NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: physical sciences, permafrost, carbon fluxes, energy cycling

Objective(s): To investigate biogeochemical and biogeophysical processes along transects following landscape gradients.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5279. As part of the European Research Council (ERC)-synergy project Q-Arctic, the research team plan to investigate biogeochemical and biogeophysical processes along transects following landscape gradients. Such gradients include natural variability within heterogeneous permafrost landscapes (e.g. a transect from dry upload tundra into a lower lying wetland area) but are particularly interested in disturbance features (e.g. thermokarst, erosion, alas formation, ice-wedge degradation) within the Arctic permafrost region. The fieldwork strategy will follow a space-for-time approach (i.e. measure multiple stages along a sequence from undisturbed to partly disturbed to heavily disturbed landscape features) which exist side-by-side within the chosen study region. The aim is to characterize the changes in carbon (CO2, CH4), nutrient (N2O) and energy cycles that go along with the permafrost gradients/degradation, allowing to better understand the future feedbacks of currently undisturbed Arctic landscapes with an expected warmer climate. Associated shifts in vegetation communities, as well as hydrological and soil conditions will also be investigated in detail. Within this framework, these fieldwork-based projects will closely interact with, and get support from, research activities within the other project components of Q-Arctic, including multi-disciplinary in-situ observations, satellite remote sensing and land-surface modeling at regional to pan-Arctic scales. The intended field work activities will be based on mobile flux chamber measurements, and ancillary observations, to characterize the small-scale variability in carbon exchange between permafrost ecosystems and the atmosphere. The PhD student who will be primarily executing the field experiments will be equipped with a portable greenhouse gas analyzer for CH4/CO2/H2O mixing ratios (Licor LI-7810). This analyzer allows battery-powered operation in the field for daylong campaigns. Portable chambers (25cm diameter, transparent and opaque) will be equipped with ancillary sensors (e.g. temperature, radiation) as well as push-in probes for soil temperature, humidity, and pH. On a very limited scale, additional soil and vegetation samples are supposed to be taken for subsequent analysis in the lab. The research team are eager to coordinate the planned research activities with local groups and communities, and in this context would like to present the research findings in public meetings to local communities. Of course results will also be shared with local, federal and territorial government agencies, if there is interest. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from August 8, 2022 to December 31, 2022