Old Carbon in Permafrost - Characteristics, Availability and Balance
Ice-rich permafrost deposits on the Buor Khaya peninsula. Photo by F. Guenther, August 2010
Research Topic
In their development and dynamics permafrost regions are controlled by climatic conditions. So these areas are strongly affected by climatic and environmental changes.
An ecological system change triggered by recent warming could affect the stored organic carbon in permafrost deposits. The degradation of permafrost could release organic carbon to the atmosphere and hydrosphere and could be an important additional greenhouse gas source. During this project the organic carbon and ice-rich permafrost deposits of the late Pleistocene and Holocene will be examined. A stratigraphic differentiated carbon balance and characteristic will be applied, relating the transformation of the organic substance with the permafrost dynamics during the last Late Quaternary climatic cycle, as well as examining the stability and/or degradation of the organic carbon fixed in permafrost. With a combination of modern methods of carbon analytics, sedimentology and detailed field work a comprehensive characterisation, an estimate of the availability and a balance of fossil organic carbon in ice-rich permafrost deposits is planned to be realised. With the inclusion of already available sample series and the inclusion of archives and literature data it is aimed to reach the greatest possible representation for the terrestrial Arctic.
Cooperations
German Partners
- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Science (AWI), University of Bremen: Gesine Mollenhauer (Helmholtz Young Investigators Group "Applications of molecular 14C analysis for the study of sedimentation processes and carbon cycling in marine sediments")
- Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ): Kai Mangelsdorf (Organic Geochemistry)
Funding
German National Academic Foundation
Outcomes, Publications
- Strauss, J., Schirrmeister, L., Wetterich, S.(2010).Paleoenvironmental dynamics of Western Beringia - New studies from the Yedoma key site Duvanny Yar (Lower Kolyma River, Siberia), Sediment 2010, Meeting of the Society for Sedimentary Geology - Central European Section (SEPM-CES) and the Sedimentology Section of the Geologische Vereinigung (GV), 25. - 27 June 2010, Potsdam.
- Strauss, J., Wetterich, S., Schirrmeister, L.(2010).Permafrost properties of the Yedoma key site at Duvanny Yar (Kolyma lowland, East Siberia), IPY Oslo Science Conference 2010, 08 - 12 June.
- Strauss, J., Schirrmeister, L., Wetterich, S.(2010).Paleoenvironmental dynamics of Western Beringia - New studies from the Yedoma key site Duvanny Yar (Lower Kolyma River, Siberia), Geophysical Research Abstracts; Vol. 12, EGU2010-300-3, 2010; EGU General Assembly, Vienna 2010
