Tracking scents of tundra By Riikka Rinnan, Associate Professor, CENPERM, University of Copenhagen We all know the smell of a pine forest or newly cut grass, but how many know what the arctic tundra smells like? Many of the arctic dwarf plants that creep close to the soil surface to protect themselves against the harsh conditions on the tundra smell strong. In addition to the fragrant molecules, tundra plants release a large number of odourless volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which affect the atmospheric chemistry. It has for long been thought that the VOC release from arctic areas is minimal due to the low temperatures, and no measurements of VOCs have been conducted in Greenland until our groups work. However, the tundra is not like warmer ecosystems. Leaf temperature of tundra plants is strongly decoupled from air temperature on sunny days, when the leaf surface warms up by absorption of solar heat energy. While trees in temperate and subtropical ecosystems have been shown to maintain their leaf temperature at 21C regardless of air temperature, arctic plants often have leaf temperatures more than 10 C above air temperature (Schollert et al., 2013), making considerable VOC emissions from arctic plants plausible. 10 CENPERM Annual Report 2013 In the growing season of 2013, a team consisting of four PhD students and two Master students from CENPERM measured VOC emission rates at five locations in the Arctic. Thanks to external funding from the Villum Foundation and The Danish Council for Independent Research, the CENPERM team was able to increase our ambitions for research across multiple sites in Greenland and Scandinavia. In this work, we estimate the magnitude of VOC emission rates from arctic ecosystems and investigate which parameters control the emission rates from individual plants and plant communities, including the underlying soil, and the whole ecosystem. ANNUAL REPORT 2013 CENPERM Center for Permafrost Field sites Kim Fjelde Svalbard Longyearbyen Greenland Zackenberg Disko Qajaa Sweden Kangerlussuaq Nuuk Narsarsuaq Abisko Sermilik Directors welcome 3 The vision of Center for Permafrost 4 Highlights 2013 6 Højdepunk ter 2013 8 Tracking scents of tundra 10 Publications & conferences 12 Communication & outreach 18 Educational activities 26 Ongoing research projects & graduate students 28 Internation Soil sampling in order to inves tigate root dynamics at wet snow fence site at Disko Island, Wes t Greenland. Photo Bo Elber ling 2 CENPERM Annual Report 2013 Directors welcome CENPERM a Center of Excellence, funded by the Danish National Research Foundation is now going into its third year. The year 2013 was a successful year not least in terms of implementing our comprehensive long-term ecosystem investigations in Greenland. This involved parallel in The vision of Center for Permafrost Microbial activity Plant ecology CENPERM Permafrost soil & landscape dynamics CENPERM will integrate multidisciplinary research of biogeochemical and physical processes in a climate-vegetation-soil-microorganismpermafrost approach in transects across the majo CENPERM Annual Report 2013 5 Highlights 2013 Following the first year representing CENPERMs establishment in Copenhagen, the year 2013 will be remembered for the marked efforts in Greenland to ensure the establishment of all long-term initiatives in the field, including the establishment of snow fences and the start-up of vario has several implications on an ecosystem scale, including changes in the melt-out dates. But shorter warming events during the winter complicate the direct effect of increasing snow depths. This has been studied in a snow fence experiment by Semenchuk et al. (2013), who concluded that most plant spe Højdepunkter 2013 Efter et første år, som var præget af CENPERMs etablering på Øster Voldgade 10 i København, har 2013 budt på en betydelig tilstedeværelse i Grønland for at sikre etableringen af alle langsigtede tiltag i felten, herunder etablering af snehegnsfelter samt opstart af en række højrisi tiden vil byde på mere vinternedbør og således øgede snedybder, som kan få betydning for bl.a. længden af den snefrie periode. Korte varmeperioder i løbet af vinteren komplicerer imidlertid den direkte effekt af øget sne, som bl.a. studeres i snehegnsforsøg. De fleste plantearter, som blev undersøgt Tracking scents of tundra By Riikka Rinnan, Associate Professor, CENPERM, University of Copenhagen We all know the smell of a pine forest or newly cut grass, but how many know what the arctic tundra smells like? Many of the arctic dwarf plants that creep close to the soil surface to protect themsel Each plant species on the tundra releases its own blend of VOCs. This knowledge can be used to predict emissions from plant communities altered by climatic change and permafrost thaw. Our measurements conducted on individual plants demonstrate that some arctic species, such as the arctic bell-heathe Publications & conferences Peer-reviewed international papers (CENPERM members shown in bold) Albers, C.N., Bælum J., Jensen, A, Jacobsen, C.S. (2013). Inhibition of DNA polymerases used in Q-PCR by structurally different soil-derived humic substances. Geomicrobiology Journal 30, 675681. Albert, K. Gisnås, K., Etzelmüller, B., Farbrot, H., Schuler, T., Westermann, S. (2013) CryoGRID 1.0: Permafrost distribution in Norway estimated by a spatial numerical model. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 24, 219. Langer, M., Westermann, S., Heikenfeld, M., Dorn, W., Boike, J. (2013) Satelite-based mo Reuss, N.S., Hamerlík, L., Velle G., Michelsen, A., Pedersen, O., Brodersen, K.P. (2013) Stable isotopes reveal that chironomids occupy several trophic levels within West Greenland lakes: Implications for food web studies. Limnology & Oceanography 58, 102310. Rinnan, R., Gierth, D., Bilde, M., Rosen Technical reports Björk, R.G., Rethemeyer, J., Elberling, B., Boeckx, P. (2013) The sensitivity of carbon in Arctic permafrost soils to climate change. Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations, 18 th Annual Report 2012, 87. Christensen, C.T., Nielsen, T.F., Schmidt, N.M., Michelsen, A. (2013) Late Doetsch, J., Christiansen, A.V., Auken, E., Fiandaca, G., Ingeman-Nielsen, T. Ingeman, Elberling, B. (2013) Monitoring of active layer refreezing in Greenlandic permafrost at 2nd International Workshop on Geoelectrical Monitoring, GELMON 2013 Vienna, Dec. 4.6. Elberling, B. (2013) Arctic Research & Above: Intac t soil core collec ted at Zackenber g, Nor theas t Greenland. Photo Bo Elber ling B elow: L abor ator y inves tigations of gas exchange through plants based on intac t cores . Photo Kent Pør k sen Communication & outreach Greenland and the Arctic in general has been a hot topic in the press during 2013; not the least due to a general election in Greenland and the ongoing discussion about mining activities in Greenland. CENPERM has prioritized communication and outreach activities this year in PAGE21 General Assembly 2013, Abisko Research Station, Sweden, Sep. 23-26. Svalbard permafrost 60 m core workshop. CENPERM, Copenhagen, Nov.8. Molecular Microbiology Lab Workshop, autumn meeting, CENPERM, Copenhagen, Nov. 19. Permafrost Microbiology session organized by CENPERM at the 2013 Congress, Eksperiment med snehegn i Blæsedalen Snow fence experiment in Blæsedalen Forskere tilknyttet Center for Permafrost (CENPERM) og Arktisk Station ved Københavns Universitet har opstillet et forsøg med snehegn i Blæsedalen, sydøst for den lille sø Saningassoq Tasia. Forsøget blev etableret i 2012 og Itinneq Kangillermi apummut ungaluliamik misileraaneq Københavns Universitetimi Center for Permafrost (CENPERM) aamma Naasorsiooqarfimmi (Arktisk Stationimi) Itinneq Kangillermi, tatsip Sanngingasup Tasiata kujammut-kitaatungaani apummit ungaluliamik misileraassut inississorsimavaat. 2012-imi misile SULUK inflight Magazine, Air Greenland, (2013) (5) 54 -59: Qeriuaannartoq Silap pissusaata nalunartua (Permafrost the climate X -factor) by Uffe Wilken. Interview with Bo Elberling. Reformatorisch Dagblad, The Netherlands (2013) Sep. 11., 12- 13, interview with Daan Blok: Disko snow fence experim Friday seminars During 2013, CENPERM arranged weekly speaks and group discussions at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management. These seminars created dynamic group effects by allowing the sharing of knowledge, problems and solutions within the Center. This process has enabled CE Jun. 28. Michelle M. Mack, University of Florida: Changing disturbance regimes and shrub-snow feedbacks in a warming Arctic. Sep. 27. Frances Gillman, University of Montana: Microbial contributions and responses to climate change in Greenland. Oct. 4. Daan Blok, CENPERM: Summer and winter warming im Inter national collabor ation with a specialis t in ecosys tem level VOC measurements made it possible to br ing a s tate- of-the-ar t labor ator y ins tr ument , a Proton Tr ansfer Reac tion- Mass Spec trometer (PTR- MS) into the f ield in Greenland, here from the control tent . Photo Bo Elber ling Educational activities A key element in CENPERMs activities has been the successful contribution to a number of educational efforts. The wide array of academic competences held at CENPERM has contributed significantly to both arctic field courses and classic university courses at the basic and advan General courses General Ecology, B.Sc. course, Dept. of Biology, University of Copenhagen. A. Michelsen, H. Ro-Poulsen. Plant Ecophysiology, B.Sc. course, Dept. of Biology, University of Copenhagen. H. Ro-Poulsen, A. Michelsen. Biological Experiments: Design and Analysis, B.Sc. course, Dept. of Biol Ongoing research projects & graduate students By initiating a number of research projects, CENPERM aims to address specific research problems at the Postdoc, PhD and Master levels and at the same time to ensure a shared perspective on permafrost research and related fields also ensures the successfu Marie Frost Arndal, Postdoc, Jul. 1. 2012Dec. 2013: Root Dynamics in the Arctic. Merian Haugwitz, Postdoc, April 15. 2013 - (on leave June 2013May 2014): Effects of warming and fertilization on soil fungi and nutrient pools in a subarctic heathland Biogeography of arctic soil fungal communities Dist Jordan Mertes: The thermal regime of permafrost landforms in the Nordic countries terminated in March 2013. Supervisors: Bo Elberling and Hanne H. Christiansen Mathilde Manon Jammet: Comparative studies of methane dynamics in permafrost environments, Dec. 1. 2011 - . Supervisor: Thomas Friborg. Mett Samuel Faucherre: Subsurface carbon and nitrogen pools and potential mobilization in permafrozen soil environments, Mar. 15. 2013 - . Supervisors: Bo Elberling and Christian Juncher Jørgensen. M.Sc. projects supervised by CENPERM (20 ongoing projects including 8 completed M.Sc. theses.) Alejandro Jo Katrine Wulff: Plant controlled methane production and emissions from a wetland at Disko, W. Greenland. Dec. 2013 - . Supervisor: Bo Elberling. Kirstine Bräuner Nielsen: Study of metal induced co-selection for antibiotics in pristine permafrost sediment, completed Dec. 2013. Supervisors: Kristian Ko Morten Schostag Nielsen: Variation in the microbial community in the active-layer permafrost from Svalbard, completed Apr. 2013. Supervisors: Carsten Suhr Jacobsen, Janet Jansson and Anders Priemé. Morten Mikkel Mejlhede Rolsted: Photosynthesis and respiration of dwarf birch (Betula nana) in respons International collaborators & funding The ongoing research activities at CENPERM are connected to a number of well-established international arctic networks. These cooperation agreements are supplemented by a strong affiliation to internationally recognized researchers. These research profiles will Bonn University, Germany: Stef Weijers: Effect of snow depth on Cassiope tetragona growth and isotopic signature. Bristol Glaciology Centre, University of Bristol, UK: field work in Greenland. Greenland Institute of Natural Resources: Field Investigations. Helmholtz Zentrum München, Deutsches Forsch University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences, UK: Isla Myers-Smith, leader of Shrub Hub (Circumpolar shrub growth data syntheses group). University of Innsbruck, Institute of Ecology: molecular analysis of glacial samples. University of Oslo, Norway: Heidi Sjursen. Field work (and data analyses) o Geocenter: Gene expression and activities in cold GEO-environments. Grant holder: Carsten Suhr Jacobsen. 20112013. DKK 200,000. Villum Foundation: Natural emissions of volatile organohalogens in Arctic and Subarctic terrestrial systems A study of the Arctics role in the atmospheric organohalogen bu CENPERM staff 38 Researchers Albers Andersen Christiansen Elberling Ernstsen, Friborg Hansen Hollesen Jacobsen Jacobsen Jansson Johnsen Kokfelt Kroon Michelsen Mylius Nielsen Priemé Rinnan Ro-Poulsen Sigsgaard Stibal Westermann Christian Thorbjørn J. Hanne Hvidtfeldt Bo Verner Brandbyge Thomas Bi CENPERM staff Nielsen Larsen Semenchuk Schollert Svendsen Valolahti Westergaard-Nielsen Cecilie Skov Nynne Philipp Michelle Sarah H. Hanna Andreas PhD student PhD student PhD student PhD student PhD student PhD student PhD student Technical staff Gammeltoft Gudmundsson Jacobsen Juul Madsen Moser ANNUAL REPORT 2013 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