Environmental controls on mineral-associated permafrost organic carbon fate

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• Catherine Hirst, University of Durham
• Tuesday 11 February 2025, 12:00-13:00
• Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Rachael Rhodes.

The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of Earth’s surface (Rantanen et al., 2022). Consequently, permafrost areal extent is projected to decrease (24 ± 16% by 2100, RCP2 .6, Chadburn et al., 2017) and Arctic precipitation is projected to increase (50 – 60 % by 2100, RCP2 .6, Bitanja and Andry, 2017). Permafrost contains ~ two times as much carbon as Earth’s atmosphere (Hugelius et al., 2014). Upon thaw, permafrost organic carbon is a) stored in soils and sediments, b) transferred from soils to aquatic bodies, c) broken down to inorganic carbon in soils and aquatic bodies. A fraction of this inorganic carbon is released as greenhouse gases to the atmosphere which could amplify Arctic warming (the permafrost carbon feedback, Schuur et al., 2015). A portion of permafrost organic carbon is associated with minerals (e.g., Garcia-Palacios et al., 2023) which contribute to modulating if carbon is stored in the land or released into the atmosphere (e.g., Patzner et al., 2020). Our work seeks to understand the environmental controls on how, where and when minerals contribute to carbon release from these vulnerable landscapes. To do this we couple in-field measurements (e.g., precipitation and water table depth) with geochemical measurements (e.g., isotopes, microscopy, spectroscopy. I will present findings from large and small Arctic catchments and ongoing ideas for future research.

This talk is part of the Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown) series.

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• Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown)
• Department of Earth Sciences seminars
• Department of Earth Sciences, Tilley Lecture Theatre
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