The project aims to fill significant gaps in our knowledge of how lake ecosystems function at large-scales for understanding how climate will respond to the projected anthropogenic forcings.
Syntheses of decomposition and respiration responses across space and time
This postdoc project aims to investigate how climate warming affects the three sequential phases of organic carbon decomposition on a regional (arctic) to global scale, and compare the importance of direct and indirect (vegetation, microbial) mechanisms.
Tundra P - Phosphorus transformation across Pan-Arctic tundra ecosystems
Phosphorus (P) constrains the activity of plants and decomposers, and therefore carbon storage in many arctic ecosystems, yet our understanding of P availability in the tundra lags behind understanding of the carbon and nitrogen cycles.
Phosphorus efficient agriculture with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for all living organisms, and without P we cannot produce food. Most P that is used in agriculture comes from mines in Northern Africa, which are about to be depleted.
Nutrient availability along two arctic successional gradients
Understanding how plant succession is influenced by climate warming is a key issue for understanding how arctic landscapes will change in the future. At high latitudes, low temperature drives disturbance and the consequent primary succession (e.g., cryoturbation, glacier advance and retreat).
Investigating drivers of litter carbon turnover in Arctic soils
Soils store massive amounts of C and are therefore important regulators of global climate. Consequently, efforts are made to understand what controls soil C storage.
Teatime4science
Teatime4science
Emily Goldstein Museum
Project summary
The decay of organic material, or decomposition, is a critical process for life. While plant material decomposes, it loses weight, releases nutrients and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). Changes in climate and decomposition potentially reinforce each other; With global warming, decomposition increases, leading to higher CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, which in turn accelerates global warming. These feedbacks substantially influence our future climate. However, the current climate models lack sufficient measured data to accurately include feedbacks between decomposition and climate. Solving this requires a new approach and a huge quantity of data. A recently developed method that uses tea bags as test kits is such an approach. By involving citizen scientists, decomposition rates will be measured at a previously unattainable scale and resolution, within a relatively short time. This will break new ground in our understanding of climate effects on decomposition. We will test the effects of changed climate conditions by burying tea worldwide alongside climate manipulation experiments (with open top chambers and rain shelters). We further calibrate the method and measure decomposition under a large variety of environmental conditions in the laboratory. The tea time for science project will thus compile a global soil map of decomposition, and perform the most rigorous test of the relation between climate factors and decay rates using models with increased accuracy.
Project website
Collaborators
Mariet Hefting, Utrecht University
Taru Sandén, Department for Soil Health and Plant Nutrition at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES)
Joost Keuskamp, Biont Research
Funding
Vetenskapsrådet
Technical faculty of Umea university
Project Dates
2015 - 2019
Project Photos
Changing ice-cover regimes in a warmer climate: Effects on northern aquatic ecosystems
Changing ice-cover regimes in a warmer climate: Effects on northern aquatic ecosystems
Ice Sampling at Lake Almberga
Project summary
The goal of this project is to assess the effects of changing ice-cover regimes on aquatic primary production and carbon metabolism in northern freshwater and brackish water coastal ecosystems. Northern aquatic ecosystems are seasonally variable due to long, cold and dark ice-covered winters as well as 24-hour sunlight during summer. A warmer climate has effects on the extensions and magnitudes of snow- and ice-cover, with shorter duration of ice-cover expected for northern aquatic ecosystems. The ice-cover is important for carbon accumulation (CO2 and CH4), aquatic-atmosphere gas exchange and a number of biological processes. Hence, a changing ice-cover regime will have important implications for the function of northern aquatic ecosystems and for the role of these systems in the global carbon cycle.
Collaborators
Erin Hotchkiss, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Rolf Vinebrooke, University of Alberta
Funding
Formas
EcoChange
Project Dates
2017 - 2020
Benthic and pelagic production in coastal ecosystems of the northern Baltic Sea
The northern basins of the Baltic Sea are relatively shallow systems, implying that coastal processes can be of great significance to this area. It is likely that benthic primary production is an important part of the basal production in coastal ecosystems.
