Rooney E et al., (2022): Soil pore network response to freeze-thaw cycles in permafrost aggregates. Geoderma. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2021.115674
Rooney E (2022): Soil pore network response to freeze-thaw cycles in permafrost aggregates. Soil Carbon Biogeochemistry, ESS-DIVE repository. Dataset. doi:10.15485/1838886
Authors: Erin C. Rooney, Vanessa L. Bailey, Kaizad F. Patel, Maria Dragila, Anil K. Battu, Alexander C. Buchko, Adrian C. Gallo, Jeffery Hatten, Angela R. Possinger, Odeta Qafoku, Loren R. Reno, Michael SanClements, Tamas Varga, Rebecca A. Lybrand
Research Objective: Measure the impact of repeated freeze-thaw cycles on the physical structure of permafrost aggregates using non-destructive, high resolution imaging capabilities (XCT) at resolutions of 20 µm.
Approach: We measured how soil pore networks in macroaggregates (2.5 cm3) subsampled from permafrost soils (Toolik, AK) responded to five experimental freeze-thaw cycles (-10C to 20C) that simulated conditions relevant to Arctic surface environments. We investigated pore morphology and deformation due to freeze-thaw by measuring pore connectivity and pore throat diameter distribution before and after freeze-thaw events.
Hypotheses: We hypothesized that freeze-thaw would increase pore connectivity across all aggregates through the expansion of smaller pore throats (<50 microns), based on findings from prior work (Deprez et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2021b; Ma et al., 2021; Starkloff et al., 2017).
We provide a pore-scale perspective on changes to the pore network occurring at this incipient stage of permafrost warming, specifically within the first five freeze-thaw cycles following thaw. Our work contributes to the current understanding of freeze-thaw deformation while providing data needed for future predictions of how climate warming will alter the physical properties of globally important Arctic landscapes.
All code should be able to be run without changing working directories. Please contact me if you find any issues or errors.