost in Alaska: Estimates of present and future conditions , 2015 .

[33]  David S. G. Thomas,et al.  Aeolian system responses to global change: challenges of scale, process and temporal integration , 2008 .

[34]  José A. Jiménez,et al.  Aeolian dune migration along the Ceará coast, north‐eastern Brazil , 1999 .

[35]  Charlie S. Bristow,et al.  Migration of parabolic dunes at Aberffraw, Anglesey, north Wales , 2004 .

[36]  E. A. Koster,et al.  Periglacial sand dunes and eolian sand sheets; an annotated bibliography , 1984 .

[37]  Chris H. Hugenholtz,et al.  Recent stabilization of active sand dunes on the Canadian prairies and relation to recent climate variations , 2005 .

[38]  Douglas L. Kane,et al.  Potential repsonse of an Arctic watershed during a period of global warming , 1992 .

[39]  Jos W. A. Dijkmans,et al.  Niveo‐aeolian deposits and denivation forms, with special reference to the great Kobuk Sand Dunes, Northwestern Alaska , 1988 .

[40]  Guido Grosse,et al.  Modern thermokarst lake dynamics in the continuous permafrost zone, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska , 2011 .

[41]  Eduard A. Koster,et al.  Ancient and modern cold‐climate aeolian sand deposition: A review , 1988 .

[42]  Ryan C. Ewing,et al.  Aeolian dune interactions and dune‐field pattern formation: White Sands Dune Field, New Mexico , 2010 .

[43]  S. M. Arens,et al.  Dune Landscape Rejuvenation by Intended Destabilisation in the Amsterdam Water Supply Dunes , 2006 .

[44]  Cheryl McKenna Neuman,et al.  Role of sublimation in particle supply-for aeolian transport in cold environments , 1990 .

[45]  Cynthia Lynn Dinwiddie,et al.  Geophysical Mars Analog Studies of Multiphase Water in the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, Northwestern Alaska , 2011 .

[46]  Eduard A. Koster,et al.  A continuous record of Holocene eolian activity in West Greenland , 2003, Quaternary Research.

[47]  M. Seppälä,et al.  Deflation and redeposition of sand dunes in finnish lapland , 1995 .

[48]  J. T. Cass.  Reconnaissance geologic map of the Kateel River quadrangle, Alaska , 1957 .

[49]  Margaret Hiza Redsteer,et al.  Monitoring and analysis of sand dune movement and growth on the Navajo Nation, southwestern United States , 2011 .

[50]  Robert P. Sharp,et al.  Barchan-dune movement in Imperial Valley, California , 1964 .

[51]  M. L. Sweet,et al.  Algodones dune field of southeastern California: case history of a migrating modern dune field , 1988 .

[52]  C. Haynes,et al.  Bagnold's Barchan: A 57-Yr Record of Dune Movement in the Eastern Sahara and Implications for Dune Origin and Paleoclimate Since Neolithic Times , 1989, Quaternary Research.

[53]  Alfried P. Vogler,et al.  A New Subspecies of Cicindela limbata (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) from Alaska, and Further Review of the maritima group by Using Mitochondrial DNA Analysis , 2008 .

[54]  W. Oechel,et al.  Observational Evidence of Recent Change in the Northern High-Latitude Environment , 2000 .

[55]  Chris H. Hugenholtz,et al.  Biogeomorphic model of dunefield activation and stabilization on the northern Great Plains , 2005 .

[56]  W. W. Patton.  Regional geology of the Kateel River quadrangle, Alaska , 1966 .

[57]  John Boardman,et al.  Periglacial geomorphology , 1992 .

[58]  Peter P. David,et al.  Stabilized dune ridges in northern Saskatchewan , 1981 .

[59]  J. Ollerhead,et al.  Relict Late Wisconsinan Dune Fields of the Northern Great Plains, Canada , 2006 .