Lesson 3: Graphing Long Term Soil Temperature Change
The community of Deadhorse is located at the end of the Dalton highway along the north slope of Alaska. Deep soil temperature data has been collected there since 1984 and provides valuable information about changes from the mid 80’s to 2009.The temperature data collected has been entered in to an Excel spreadsheet. To show long-term change only the temperatures below 20 meters will be graphed. In this exercise long-term change in permafrost temperatures from Deadhorse, Alaska will be examined.
The students will:
1. use Microsoft Excel to create a graph;
2. add data to a graph; and
3. interpret data on the graph
A computer with Microsoft Excel installed
Microsoft Excel file Deadhorse Permafrost Temps.xls
Soil temperature responds to changes in climate. Changes at great depth (10 m to 200 m) reflect decade-to-century scale climatic variability, because changes in surface conditions take years to propagate through the soil. Soil temperatures closer to the surface, measured by thermistors at about 1 meter depth, are reflective of changes on shorter time scales. The presence or absence of snow and the type and density of vegetation, as well as the composition of the soil itself, can affect the response of soil temperature to changing air temperature. Deep snow and dense vegetation, for example, insulate soil from changes in air temperature.
"Kenji Yoshikawa installs thermistors in a borehole."
