Process-oriented cryoturbation modelling

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christian Beer
• Subject Area: Soil Sciences
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 406084187

Permafrost soils of northern high latitudes are characterized by transport processes which are summarized by the term cryoturbation. Due to cryoturbation, large amounts of material from the surface ends up in the subsoil where organic material is hardly decomposed or even incorporated into the permafrost. As a result, there exist huge amounts of carbon stocks in permafrost soils of northern high latitudes. One important question for society is, what will happen with this soil carbon which have been stored over millennia when permafrost will thaw due to climate change? How much of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane will be released and hence further warm the atmosphere? A mathematically formalized understanding of such transport processes in relation to soil properties and climate in concert with the integration of such models with observational data is required in order to gain new insights with respect to timing, velocity and importance of different underlying transport processes. This is also a requirement for representing cryoturbation in Earth system models and for projecting the future evolution of the carbon balance and climate.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants