Investigating the peat deposits of the Great Vasyugan Mire margin using ground-penetrating radar

[摘要] The objectives of this study are to discuss some algorithms for the interpretation of GPR data in conditions of wetlands, estimate the peat layer thickness, and assess the surface transformation due to peat accumulation in the Great Vasyugan Mire. The study area is located in the southeastern part of the West Siberian plain (Middle Ob River watershed) and consists of typical Western Siberia pine-shrub-sphagnum, pine-shrub sedge-sphagnum ombrotrophic mires and swamp forest with birch, aspen, Siberian cedar, and spruce. Four separate georadar complexes corresponding to snow, fibric peat, hemic and sapric peat, and mineral subsoil were revealed with a 250 MHz antenna. An isolated area of peatland in depression within the swamp forest is identified. At the same time, a distribution of peat accumulation processes outside the original depressions was observed. The study has shown surface leveling where the surface slope decreases from 5 to 0.1 % in the process of peat accumulation within the border of the swamp and mire. An inversion of the surface slopes is observed in areas corresponding to intensive accumulation of sphagnum peat within the pine-shrub-sphagnum bog.

[发布机构] Scientific Department, Siberian Research Institute of Agriculture and Peat, Siberian Federal Scientific Centre of Agro-Biotechnologies, 3 Gagarina st., Tomsk; 634050, Russia^1

[效力级别] 计算机科学

[关键词] Ground Penetrating Radar;Layer thickness;Peat accumulation;Sphagnum peat;Study areas;Surface slope;Surface transformations;Western siberia