Equipment used: Chamber technique to measure greenhouse gas fluxes. Photo by Christina Biasi.Vorkuta/ Seida, is a secondary field site in PAGE21. It is located in the Eastern European tundra near the village of Seida, North-Western Russia, about 70 km away from city Vorkuta (67⁰07´N, 62⁰57´E). 

Main objective of the University of Eastern Finland field season 2012 is to quantify greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, N2O, CH4) and better understand their regulation and response to climate change. Warming and increase in ground ice temperatures have been reported from Vorkuta/Seida area, the permafrost peatlands storing most of Arctic soil organic carbon, which are particularly sensitive to warming. Major concern is that carbon stored in these soils is released as CO2 or methane following thawing and active layer thickening. Also, nitrous oxide has importance in Vorkuta/Seida as patterned ground features (peat circles) have been identified to have N2O hotspots. It is anticipated that these emissions will be accelerated in a future warmer climate.

The main parameters measured at this site during this field season are:

The reserach team will concentrate mainly on answering following questions: whether the carbon uptake via plants and photosynthesis will be able to compensate for increases carbon losses from soils following warming, and whether the large bulk of deep, old soil is destabilized with warming climate and permafrost thawing and if yes, to which extent?

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Main page of the blog "Vorkuta/ Seida 2012": http://page21.arcticportal.org/blogs/61-vorkuta