Call for Papers

Special session at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Washington, D.C., April 14-18, 2010.

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State and Fate of Frozen Ground and Periglacial Environments

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's cryosphere. It plays an important role in the land surface energy and moisture balances, hydrologic and biochemical cycles, has a profound effect on ecosystems, and is characterized by unique land surface and geomorphologic processes. Frozen ground environments are also home to a substantial human population and are thus an area of significant economic activity. A wide range of environmental changes occurring on scales of a few years to millennia have and continue to significantly affect periglacial regions, with important feedbacks. Impacts of a recently warming climate are increasingly evident. These climatic trends are producing substantial impacts on ecosystems, social structures, geomorphology, and other physical or biological processes of periglacial environments.

This session seeks presentations across all disciplines that examine the nature of changes affecting high latitude and high altitude frozen ground and periglacial environments. We invite presentations that use models, observations, historical and paleoclimate records, statistical inference, and process studies. We also encourage abstracts presenting the results from IPY projects, observing networks, frozen ground changes on human populations, 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 climatic processes and change.

Please contact Nikolay Shiklomanov or Oliver Frauenfeld if you plan to submit an abstract. Abstract deadline is Wednesday, 18 November 2009.

Nikolay Shiklomanov
Department of Geography
George Washington University
1922 F St. NW, Washington DC 20052
Phone: (202)-994-3966
Fax: (202)-994-2484
E-mail: shiklom@gwu.edu

Oliver W. Frauenfeld
CIRES National Snow and Ice Data Center
University of Colorado, UCB 449
Boulder, CO 80309-0449
Phone: (303) 735-0247
Fax: (303) 492-2468
E-mail: oliverf@colorado.edu