The PAGE21 project has now been officially closed. The four years of research came to an end on October 31 2015, leaving only...
PAGE21 project was featured in a plenary session "Permafrost in the 21st century" at the 2015 Arctic Circle conference in Reykjavik,...
Monday, 6 August 2012
Didn't we come to the island to do science? Of course we did, and occasionally it also means that we need to carry few things, even if the others in our group might be wondering why we carry every day so much wood to the tundra. But our task is anything but meaningless.
The wet tundra on the island is in fact a relatively sensitive landscape. A single footprint with heavy hiking boots or rubber boots presses the moss along a centimeter deep, thereby changing the behavior of the soil surface at that point. And where the vegetation is once permanently destroyed, it takes often very short time for a muddy ditch or a small pond to appear, in a place where had been no human influence before.
If one only collects one sample the vegetation is not a big problem, because it is very rare that people walk past the same spot. But if you, like us, are planning to build a long-term monitoring station, then it is a different story.
Didn't we come to the island to do science? Of course we did, and occasionally it also means that we need to carry few things, even if the others in our group might be wondering why we carry every day so much wood to the tundra. But our task is anything but meaningless.The wet tundra on the island is in fact a relatively sensitive landscape. A single footprint with heavy hiking boots or rubber boots presses the moss along a centimeter deep, thereby changing the behavior of the soil surface at that point. And where the vegetation is once permanently destroyed, it takes often very short time for a muddy ditch or a small pond to appear, in a place where had been no human influence before.
If one only collects one sample the vegetation is not a big problem, because it is very rare that people walk past the same spot. But if you, like us, are planning to build a long-term monitoring station, then it is a different story.
Our main task this summer is to bring all necessary materials and sensors to their place and to build the needed infrastructure. In the coming years we will come back regularly to read data and/or replace sensors. Without the proper countermeasures, however, we would inevitably destroy the ground just at the spot where we want to examine it. And who wants to work for days to bring soil moisture sensors, and then examine the pond or unvegetated mud pile created by their very own feet?
The proper remedy is wood planks, which we distribute along the track. The long boards distribute weight much more evenly than the largest foot and prevent the destruction of the uppermost layer of the soil. Because the wood in its thermal properties is not much different than the surrounding vegetation, it adapts over a long period of time relatively harmoniously with the soil surface.
At first we thought we only need two or three planks and it would be done. But realised slide by slide the stage filling up that the whole thing would take a bit more. A relatively strenuous work. But now that we're done, we save not only the tundra a few scars in their vegetation, but also few tough footsteps for us through the deep moss.
Greetings,
Bob the Builder aka Max
______________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories"can be found here
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories"can be found here
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Tuesday 7 August 2012
After we wrote the last post, on what sensitive ground we find ourselves, I would like to write some background to it. Those of you who associate with permafrost "permanent" or "always frozen ground", are quite correct. By definition, permafrost is "ground, soil or rock, including ice or organic material, that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years."
In Germany, in our homebase, the surface freezes only for short periods of time in the winter, which means that there is almost no permafrost in Germany. But you can find permafrost in the Arctic and Antarctic and in the high mountain areas of the earth.
Even though permafrost is defined as "continous", the ground is not frozen at all depths throughout the year. Over the summer time the top layer of soil oftens thaws because of the positive air temperatures. This layer is called "active layer". The continous frozen condition is actually good, because as long as the ground is frozen, there is very little reformation. About the same way we expect to be home in the freezer. Once the soil thaws, however, many different processes start to take place. With liquid water, all kinds of fabrics and heat are distributed in the soil. The annual freezing and thawing exerts forces on the ground, for example, the shape of the island endemic polygonal tundra.
A very great importance is the process that fits very well with the example of the freezer; a process where the bacteria begin to process the existing carbon in the soil resulting in carbon dioxide and methane. This makes the permafrost a particularly interesting element in the climate system. If the temperature keeps rising due to global warming also in the permafrost regions, it can accelerate the thawing or the permafrost might even completely disappear in certain places. That would result in significant increase in bacteria which in turn would release more carbon stored in the soil in the form of greenhouse gases. A so-called positive feedback.
The actual permafrost is thus below the depth of maximum thawing of the soil in summer. Here on Samoylov it is at about 40 centimeters below the surface. What it means exactly for our work is that we have over 40 centimeters of slush on top of rock hard frozen ground. At greater depths the temperature rises again steadily due to the heat flow from Earth's interior, so that the soil thaws again at a certain depth. How deep the actual permafrost is depends on current average temperatures, but also on the climatic conditions in the past. Here in northern Siberia the partial depth is about one kilometer, which can be explained by the fact that this area was higher than surrounding areas in the last ice age, and was not protected by layer of ice.
I hope we were able to explain you some important basics about the permafrost. But do not worry, the blog will not become an online textbook and in the next posting we will come back to you with some more current expedition news.
Max
To learn more about the basics of permafrost, please take a look at the PAGE21 Fact Sheet no.1
______________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories" can be found here
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
After we wrote the last post, on what sensitive ground we find ourselves, I would like to write some background to it. Those of you who associate with permafrost "permanent" or "always frozen ground", are quite correct. By definition, permafrost is "ground, soil or rock, including ice or organic material, that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years."In Germany, in our homebase, the surface freezes only for short periods of time in the winter, which means that there is almost no permafrost in Germany. But you can find permafrost in the Arctic and Antarctic and in the high mountain areas of the earth.
Even though permafrost is defined as "continous", the ground is not frozen at all depths throughout the year. Over the summer time the top layer of soil oftens thaws because of the positive air temperatures. This layer is called "active layer". The continous frozen condition is actually good, because as long as the ground is frozen, there is very little reformation. About the same way we expect to be home in the freezer. Once the soil thaws, however, many different processes start to take place. With liquid water, all kinds of fabrics and heat are distributed in the soil. The annual freezing and thawing exerts forces on the ground, for example, the shape of the island endemic polygonal tundra.
A very great importance is the process that fits very well with the example of the freezer; a process where the bacteria begin to process the existing carbon in the soil resulting in carbon dioxide and methane. This makes the permafrost a particularly interesting element in the climate system. If the temperature keeps rising due to global warming also in the permafrost regions, it can accelerate the thawing or the permafrost might even completely disappear in certain places. That would result in significant increase in bacteria which in turn would release more carbon stored in the soil in the form of greenhouse gases. A so-called positive feedback.
The actual permafrost is thus below the depth of maximum thawing of the soil in summer. Here on Samoylov it is at about 40 centimeters below the surface. What it means exactly for our work is that we have over 40 centimeters of slush on top of rock hard frozen ground. At greater depths the temperature rises again steadily due to the heat flow from Earth's interior, so that the soil thaws again at a certain depth. How deep the actual permafrost is depends on current average temperatures, but also on the climatic conditions in the past. Here in northern Siberia the partial depth is about one kilometer, which can be explained by the fact that this area was higher than surrounding areas in the last ice age, and was not protected by layer of ice.
I hope we were able to explain you some important basics about the permafrost. But do not worry, the blog will not become an online textbook and in the next posting we will come back to you with some more current expedition news.
Max
To learn more about the basics of permafrost, please take a look at the PAGE21 Fact Sheet no.1
______________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories" can be found here
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Thursday, 9 August 2012
Our colleagues have been on Samoilov already since early July and our group of six, two German scientists from AWI and four Russian scientists, left for our expedition one month later - at the beginning of August. Our destination: the island Muostakh in Tiksi Bay.
After our almost one week stay in the small town Tiksi due to bad weather conditions (and hence poor flying conditions) as well as tight flight schedules, we finally arrived on Tuesday on "our" island. We used the time in Tiksi to check our equipment and food supplies as well as visiting the local banja, the Russian sauna. That visit was particularly enjoyable, as we will have no shower available within the next two weeks. After approximately about twenty minutes of flight we landed near the place where we have set up our camp.
In this camp we will live and work in the next two weeks. The work of our group focus here primarily on four main areas, all related to the essential features of the island regarding permafrost:
Our colleagues have been on Samoilov already since early July and our group of six, two German scientists from AWI and four Russian scientists, left for our expedition one month later - at the beginning of August. Our destination: the island Muostakh in Tiksi Bay.After our almost one week stay in the small town Tiksi due to bad weather conditions (and hence poor flying conditions) as well as tight flight schedules, we finally arrived on Tuesday on "our" island. We used the time in Tiksi to check our equipment and food supplies as well as visiting the local banja, the Russian sauna. That visit was particularly enjoyable, as we will have no shower available within the next two weeks. After approximately about twenty minutes of flight we landed near the place where we have set up our camp.
In this camp we will live and work in the next two weeks. The work of our group focus here primarily on four main areas, all related to the essential features of the island regarding permafrost:
- The current coastal erosion of the island Muostakh
- The climate and landscape history of the island Muostakh
- Transport, the characterization of organic matter (including carbon) from the island in the Laptev Sea
- Pedological investigations.
More on that in later blog entries.
The first two working days, we have essentially used to get an overview of the northern part of about five kilometers long and up to 400 meters wide island that will be our main area of work. We have already seen a lot of interesting structures, documented and have started to develop working hypotheses that we want to check with the subsequent work.
As I already took part last year on an expedition lasting nearly two weeks on the island Muostakh, I have the opportunity to compare my impressions and observations from this years trip with those of last year. For me personally it's very exciting to see how dramatically the shape of the island, especially the shape of the coastline, has been changed within a year.
Currently we have very good weather with temperatures reaching 20 degrees Celsius in the sunshine and light winds. The latter is particularly important because it keeps us largely from the mosquitoes that are invariably present in such weather conditions.
After work, we take a bath in the Laptev Sea, which today is very warm with 14 degrees Celsius. So for a while, we can at least shortly forget that we are here in the Arctic.
Best wishes
Thomas Opel
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Some from our expedition group - me included - already said goodbye to the island the 30th of July. After four weeks of field work we were of course looking forward to go home, but we were also a bit sad to leave our little island. This summers Samoylov expedition was a really good one and we did almost everything we had planned for. All instruments worked, the snow measuring station was successfully set up and many soil samples were taken. All other expedition members also made a very nice impression on me. Sure, there were some things that went wrong! We surveyed for exmaple the wrong lake on the neighboring island "Kurungnakh" or almost sunk our drill equipment in the permafrost.
But by and large, everything has gone very well and it is already clear that we will come back home with a great amount of data. We must wait, however, a little before we are able to elicit new secrets about the permafrost and the Arctic climate. The data obtained is first passed to our Russian colleagues, who after the expedition is over, sent it to us in Germany. In addition of been exported through two countries there is also climate data requirements and controls.
On the way back from Samoilov to Tiksi we were rewarded with fantastic summer weather. It was just great, since we did not travel by helicopter, but with a ship. The small river boat with the name "405" brought us back to the Bykovskaya sidearm of Lena in the roughly 120 km away city Tiksi. At the airport in Tiksi we could briefly greet the new expedition team, who will now go up to Samoylov and the island Muostakh and stay until beginning of September. We, on the other hand, travelled again two days on the plane through Russian capital Moscow and on to Berlin.
I wish all those who are now travelling to the Lena Delta all the best. Here below you can find some images from the expedition.
Greetings, Moritz
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Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories