About our project

Work packages

Staff

Field sites

Equipment

Activities

Publications

Contact

WP 4a. Gaseous carbon flux from permafrost soils

WP 4 Team:

• Svetlana Evgrafova (PhD, Senior Researcher) – PI
  
• Oxana Masyagina (PhD, Research scientist)
  
• Sergey Syrtcov (Research scientist)
  
• Valentina Kholodilova (PhD-student)

WP 4 Motivation:

• Small changes in the stock of organic carbon in the permafrost soil by net emission of CO₂ (or CH₄) into the atmosphere will have a profound impact on the atmosphere's CO₂ (and CH₄) concentration and with that very likely on the Earth's climate
  
• Landscape affects the fate of organic carbon in permafrost soils:
   - aerobic conditions – release of CO₂
   - anaerobic conditions - microbial production of CH₄

WP 4 Research questions:

• How much of CO₂ and CH₄ release from soil depending on the actual permafrost regime, and the soil temperature and soil moisture in the active layer?
• What the sources (biotic or abiotic) of the two gases?
  

WP 4 Approaches:

• Closed chamber technique for soil CO₂ efflux and CH₄ exchange measurements
  
• Analysis of stable carbon isotopic composition of gases with Picarro G213i
  

Expected outcome:

To relate results to the carbon stocks as determined in WP 2 in order to quantify the carbon release from soil depending on the permafrost regime