Climate change affects many northern ecosystems such as wetlands, peatlands and permafrost soils, which store a lot of carbon and nitrogen in organic matter. Therefore, these ecosystems have the potential to enhance climate warming through carbon losses from these soils. However, they also have the potential to offset climate warming through continued carbon accumulation in soils and therefore wetlands and permafrost soils are an important component in the carbon cycle.
Our research group focuses on measuring the exchange of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), and understanding the soil processes underlying these fluxes using observations, experiments, modeling, and data synthesis. We work largely in peatlands, wetlands, and permafrost soils. Our projects focus on carbon and nitrogen interactions, cold-season biogeochemical processes, methane emissions from northern wetlands, and permafrost dynamics in northern wetlands. We hope that by understanding these important ecosystems, we can better understand and address climate change and the role of these ecosystems as carbon sinks or sources in the past, present, and future.
Congratulations to Sarah Wocheslander, who successfully defended her Masters Thesis at Lynköping University, Sweden on June 13. Sarah evaluated low-cost methane sensors for measuring methane at Siikaneva Bog.
6 June 2023
Melissa Laurent’s paper on methanogens and methane production along a landscape position gradient in sediments from the Lena River Delta was published in Biogeosciences this week: https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2049-2023, 2023. Landscape position was an important control on methane production, with highest production occurring in floodplain sediments.
2021
Claire Treat received the 2021 AGU Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for JGR-Biogeosciences journal reviews.
8 October 2021
Melissa successfully finished and defended her master thesis on the topic “Links between greenhouse gas emissions and microbes shift during short-term permafrost thaw under anaerobic conditions.”
31 August 2021
Claire, Johanna and Matthias returned from their successful expedition to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. They measured methane fluxes from coastal wetlands. The weekly reports of their expedition can be found in the "Expeditions" tab.
23 August 2021
Mackenzie and Katharina returned from their 3-month field campaign in Finland. They installed the long term flux measurements for the FluxWIN project and collected valuable new data for their PhD projects in the Siikaneva wetland complex. Their weekly reports are available in the "Expeditions" tab.
1 July 2021
We welcome Mackenzie in our group who starts her PhD in the FluxWin-Project.
19 May 2021
Katharina published a paper about her master thesis with the title: High levels of CO2 exchange during synoptic-scale events introduce large uncertainty into the Arctic carbon budgethttps://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL092256
30 April 2021
Claire, Lona, Katharina and Johanna presented their work at the virtual Assembly of the European Geophysical Union (vEGU) 2021. Their abstracts and posters are available on the FluxWIN Epic page: https://epic.awi.de/view/divisions/FluxWIN/2021.html
11 April 2021
Claire published a paper with the title: Predicted vulnerability of carbon in permafrost peatlands with future climate change and permafrost thaw in Western Canada https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JG005872
12 March 2021
Claire published a paper with the title: "The role of wetland expansion and successional processes in methane emissions from northern wetlands during the Holocene ", https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106864
1 January 2021
We welcome Katharina in our group who starts her PhD in the FluxWin-Project.
29 October 2020
Claire and Lona returned from a successful field campaing in Finland. See their FluxWIN Expedition report.
Automated greenhouse gas chamber flux measurement system
We use an automated chamber system to measure greenhouse gas fluxes (CO2, CH4, N2O) continuously at the Siikeneva Bog research site in Southern Finland. The autochamber system includes 12 chambers (9 transparent, 3 opaque), split into three clustered locations at an upland forest, a dry bog, and a wet bog. Chambers are designed for cold temperatures, snow, and vegetation in order to ensure operation throughout the year (growing season, fall, winter, and spring) and allow for measurement with a snowpack. The gas from the chambers is analyzed on a Picarro G2508 for CO2, CH4, and N2O concentrations in real time. The gas concentration data is complemented by the measurement of ancillary environmental data, including chamber air temperatures, PAR, soil temperatures, water table level, and soil moisture. Additionally, the data acquisition system for the autochambers allows remote access to data collection system in real time via 4G, ensuring good data coverage and real-time monitoring. The autochamber system was installed in 2020 as part of the ERC Starting Grant “The role of non-growing season processes in the methane and nitrous oxide budgets in pristine northern ecosystems (FluxWIN)”, which aims to quantify the magnitude of biogeochemical fluxes and their underlying processes that occur during the winter and shoulder seasons. In FluxWIN, we focus on carbon and nitrogen biogeochemistry at a research site in southern Finland near Hyytiälä Forestry Research Station. The research project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) in the Horizon 2020 framework.
Portable laser greenhouse gas analyzers
Three state-of-the art, portable, field-deployable laser gas spectrometers from LGR and Licor for the measurement of CO2, CH4, and H2O have been owned and operated by the Permafrost Region Greenhouse Gas Flux Group since 2020. These analyzers were funded by the Helmholtz Impulse and Networking fund and the Arctic Innovation Lab.
Design and deployment of gas flux chambers for CO2, CH4, and N2O flux measurements
Permafrost Region Greenhouse Gas Flux Group at AWI has extensive experience with the design, construction, and deployment of flux chamber measurements. We installed automated chambers at FluxWIN site (described below) in 2021. We also designed and constructed chambers for manual gas flux with and without cooling systems. We trained 5 students in gas flux chamber methods in 2021.
Method development for new laser gas analyzers for CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes
Permafrost Region Greenhouse Gas Flux Group at AWI is developing methods to automate the processing of greenhouse gas flux chamber measurements. New, high-frequency data produced by the state-of-the-art laser spectrometers require new solutions to automate data processing to extract the maximum amount of information from these measurements.
The automated chambers to measure greenhouse gas fluxes (CO2, CH4, N2O) at the Siikeneva Bog research site in Southern Finland (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut)
Follow our field work acitivites in our weekly expedition reports.
Alaska Coastal Wetland Expedition 2021
In the framework of the project Palaeo perspectives on Climate Change (P2C2) – Sea level rise, coastal wetland expansion, and proglacial lake contributions to abrupt increases in northern atmospheric CH4 during the last deglaciation, Claire Treat, Johanna Schwarzer and Matthias Fuchs travelled from AWI Potsdam to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska to measure greenhouse gas emissions from Arctic coastal wetlands. The aim is to understand the role of coastal wetlands within the carbon cycle in the Northern high-latitudes and how sea level rise in the past and present affects methane (CH4) emissions from these areas. In Alaska, the team was complemented by Miriam Jones from USGS and Natalie Tyler from University of Alaska Fairbanks.
During the four-week field period, the team measured CH4 and CO2 fluxes in the river mouth areas of the Kenai, Kasilof, and Swanson Rivers. Flux measurements were taken with an ultraportable LGR (Los Gatos Research) greenhouse gas analyzer and a self-made (bucket) chamber, which allowed easy transportation to field sites. In total, 42 different sampling locations along six transects were visited and measured. Each site was measured with three replicates and several sites were revisited for repeated measurements so that in the end, 191 unique flux measurements (each lasting 10 minutes) were recorded. Complementary to the flux measurements, the team collected soil, water, and manual gas samples from the field sites. In particular the water analysis and the on-site salinity measurements helped to determine the orientation of the transect so that measurements and samples were collected along a salinity gradient. This will help to elucidate the influence of changing salinity on CH4 fluxes. In addition, the team collected deep soil cores with a Russian peat corer, which will shed light into the accretion and carbon burial rates for coastal wetlands. In total, 23 soil cores of varying lengths (50 – 300 cm) were retrieved, which will be used for wetland reconstruction and calculation of carbon stocks for northern coastal wetlands.
For more information on the expedition, please read our weekly reports, which were written during the field work:
In addition, Johanna recorded all the plants, which we found on our field sites. The full list of plants and pictures can be accessed here: https://fluxlab.awi.de/s/MF18DUlLq#
Check out our Alaska expedition photos in the photo gallery.
![[Translate to English:] wetland](/fileadmin/_processed_/7/a/csm_wetland_c03ee97141.png)
