Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, researching why the Arctic is becoming greener, Gütsel Online, OWL live
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, investigating why the Arctic is becoming greener
- A research team from #ETH #Zürich and WSL traveled to Spitsbergen in the summer of 2022 to take a close look at »Arctic Greening«. Project manager Sebastian Dötterl on research between polar bears, strikes and #war.
“We have seen #landscapes in which #permafrost has collapsed over a large area,” says Sebastian Dötterl with concern. The Professor of Land Resources has just returned from a field campaign in Svalbard. The archipelago is located at around 78 degrees north latitude, the thermometer climbs here in summer to an average of 9 degrees #Celsius.
He left there in mid-July with 11 researchers from ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forests, Snow and Other Landscapes WSL together with Norwegian partners after lengthy, complex and nerve-wracking preparations. Their goal: to research the background and mechanisms of »Arctic Greening«. And Spitsbergen serves as an ideal field laboratory for this.
Biggest and most difficult undertaking
Just a few days ago, Dötterl was kneeling in the #tundra wearing a wool hat, windproof and rainproof #clothing to collect soil samples. Now he’s sitting in his office in shorts and a t-shirt. The researcher seems a bit exhausted, but not only because of the change from the cool Arctic to the August heat of Zurich. But also because of the field research on Svalbard itself – or oil: because of the general conditions.
“In terms of magnitude and difficulty, this undertaking dwarfs my previous field work campaigns,” emphasizes Dötterl. “I’ve never had to contend with such difficult framework conditions as with this project, even though we also do a lot of field research in regions like the Congo.”
“This undertaking overshadows previous field work campaigns in terms of larger and more difficult ones,” Sebastian Dötterl.
#Corona, war and #pilot strike
First, the corona pandemic delayed the start of the project by more than 1 year. Then, in February, Russia started the war against Ukraine, which meant the research team was not allowed to use infrastructure that the Russian state operates on Spitsbergen as planned. However, the researchers would have been dependent on it for access to remote regions. With luck, the Norwegian partner was able to charter a sailing ship and crew at the last minute so that the researchers had a roof over their heads and could get to their study areas.
But that’s not all: Shortly before the departure in July, a pilots’ strike at the Scandinavian airline SAS endangered the venture again. “If our doctoral students hadn’t reacted so quickly and booked flights again for all members of the expedition, we wouldn’t have flown to Svalbard at all,” emphasizes Dötterl.
Mountains, cliffs, a sailing ship in the sea
How, where and why does Svalbard turn green? An ETH and WSL research team will find answers to this.
Researching ecological #change in the Arctic
The capital of Svalbard Longyearbyen is the starting point for the research team of plant ecologists, soil scientists, geoecologists and microbiologists to study the local patterns and mechanisms of the greening of the Arctic as part of an “ETH Plus Project” in the coming years explore. In addition to the Dötterls group, researchers around Jake Alexander, Cara Magnabosco and Simone Fior (all ETH Zurich) as well as Aline Frossard from WSL are also involved in the project.
The impetus for this research project was the fact that global warming is rapidly changing ecosystems. This change is happening even faster in the Arctic than anywhere else in the world. For example, temperatures in the far north have risen much faster than the global average over the past three centuries.
This not only melts #glaciers and permafrost, but also changes soils and plants in the arctic tundra. Between 1984 and 2012, 30 percent of North America’s tundras turned green, as per an external NASA study displayed. But why some tundras turn green more and faster than others is probably related to the local soil fertility, the water balance and the #microclimate.
Since then, the focus of the ETH and WSL researchers has been on ancestral and introduced plants and how these affect warming. Scientists are also studying accelerating soil development and changes in biogeochemical cycles. To do this, they examine original tundra soils, disturbed soils near settlements and nutrient-rich soils near bird colonies.
Further, the researchers would like to anticipate the role microbes will play in plant colonization of young soils and in the changing microbial communities in better managed soils.
Finally, the researchers want to use their data to derive a model that contains changes in vegetation, soil and microorganisms and that can be used to predict future changes in Arctic ecosystems.
Improvisation war in demand
Despite all the difficulties with the expedition, Dötterl and his co. project managers are very satisfied with the progress of the expedition. “Everything quickly went as hoped on site,” says the project manager happily. All participants were highly motivated, everyone would have taken care of each other and a very good and collegial collaboration was maintained. “This is not a matter of course with a project of this level of difficulty and under the conditions that sometimes happened on the ship,” emphasizes Dötterl.
With the exception of one spot – the authorities blocked a settlement because of a stray polar bear – they were able to take the desired samples from all study areas, a total of 1.2 tons of soil material, which the researchers shipped partly frozen to Zurich, where the material will be used in the laboratory next winter is analyzed. There are also hundreds of plant samples and seed material for experiments in Zurich, as well as hundreds of microbiological samples.
In order to preserve the genetic material they contained, these samples had to be immediately frozen in the field and transported in liquid nitrogen at minus 80 degrees Celsius. Because there was not enough power supply in the wild, the researchers first sent a tank with 400 liters of liquid nitrogen at a pressure of 4 bar to Svalbard. However, since the tank got a hole and was stored in Tromsö for three weeks before it was shipped to the island, it is expected to only hold just under 100 liters. The pressure had dropped to a bar. “It just works out,” says Dötterl.
The art of improvisation was also occasionally required with other technical aids. One of the three drones brought along crashed during its first use due to a software error. However, the cameras installed on it were still intact. In order to still be able to take pictures of the study areas from above, the researchers mounted the sensors on the tip of a four-metre-long metal rod, which they had to carry in front of them like a flag, so that they could still take photographs of vegetation from the air.
Laboratory work and trip to #Northern Norway
The intensive first field season is now followed by a lot of laboratory work and another field work assignment next summer in northern Norway. There, the team will study soils, microorganisms and plant ecology in the southern reaches of the lower arctic tundra. This habitat is the warmer equivalent of the high tundra of Svalbard.
The extensive data will then be analyzed. They form the basis for the investigation of future biogeochemical cycles in the changing Arctic and their implementation in land surface models. The project is scheduled to run until 2025.
Dötterl owes the fact that this project went so well despite all the adversities to the three doctoral students involved, Sigrid Trier Kjaer, Lena Bakker and Jana Rüthers. »You set up the entire logistics and organization and thus saved the project. That was a huge achievement,” says the flooring expert.