Geography
Permafrost and Environmental Change
Module code: F8023A
Level 6
30 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Practical, Lecture
Assessment modes: Coursework, Computer based exam
Permafrost regions are one of the most sensitive regions to environmental change. The climates of northern Alaska, Canada and Russia are warming quicker than almost all other regions on Earth. Such warming is causing major changes in earth-surface conditions:
- permafrost is warming and disappearing
- frozen peatlands are degrading
- wetlands are replacing some boreal forest
- treeline is advancing northward into the Arctic.
Studying these changes indicates the magnitude and rate of environmental change. This can measure the effects of global warming.
On this module, you’ll examine present and past permafrost regions from an interdisciplinary perspective. You’ll link permafrost science with physical geography, geology, ecology and Quaternary science. You’ll cover:
- the general nature of permafrost regions, and their vegetation and soils
- scientific, engineering and resource issues
- modern permafrost in the Arctic and past permafrost in the mid-latitudes.
You’ll build knowledge of earth-surface processes and environmental change in permafrost regions. You’ll then summarise and analyse methods, hypotheses and data about such regions. You’ll also consider the problems and solutions associated with economic development, and land management on permafrost terrain.
Module learning outcomes
- To demonstrate knowledge and understanding of spatial variation of physical phenomena in present and past permafrost regions, and be able to explain the pattern and dynamic nature of spatial variation.
- To conceptualise patterns, processes, interactions and change in the physical world as systems at a range of spatial scales, and incorporate into a systems framework natural environmental impacts on human activity, human impacts on biophysical systems and the management of permafrost regions.
- To develop a critical awareness of the significance of spatial and temporal scale on physical processes and their interactions with human processes in permafrost regions.
- To understand how environmental change operating on a range of timescales (past, present, future) affects the permafrost regions.