热融湖是多年冻土区地下冰融化形成的典型地貌单元,热融湖及其变化对多年冻土热状态、水文过程、生态环境、冻土工程稳定性等有着重要的影响.热融湖还是重要的温室气体源,与全球气候系统存在着复杂而显著的互馈过程,是气候与环境变化的指示器.因此,开展热融湖的相关研究是近年来冻土学研究的热点之一.通过文献综述,从以下方面评述了热融湖研究的现状与进展:1)热融湖形态特征及其演化过程;2)热融湖热状况及其热效应研究;3)热融湖和多年冻土区土壤-植被生态系统的相互作用研究;4)热融湖对大气中温室气体的贡献.最后,讨论了该领域目前面临的主要问题,提出了应在热融湖演化的基础理论、动态变化过程的预测、热融湖的冻土水文效应、区域尺度热融湖与冻土、生态、水文和气候耦合过程的综合等方面进一步开展研究,为定量预测和评价冻土区热融湖环境工程效应,应发展不同尺度的计算模型.
Thermokarst lake is a typical landform in ice-rich permafrost regions. Thermokarst lake plays an essential role in permafrost distribution, frozen soil hydrology,ecological system and environment in permafrost regions and is a hot topic in recent decades.In this paper,the recent progress in the research on thermokarst lakes is reviewed from the following four aspects:(1)the evolution and morphologic change process of thermokarst lake and the reason of natural thermokarst lake's drainage;(2)the thermal regime and thermal erosion of thermokarst lakes and the influence of thermokarst lake on the permafrost;(3)the interaction between thermokarst lake and ecological system;(4)the emission of greenhouse gas related to thermokarst lake variation.Finally,the major problems in the recent researches are discussed. Based on this review,aprospect on potential research directions and new focuses are presented.