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Research Articles
Introduction
The problem of global warming has aroused worldwide concern. It is a very complex problem, requiring a combination of different disciplines such as climatology, ecology, glaciology, oceanography and geomorphology, among others, in order to understand and predict its evolution. The effects of global warming are clearly visible in the recession of glaciers. However, permafrost (permanently frozen soils) is a cryospheric element which is also very sensitive to slight changes in atmospheric and weather conditions. Temporal and spatial changes in permafrost and the active layer can be used as proxies of global warming, and thus monitoring these changes is an important task in the study of global climate change. Consequently, the international scientific community has focused on monitoring permafrost and the active layer using the protocols of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) and the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring Network (CALM) (e.g. Brown et al. 2000, Matsuoka & Humlum 2003, Nelson et al. 2004, Matsuoka 2006, Nelson & Shiklomanov 2009, Vieira et al. 2010), mainly conducted within the framework of the International Permafrost Association (IPA). Whilst most of the GTN-P boreholes and CALM sites are located in the Northern Hemisphere (e.g. Harris & Vonder Muhll 2001, Hall 2002), recently efforts have been made to increase the number of monitoring sites in the Antarctic, achieving particular success during the 4th International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08, within the context of the Antarctic Permafrost and Soils project (ANTPAS) under the aegis of the IPA and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) (Vieira et al. 2010).
One of our contributions to these efforts, among others, was to establish a new CALM site in the Antarctic Peninsula region. Livingston Island was selected because it lies near the climatic boundary of permafrost (e.g. Bockheim 2006, Vieira et al. 2010). Therefore, a CALM site in this area would help not only to increase limited presence of the CALM monitoring network in Antarctica, but also to obtain a complete record of the Active Layer Thickness (ALT) and ground temperature regime in the South Shetland Islands and in particular on Livingston and Deception islands. In this study, it was hypothesized that this CALM site would be one of the...