New permafrost formed in peat hummocks (pounus), Finnish Lapland

Detailed measurements on a pounu (a small peat hummock) field in northernmo st Finland (69 degrees 49'N) indicate that new permafrost has formed there since 1993. The maximum thickness of the permafrost layer so far is about 4 4 cm and it was slowly increasing in 1997. The importance of ground level t emperature measurements in the assessment of permafrost growth and decay is stressed. The significance of these observations in the context of global change is discussed. They do not appear to support the notion of rapid warm ing of the climate in subarctic Finland. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.