The Global SEDIBUD (Sediment Budgets in Cold Environments) Programme: Coordinated Studies of Sedimentary Fluxes and Budgets in Changing Cold Climate Environments

ABSTRACT

Projected climate change in cold climate environments is expected to alter melt-season duration and intensity, along with the number of extreme rainfall events, total annual precipitation and the balance between snowfall and rainfall. In addition, changes to the thermal balance are expected to reduce the extent of permafrost and seasonal ground frost and increase active layer depth. These effects will change surface environments in cold climate environments and alter the fluxes of sediments, nutrients and solutes, but the absence of data and coordinated quantitative analysis to understand the sensitivity of the surface environment are acute in cold environments. The I.A.G/A.I.G. SEDIBUD (Sediment Budgets in Cold Environments) Programme, building on the ESF SEDIFLUX (Sedimentary Source-to-Sink-Fluxes in Cold Environments) Network, has been formed to address this key knowledge gap. Coordinated efforts are carried out to quantify, compare and model sedimentary fluxes and budgets in 38 selected SEDIBUD Key Test Sites (cold environment catchments) worldwide.