Team examine CO2 from thawing Artic
7 Aug 2007 by Evoluted New Media
An expedition is underway to examine any potential effect that the CO2 escaping from thawing Artic soil could have.
An expedition is underway to examine any potential effect that the CO2 escaping from thawing Artic soil could have.
The icy layer beneath the Arctic soil is thawing and wetlands are getting drier, releasing CO2 that has been captured and stored for thousands of years into the atmosphere.
Dr Stephan Matthiesen, project manager of the ABACUS consortium (Arctic Biosphere Atmosphere Coupling at Multiple Scales), said: “We need to find out how much carbon will be released and how it will move through the Arctic ecosystem.”
The researchers face a daily two-hour trek, carrying equipment over mountainous terrain to reach the field site at Abisko in Sweden, about 200km north of the Arctic Circle.
“Our team is carrying out a number of experiments to measure the carbon escaping from the soils and vegetation - for example, we are using branch bags on trees to find out how much CO2 is coming from the branches. And we are using a specially equipped aircraft, a mobile isotope laboratory and satellite technology to help us to build an accurate picture of what is happening in the region,” said Dr Matthiesen.
The Arctic tundra covers vast areas of land across Siberia, Canada and Scandinavia and so the team thinks that globally, any changes could have a significant effect on the world’s climate and landscape.
This research, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, is just one of the many International Polar Year projects being undertaken by UK researchers to discover what is happening at the Poles.
