Thawing permafrost in the High Arctic: Understanding climate, herbivore and belowground feedbacks
Informations
- Funding country
Norway- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 1/1/2021
- End date
- 12/31/2025
- Budget
- 1,476,000 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRIMEDBIO - Independent projects - Medicine, Health Sciences and Biology | Grant | - | - | 1,476,000 EUR |
Abstract
A changing Arctic – What will future Arctic look like? Permafrost is thawing at an extraordinary rate with rising temperatures in the Arctic. Climate change is closely linked with alteration of species composition and loss of biodiversity. This holds for plants, animals, and microorganisms. Permafrost thaw will expose large amount of nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) to microbial decomposition with strong implications for climate gas emission into the atmosphere. Presently, there is a large knowledge gap on the effects of climate change during the cold season on permafrost thaw. There is also a great urgency to understand how climate change will combine with the action of other important drivers of change. The frequency of extreme weather events is also increasing. The permafrost is covering 37% of the northern hemisphere and contains around 1/3 of the Earths carbon deposits. These carbon deposits are locked in the frozen Arctic tundra. Mosses, which often cover the entire soil surface in the Arctic, exert a strong control on soil temperature and moisture by keeping Arctic soils constantly cold and wet. Increasing temperatures and herbivore pressure will led to a reduction in the moss layer and its insulation effect and thus stimulate microbial activity and release large amounts of the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4 into the atmosphere. TERRA aims to study the interactive effects of warming during the cold season and increased herbivory on permafrost thaw and the cascading effects on N and C cycling in the High Arctic. To achieve this, we will conduct field experiment in the High Arctic tundra of Svalbard, where spring and autumn warming, strong winter rainfall and goose grubbing are manipulated. Combining new field techniques and state-of-the-art chemical and DNA-based measurements, TERRA will investigate plants, soil animals, and microorganisms and how the experimental manipulations affect them. This will allow us to gain a holistic understanding of permafrost responses to climate change.