CENPERM Annual Report 2015

ANNUAL REPORT 2015 CENPERM Center for Permafrost

Field sites Brønlundhus Svalbard Longyearbyen Greenland Zackenberg Disko Qajaa Sweden Kangerlussuaq Nuuk Narsarsuaq Abisko Sermilik

Directors welcome The vision of Center for Permafrost Highlights 2015 Højdepunk ter 2015 Breaking the silence of tundra sur faces Publications & conferences Communication & outreach Educational activities Ongoing research projects & graduate students International collaborators & funding CENPERM sta

2 CENPERM Annual Report 2015

Directors welcome CENPERM has ended its fourth year thanks to the Danish National Research Foundation. In 2015, a new snow fence experiment was established near Narsarsuaq in South Greenland. These additional snow fences will be used for exploring summer and winter warming effects on soil-plant inte

The vision of Center for Permafrost Microbial activity Plant ecology CENPERM Permafrost soil & landscape dynamics CENPERM integrates multidisciplinary research of biogeochemical and physical processes in a climate-vegetation-soil-microorganismpermafrost approach in transects across the major cli

Photo: Bo Elberling CENPERM Annual Report 2015 5

Highlights 2015 Highlights of 2015 include intensive field work at 6 sites in Greenland and new snow fences being built and instrumented in South Greenland. It has also been a productive year in terms of scientific papers. The following four papers published in 2015 highlight two issues: that ecosys

winter mass loss, which was considered a result of observed higher soil winter temperatures and corresponding increased winter microbial litter decomposition in deep snow plots. In contrast, warming reduced litter mass loss during spring, possibly because the dry spring conditions might have dried o

Højdepunkter 2015 Højdepunkterne i 2015 omfatter intensivt feltarbejde ved 6 lokaliteter i Grønland samt opsætning og instrumentering af nye snehegn i Sydgrønland. Det har også været et produktivt år i forhold til videnskabelige artikler. De følgende 4 artikler er udgivet i 2015 og fremhæver 2 emner

rester i felter med dyb sne. I modsætning hertil resulterede opvarmning i et reduceret massetab af planterester om foråret, sandsynligvis fordi de tørre forhold om foråret kan have udtørret jordens øverste lag af dødt plantemateriale (litterlaget) og derved begrænset den mikrobielle omsætning. Resul

Breaking the silence of tundra surfaces by Andreas Westergaard-Nielsen, Assistant Professor, CENPERM, University of Copenhagen Image data of the Earth surface from above is a strong tool for evaluating the magnitude of certain ecosystem traits. Data collected from air- and spaceborne platforms can

To overcome some of the limitations in the satellite data, a multidisciplinary CENPERM team started a detailed mapping in August 2015. The area of interest is covering a 5-km transect in proximity to Blæsedalen on Disko Island, representing a variety of elevations and land cover classes from dry abr

Publications & conferences Blok, D., Elberling, B., Michelsen, A. (2015a). Initial stages of tundra shrub litter decomposition may be accelerated by deeper winter snow but slowed down by spring warming. Ecosystems 19, online Oct. 17. Blok, D., Weijers, S., Welker, J., Cooper, E., Michelsen, A., Löff

landscape significance. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 120, online Nov. 23. methane source. Nature Climate Change 5, 67-70. Jørgensen, C.J., Johansen, K.M.L., Westergaard-Nielsen, A., Elberling, B. (2015). Net regional methane sink in High Arctic soils of northeast Greenland. Natu

Stibal, M., Gözdereliler, E., Cameron, K.A., Box, J.E., Stevens, I.T., Gokul, J.K., Schostag, M., Zarsky, J.D., Edwards, A., Irvine-Fynn, T.D.L., Jacobsen, C.S. (2015). Microbial abundance in surface ice on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Frontiers in Microbiology 6, 225. Stibal, M., Schostag, M., Cameron,

Poster presentations at conferences, symposia, seminars etc. litter decomposition rates. Perth III: Mountains of Our Future, Perth, UK. Oct. 4-8. Albers, C.N., Johnsen, A.R., Jacobsen, O.S. (2015). Chloroform formation in Arctic and Subarctic soils - mechanism and emissions to the atmosphere. EGU

Blok, D., Faucherre, S., Banyasz, I., Michelsen, A., Elberling, B. (2015). Legacy Effects of Warming on Permafrost Carbon Release. AGU Annual Fall Meeting, San Fransisco, USA , Dec. 14-18. Cameron, K.A, Stibal, M., Zarsky, J.D., Gözdereliler, E., Schostag, M., Jacobsen, C.S. (2015). Microbial commun

Phillips, C.A., Wurzburger, N. (2015). Biogeochemical consequences of arctic shrub expansion. Ecosystems and Climate Change Mitigation, London, UK, Nov. 2-3. Phillips, C.A., Wurzburger, N. (2015). Biogeochemical consequences of shrub expansion. British Ecological Society, Edinburgh, UK, Dec. 13-16.

Communication & outreach Climate changes, greenhouse gas emissions and the role of Arctic have again in 2015 been on the general agenda not the least due to United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris by the end of the year. In the months prior to the conference, we experienced at CE

Elberling, B. (2015). Kæmpe huller opdaget i Sibirien, Berlingske Tidende, Kids News (www. KIDSNEWS.06.05.2015), Mar. 6. Elberling, B. (2015). Kalaallit Nunaanni savaateqarneq: Ullumikkut siunissamilu / Fårehold i Grønland: Nu og i fremtiden (in Danish and Greenlandic), Sermitsiaq, 6, 32-33. Elberli

Jan. 16. Meeting on Microbiology in Permafrost. Danmarks Mikrobiologiske Selskab. Speakers: Dirk Wagner, Lise Overås, Janine Goerths, Morten Schostag, Toke Andreasen. Feb. 5. Toke Thomas Høye, Jens Christian Skou Fellow Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies: Arctic biodiversity and climate change lo

Oct. 22. Verner Brandbyge Ernstsen, Associate Professor, IGN/CENPERM: Mapping and investigating landforms and landscapes in land-water transition zones. Oct. 29. Stef Weijers, Department of Geography, University of Bonn: Dendroecology of the Arctic. Nov. 12. Morten Schostag, PhD student, CENPERM/BIO

Educational activities CENPERMs activities in 2015 have included a number of educational efforts. These include both arctic field courses and classic university courses at the basic and advanced levels at the University of Copenhagen. This includes developing a new course on how to use drones and sc

Samfundsmæssigt væsentlige stofstrømme, Dept. of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, C. S. Nielsen. Teaching at the M.Sc. level Advanced bacteriology 2, Dept. of Biology, University of Copenhagen, autumn, A. Priemé. Arctic biology, Dept. of Biology, University of

Ongoing research projects & graduate students In 2015 two WriteCamps were held off campus for PhD students and postdocs together with their supervisors. This turned out to be extremely fruitful for both publications and the social life of the group. Like the previous years a special Master theses wo

PhD students, fully or partially funded by CENPERM 18 ongoing PhD projects, including 3 defended and 1 terminated PhD theses in 2015. Bendixen, Mette: Coastal morphodynamics in permafrost-affected areas in Greenland, Aug. 2012 - . Supervisors: Aart Kroon and Bo Elberling. Cable (Härtel), Stefanie: T

Nielsen, Cecilie Skov: Arctic carbon and nitrogen cycling with a focus on CH4 fluxes: Interactive effects of temperature, soil moisture and gas transport pathways, Jan. 2013 - . Supervisors: Bo Elberling and Anders Michelsen. Schostag (Nielsen), Morten Dencker: Cryobiology of permafrost bacteria and

Busch-Sørensen, Pernille: Impacts of warming, fertilization and shading on the emissions of the volatile organic compound isopren, and CO2 fluxes from vegetation and soil in a subarctic tundra ecosystem, Jun. 2014 - . Supervisor: Riikka Rinnan. Cable, William: The role of environmental factors in lo

Rasmussen, Kerstin Elise Krøier: Modelling daily ground surface temperatures under changing snowpacks in Zackenberg and Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland. Completed Nov. 2015. Supervisor: Birger Ulf Hansen Rasmussen, Laura Helene: Thermal properties for simulating consequences of changes in thermal regime of

Photo: Leif Bolding CENPERM Annual Report 2015 29

International collaborators & funding Research activities at CENPERM are linked to a number of well-established international arctic networks. These cooperation agreements are supplemented by a strong affiliation to internationally recognized researchers. External experts and Center evaluation Edwa

International research partners and co-operators Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland: Agata Buchwal. Alfred-Wegener-Institute (AWI), Potsdam, Germany: Permafrost modelling; AWI (Bremen) Marine sedimentation. Agriculture and Agri-Food, Ottawa, Canada: Shared fieldwork, North Greenland: Ed Greg

University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences, UK: Isla Myers-Smith, Sandra Angers-Blondin. Pan-arctic shrub growth meta-analysis. University of Innsbruck, Institute of Ecology, Austria: Molecular analysis of glacial samples. University of Lund, Sweden. Paul A. Miller. Earth System Model University

Danish National Research Foundation/NSF Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW): Carbon Storage Consequences of Shrub Expansion: Exploring Plant Soil Relationships in a Changing Arctic Ecosystem. Grant holder: Bo Elberling/Anders Michelsen/Carly Phillips. Period: 2015-2016. DKK 241,920. Da

CENPERM staff Researchers Albers Christian Nyrop Researcher Ambus Per Professor Andersen Thorbjørn J. Professor Christensen Anne T. Research assistant Elberling Bo Professor, Director Ernstsen Verner Brandbyge Associate professor Friborg Thomas Associate professor Hansen Birger

CENPERM staff Karami Mojtaba PhD student Kramshøj, Magnus PhD student Lindwall Frida PhD student Markussen Thor N. PhD student McConnell Alistair PhD student Nielsen Cecilie Skov PhD student Ravn Nynne R. (Larsen) PhD student Schollert Michelle PhD student Schostag Mor

ANNUAL REPORT 2015 The Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) is an independent organization established by the Danish Parliament in 1991 with the objective to promote and stimulate basic research at the highest international level at the frontiers of all scientific fields. The Center of Excell