ANNUAL REPORT 2019 CENPERM Center for Permafrost ANNUAL REPORT 2019 CENPERM Center for Permafrost Field sites Brønlundhus Qaanaaq Svalbard Longyearbyen Greenland Zackenberg Disko Qajaa Sweden Kangerlussuaq Nuuk Narsarsuaq Abisko Sermilik Directors welcome Visions and aims Highlights 2019 Højdepunk ter 2019 Nitrogen released from thawing permafrost and plant grow th Publications & conferences Communication & outreach Educational activities Ongoing research projects & graduate students International collaborators & funding CENPERM sta 2 CENPERM Annual Report 2019 Directors welcome The period running from September 2019 to August 2020 is a year of continuous measurements at CENPERM sites near the Arctic Station, Disko Island, West Greenland. The formation of this long period of measurements is an important step in upscaling growing season measurements to cove Visions and aims 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 c CENPERM Annual Report 2019 5 Highlights 2019 In 2019 two publications from CENPERM highlighted the importance of year-round measurements of carbon (C) fluxes. One study is based on detailed field and model work from the CENPERM key site at Disko in West Greenland; the other study is a multi-site circumpolar international collab scenario (RCP 8.5). Results provide a baseline for winter CO2 emissions from northern terrestrial regions and indicate that enhanced soil CO2 loss due to winter warming may offset growing season carbon uptake under future climatic conditions. (J CENPERM Annual Report 2019 7 Højdepunkter 2019 To CENPERM publikationer fra 2019 understreger vigtigheden af at måle både optag og frigivelse af kulstof (C) året rundt i arktiske økosystemer. Det ene studie er baseret på et detaljeret felt- og modelarbejde fra CENPERMs primære feltområde på Disko-øen i Vestgrønland. Det andet s med et varmere klima frem til 2100 tyder på, at CO2-emissionen om vinteren vil vokse med 17 % i et moderat scenarie for en klimafremskrivning (RCP 4.5) og med 41 % i et uændret emissionsscenarie (RCP 8.5). Resultaterne angiver en basislinje for vinterCO2-emissioner fra nordlige terrestriske regione Nitrogen released from thawing permafrost and plant growth by Bo Elberling & Anders Michelsen, professors, CENPER M, University of Copenhagen The carbon (C) balance of the ice-free part of the Arctic relies on a balance of respiration by organic matter releasing CO 2 to the atmosphere and the fixat permafrost table, which also are the ones most likely to thaw in the near future. That means that thawing permafrost can be an important source of plant-available N1. This source of N is only relevant for plant growth if plant roots can reach the depth where N is being released and can compete with Publications & conferences Publications Akperov, M., Rinke, A., Mokhov, I.I., Semenov, V. A., Parfenova, M.R., Matthes, H., ... Zhang, W. (2019). Future projections of cyclone activity in the Arctic for the 21st century from regional climate models (Arctic-CORDEX). Global and Planetary Change182, 1 nitrogen taken up by plants in High Arctic tundra. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 135, 222-234. Natali, S.M., Watts, J.D. [...Elberling, B., Friborg, T., Michelsen, A. ...] Zona, D. (2019). Large loss of CO2 in winter observed across the northern permafrost region. Nature Climate Change 9, 852-857. Nie Wang, P., DImperio, L., Liu, B., Tian, Q., Jia, Z., Ambus, P., Rasch, M., Elberling, B. (2019). Sea animal activity controls CO2, CH4 and N2O emission hotspots on South Georgia, subAntarctica. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 132, 174-186. Wu, M., Wu, J., Tan, X., Huang, J., Jansson, P-E., Zhang, W. (2 Sjöberg, Y., Rudy, A., Siewert, M., Paquette, P., Bouchard, F., Malenfant-Lepage, J., Fritz, M. (2019) Building on each others work - Impact and inspiration of permafrost research from 1998 to 2017. European Geosciences Union Annual Meeting, Vienna, Austria, April. Invited talks Ambus, P. (2019). Communication & outreach CENPERM continued its series of weekly talks at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management. These seminars were also held for PhD students and postdocs to present specific parts of their work, to create a forum for sharing of knowledge, problems, and solut Michelsen, A.: Presentation of climate change related field experiments, methodology and results. Demonstration of field experiments for tourists on Disko Island, Greenland. Pedersen, E. P. (2019). Vad händer under ytan? Växter, permafrost och klimatförändringar i arktiska ekosystem. Public presenta Oct. 3. Seminar on CENPERM web communication. Oct. 10. Wenxin Zhang, Assistant professor. CENERM/Lund University. Modelling carbon budget of snow fence treatments in a dry heath ecosystem in Blæsedalen. Oct. 31. Michele Citterio, Senior Scientist, Ph.D., GEUS. Permafrost degradation on steep bedrock Educational activities CENPERMs activities in 2019 include 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. In addition to course taught, a number of M.Sc. theses have been superv Climate change - an interdisciplinary challenge. Dept. of Geosciences and Natural Management, University of Copenhagen, autumn, R. Rinnan, T. Friborg, G. Schurgers. A. Kroon. Coastal geosciences, Dept. of Geosciences and Natural Management, University of Copenhagen, autumn and winter, A. Kroon. Ecol Ongoing research projects & graduate students Like previous years, a special Master theses workshop was held in March with discussion and presentations of projects in progress. A number of the master students participated in the CENPERM fieldwork in Greenland and northern Sweden . Postdoc and Assis Ongoing PhD projects at CENPERM 2019 Baggesen, Nanna: Emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) from a subarctic heath ecosystem, using a PTR-MS that allows for diurnal measurements on a fine time resolution. Supervisor: Riikka Rinnan. Danielsen, Birgitte Kortegaard: Arctic subsurface M.Sc. projects supervised at CENPERM 2019 Completed MSc projects: 12 Andersen, Emil Alexander Sherman: Vegetation analysis and soil biogeochemical characteristics in the Nuuk region, Greenland in relation to archaeological sites and climate change. Supervisors: Anders Michelsen, Bo Elberling and Ras Kolstad, Elisabeth Larsen: N cycling at snowbed gradient. Supervisors: Per Ambus and Anders Michelsen. Lambæk, Anders: Effects of tundrafire on soil N and C turnover. Supervisor: Per Ambus. Matzen, Mikkel Sillesen: The linkage between, canopy surface temperature, BVOC emission and the present of ozo 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. CENPERM has continuously extended the intern Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Biological Sciences Division, Richland, WA, USA: J. K. Jansson. Northern Arizona University and OEB Harvard University, USA: Analyzing phenocam images. Scientific publication. Russian Academy of Science, Russia: M. G. Akperov. Arctic cyclones. Scientific public University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, Finland: K. Karhu. Climate impacts, soil geochemistry. University of Lund, Sweden: B. Smith, P. Miller, M. Berggren. , Biogeophysical feedbacks on pan-Arctic regions. Model development, Model code, scientific publications. University of Lund, Sw Independent Research Fund Denmark, Natural Sciences: UV-stimulated nitrous oxide emissions, the ignored impact on atmospheric warming (UVwarm). Grant holder: Per Ambus (2018-2022): DKK 5.7 mio. Geocenter, Danmark: Nitrous Oxide Concentration and Isotope Analyzer. Grant holder: Per Ambus (2019): DKK CENPERM staff 30 Researchers Ambus Per Lennart Andersen Emil A. S. Andersen Thorbjørn J. Elberling Bo Frendrup Laura Lønstrup Friborg Thomas Hansen Birger Ulf Hermesdorf Lena Hollesen Jørgen Kroon Aart Larsen Laura Bjørnsholt Michelsen Anders Priemé Anders Rinnan Riikka Ro-Poulsen Helge Rousk Kath CENPERM staff PhD students Baggesen Danielsen Fenger-Nielsen Kylborg Pedersen Permin Rasmussen Rieksta Simin Xu Yun Zastruzny Nana Birgitte Kortegaard Rasmus Sarah Estela Emily Pickering Aya Laura H. Jolanta Tihomir Wenyi Hanbo Sebastian PhD student PhD student PhD student PhD student PhD student ANNUAL REPORT 2019 Danmarks Grundforskningsfond Danish National Research Foundation UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN C EN PE R M te fr ost Cen r for Per m a The Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) is an independent organization established by the Danish Parliament in 1991 with the ob