PRA Melting-ICE Project: Svalbard 2022 Expeditions Report

Arctic regions are among the fastest warming areas of the planet. Increasing average temperatures over the last five decades have deepened the thawing of the upper-most layer of permafrost across the Arctic, which contains significant amounts of organic carbon. The progressive deepening of seasonal thawing releases carbon that is used by active microorganisms which also produce greenhouse gases, potentially onsetting a positive feedback on global warming. Despite their importance in controlling organic matter degradation and greenhouse gas fluxes to the atmosphere, there is a lack of data on activity and dynamics of microbial communities in High Arctic soils in response to seasonal thaw. This report describes three specific expeditions performed on the Svalbard archipelago, carried out within the framework of the PRA (Italian Arctic Research Program) project Melting-ICE, performed between February and October 2022, reporting site characteristics and samples collected. The project aims to investigate the diversity and activity of active layer microbial communities across a full season thaw cycle, correlating microbial diversity with gas fluxes and composition. During these expeditions, a total of eight different sites were selected to investigate the microbiology and geochemistry of soils, as well as to estimate the gas fluxes from the soil to the atmosphere. The data collected in the field, combined with the results obtained in the laboratory, will provide a snapshot of the seasonal activity of the microbial communities present in the permafrost's active layer. The three campaigns will provide data to estimate the impact of permafrost melting on the carbon cycle and the role of microorganisms in the release of greenhouse gases.

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Publication Details

Journal
Open Research Europe
Published
2024-12-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.17772.1
Primary Topic
Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

PRA Melting-ICE Project: Svalbard 2022 Expeditions Report

Delia Segato, Martina Cascone, Margaret A. Cramm, Francesco Montemagno et al.
Open Research Europe
Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
article

PRA Melting-ICE Project: Svalbard 2022 Expeditions Report

Delia Segato, Martina Cascone, Margaret A. Cramm, Francesco Montemagno, Stefano Caliro, Elena Manini, Angelina Cordone, James A. Bradley, Riccardo Cerrato, Carlo Cardellini, Mauro Mazzola, Massimiliano Vardè, Donato Giovannelli, Enrico Maiero, Elisa Baldrighi, Jacopo Pasotti, Iain Rudnik
article en

Abstract

Arctic regions are among the fastest warming areas of the planet. Increasing average temperatures over the last five decades have deepened the thawing of the upper-most layer of permafrost across the Arctic, which contains significant amounts of organic carbon. The progressive deepening of seasonal thawing releases carbon that is used by active microorganisms which also produce greenhouse gases, potentially onsetting a positive feedback on global warming. Despite their importance in controlling organic matter degradation and greenhouse gas fluxes to the atmosphere, there is a lack of data on activity and dynamics of microbial communities in High Arctic soils in response to seasonal thaw. This report describes three specific expeditions performed on the Svalbard archipelago, carried out within the framework of the PRA (Italian Arctic Research Program) project Melting-ICE, performed between February and October 2022, reporting site characteristics and samples collected. The project aims to investigate the diversity and activity of active layer microbial communities across a full season thaw cycle, correlating microbial diversity with gas fluxes and composition. During these expeditions, a total of eight different sites were selected to investigate the microbiology and geochemistry of soils, as well as to estimate the gas fluxes from the soil to the atmosphere. The data collected in the field, combined with the results obtained in the laboratory, will provide a snapshot of the seasonal activity of the microbial communities present in the permafrost's active layer. The three campaigns will provide data to estimate the impact of permafrost melting on the carbon cycle and the role of microorganisms in the release of greenhouse gases.

Open Research EuropeVol. 4
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US), University of Pisa (IT), Tokyo Institute of Technology (JP), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), British Antarctic Survey (GB), Université de Toulon (FR), Ca' Foscari University of Venice (IT), Queen Mary University of London (GB), University of Perugia (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (IT), Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (IT), Life Science Institute (JP), Joint Research Centre (IT), National Research Council (RO), Italian Resuscitation Council (IT), National Research Council (IT), Institut Méditerranéen d’Océanologie (FR), Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research (IT), National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (IT), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (US), University of Naples Federico II (IT)
Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Natural Environment Research Council
Openalex Percentile: Top 75%
Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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