PRISMARCTYC
Permafrost degradation impacts on soils, human societies, water resources and carbon cycle
The PRISMARTYC project aims to understand the hydrological, geochemical, geomorphological, microbiological, and socio-economic impacts of permafrost thaw to soils and surface/groundwaters in the Arctic and Subarctic, and their sustainability in the changing climate. The study will focus on the near-surface permafrost-hydro system continuum in small watersheds where localized and rapid thermokarst occurrences remain under studied. The overall objective of the work is to compare sites in Siberia and Alaska with different permafrost characteristics (ice-rich Yedoma permafrost or carbon-rich permafrost peatland; continuous or discontinuous permafrost), climate-sensitivity, vegetation and degradation types along latitudinal and longitudinal gradients. To accomplish this, the team will study several key small watersheds in Siberia and Alaska. Each study area was chosen based on its representativeness of the region and more importantly for comparative power across a broad range of permafrost, vegetation, and degradation types. The main objective is to analyze the differences and similarities between sites to better understand the variations of impacts. To understand and compare the impacts of permafrost degradation between the different sites, the team has defined several indicators (or ‘sentinels’) of the vulnerability of soils, surface/ground waters: natural and anthropogenic stressors, permafrost conditions and degradation, hydrologic and aquatic chemistry, carbon cycle and microbial communities.
| Nations Involved: | Russia, USA |
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| Principal Investigators: | Antoine Sejourne, Université Paris Saclay - Geosciences Paris Sud, France |
| Partners: | Lea Cabrol, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, France Maria Cherbunina, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia Urania Christaki, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale- Laboratoire d'Océanologieet Geosciences, France Masato Furuya, Hokkaido University, Japan Laure Gandois, Laboratoire Ecologie Fonctionnelleet Environnement, CNRS DR14, France Go Iwahana, University of Alaska Fairbanks, United States Alexandra Lavrillier, Université Paris-Saclay - Observatoire Versailles Saint-Quentin - Cultures Environnement Arctique Representation Climat, France Lydie Lescarmontier, Office for Climate Education, France Aleksei Lupachev, Institute of Physico-Chemical and Biological Problems in Soil Sciences - Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia Nikita Tananaev, Melnikov Permafrost Institute - Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia |
Learn more about the PRISMARCTYC project at http://www.prismarctyc.com.