Surface nuclear magnetic resonance observations of permafrost thaw below floating, bedfast, and transitional ice lakes

Lakes in Arctic systems contribute to hydrologic storage, biogeochemical cycling, and permafrost thaw. Here, we have used surface nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements on lakes of Alaska’s North Slope to investigate the extent of permafrost thaw below lakes with different annual ice conditions. Our purpose is to understand if annual lake ice conditions are related to development of thawed permafrost below lakes. We investigated 10 lakes and two terrestrial permafrost control sites using surface NMR and direct measurement under spring conditions when lake ice is nearly at its thickest. We did not observe unfrozen water below our surveyed bedfast ice lakes, whereas unfrozen water (indicating permafrost thaw) was measured below floating ice lakes. We found that transitional ice lakes, ones that alternate between floating and bedfast ice conditions over multiyear timescales depending on winter ice growth and lake level conditions, have complex vertical unfrozen water content profiles attributed to sporadic periods of thaw. Based on that finding, we speculate that predicting the presence of talik based on remotely sensed lake ice conditions is unreliable. We applied a scheme to subtract the lake water signal from the NMR data and found the resulting inversions to be improved.