POLYGON: Polygons in tundra wetlands: State and dynamics under climate variability in Polar Regions (Joint German-Russian Research Project, 2011-2013)

Research Topic

The POLYGON project will contribute to the understanding of the functioning and dynamics of arctic polygonal landscapes in a changing Arctic. This is a prerequisite to properly appreciate the interactions of permafrost with other climate components under past, current and future climate scenarios. The POLYGON project will address the following three main research questions:

1. How do modern North Yakutian polygons function? – A modern ecological approach
2. How is polygon dynamics related to climate variation and change on annual, decadal, centennial and millennial time scales? – A palaeoecological approach
3. What can we learn from past and present polygon dynamics to properly predict future arctic environmental reactions to global warming? – A synthesis and modelling approach.

Cooperations

German Partners

• Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam: Birgit Plessen (stable isotopes on ostracod calcite), Jörg Erzinger (trace elements on ostracod calcite), Helga Kemnitz (SEM, microprobe on calcite)
• Senckenberg Weimar: Frank Kienast (Plant macrofossils, modern arctic vegetation)
• FU Berlin Pavel Tarasov (reconstruction of climate parameters)
• Leibniz Laboratory for Radiometric Dating Kiel: Piet Grootes (Radiocarbon AMS dating)
• MPI of Meteorology, Hamburg: Stefan Hagemann (Modelling of terrestrial system)

International Contacts and Collaborations

• Moscow State University, Faculty of Geology: Vladimir Tumskoy
• Moscow State University, School of Soil Science, Department of the Geography of Soils: Anatoly Bobrov
• Institute of Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone Yakutsk: Nikolay Karpov (Environmental monitoring in Chokurdakh)
• Research Station Chersky Russian Academy of Sciences; Sergey Zimov, Dergey Davidov (Environmental monitoring in Chersky)
• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Ko van Huisteden, (Environmental monitoring in Kytalyk near Chokurdakh)
• University of Alaska Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute, Guido Grosse (Remote sensing, change detection, thermokarst); Vladimir Romanovsky, Sergey Marchenko (Permafrost modelling)
  

Funding

• German Research Foundation (DFG), He3622/16-1

Outcomes, Publications

• Wetterich, S., Schirrmeister, L., Andreev, A., Pudenz, M., Opel, T., Meyer, H., Derevyagin, A.(2009).Late glacial to Holocene environmental dynamics of the terrestrial Arctic – new records from thermokarst deposits along the Dmitry Laptev Strait (NE Siberia), APEX, Arctic Palaeoclimate and its EXtremes - beyond the frontier, Third International Conference and Workshop Copenhagen, March 31st - April 3rd, 2009.