ABSTRACT OPP-9732051 HINKEL, KENNETH UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI The project will gather, organize, and make available to a wide research community an international set of data on the thickness of the seasonal active thaw layer of the permafrost zone throughout the Arctic. The project is part of a multidisciplinary project that addresses the impact of global change on land-atmosphere-ice interactions (LAII) in the Arctic. The dynamics of the circumarctic thaw layer is partly a function of the air temperature and, therefore, may serve as a harbinger of global change as temperatures rise in response to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. The full circumarctic dataset will provide the wide coverage necessary to resolve small-scale anomalies and regional variability that, if studied alone, would yield incorrect interpretations of temporal trends in thaw depth due to regional climatic trends. The results of this project will be used in combination with those of other LAII projects to determine the regional impacts of global change on terrestrial systems throughout the Arctic.
