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A Changing World

IAEA Project Investigates Climate Change Impact on Land-Water-Ecosystem Quality in Polar and Mountainous Regions

Story by IAEA TCAP February 19th, 2015

Changing Climate

The rapidly changing climate in the Arctic, in mountains and the western part of Antarctica has alarmed communities, environmentalists, scientists and policy-makers.

Many fear that soils will become unstable, and that water in soil will be less available for mountain communities. There is also concern that greenhouse gases locked away in the soils of these regions for millennia will now find their way into the atmosphere, causing further changes to the Earth's climate.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has embarked upon a four-year (2014-2017) technical cooperation project involving 23 countries and six international organizations to assess whether or not these climate change concerns are justified, and to identify what can be done if they are. Although the project will be undertaken in polar and mountainous regions, the results, especially those relating to permafrost and carbon in the atmosphere, have global implications.

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Getting There

Nine scientists from a wide range of disciplines such as paleoclimatology, microbiology, organic geochemistry, ecology, nuclear physics, geomorphology and glaciology, arrived on King George Island, Antarctica, on 3 February, 2015 to test sampling and research procedures.

The sampling procedures perfected here, and the tests using isotopic techniques as well as methods from other scientific disciplines, will eventually be repeated in 12 other mountainous and polar sites around the globe. These are the project's benchmark sites -- 13 polar and mountainous regions in different parts of the works that are representative of the climatic changes occurring in cyrosphere and land-water ecosystems. They range from temperate, subtropical and tropical ecosystems in Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe. (See map below.)

By collecting and analysing samples from these benchmark sites researchers can eventually have a more complete picture of the ways climate change will impact land-water-ecosystem quality in coming decades.

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They stayed at the Bellingshausen Research Station run by the Russian Federation.
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Evening exploration on the west coast of King George Island
Scientists from different disciplines discuss the properties of the landscape to find the best sampling sites
Sites with "star" have already been surveyed as of February 2017.

Sampling is hard work, especially in hilly, muddy, freezing conditions like those found on King George Island, Antarctica. The research team braved blizzards, got stuck in mud holes, and dodged wild animals, all to get soil samples.

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I'm So Tired!

All that walking through rivers, up hills and mountains has Gerd Dercon (behind the camera) out of breath. And they haven't even collected any samples yet!

Gerd is the lead researcher on this project, and Head of the Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Laboratory of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division.

When the Weather Doesn't Cooperate

Conditions aren't always optimal in an extreme environment like Antarctica. The nine-person team trudged through a blizzard on the second day of the expedition to reach the Artigas Research Station operated by Uruguay, over an hour's walk from their base of operations at the Bellingshausen Research Station.

Frozen Summer

The nine-person team arrived at the height of summer, which in this part of the world, means temperatures that normally range from 0 to 4 degrees Celsius. Only 5% of King George Island is ice-free, the rest is covered by glaciers and ice caps.

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SUVs are often useless in this terrain. So to travel between research stations and around the island, they use special snow mobiles. Here, four scientists are being transported to Uruguay's Artigas Research station.

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Digging Around in the Dirt

The interregional project commenced in 2014 with meetings held to draw up the technical and scientific methodology for how the data are to be collected.

For the next year and a half, researchers from around the globe will be using isotopic and nuclear techniques, as well as geochemical and biological analytical methods from other scientific disciplines to screen changes in soil water, to monitor the movement of soil and sediment, and to assess potential changes in greenhouse gas emission from soil and permafrost melts.

Approximately 16 months after the project was launched, the IAEA has carried out field sample collection missions to Patagonia, Chile; King George Island, Antarctica, Svalbard, Norway and Mt Gongga, China, 4 of the 13 benchmark sites.

In addition, samples were taken by counterparts at the benchmark sites of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, and Hohen Tauern, Austria. The focus of the project, which is supported by the PUI from the US, involve investigations of 13 benchmark sites that are representatives of the major problems and trends of climate impact on cryosphere and land-water-ecosystem quality in polar and mountain regions across the world. These sites represent temperate, subtropical and tropical ecosystems (Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe) with existing monitoring stations having long historical records of climate data. The field investigations have been undertaken according to the protocols established in 2014 under the project by an international team of experts from Austria, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Spain, U.K. and Russian Federation.


Iron rod used to check soil depth in order to find appropriate sampling sites.
Looking at organic matter in the soil.
Analysing the age and quality of organic matter in soil can tell scientists a great deal about future climate change.

Soil Samples

Soil core samples are taken to help scientists understand radionuclide distribution in soil, which in turn reveals how soil moves. The researchers are looking at the amounts, type, age and greenhouse gas emission potential of organic carbon stored in the soil.

It costs US $10 - $15 per kilo to transport samples from King George Island, so scientists make sure there are no stones and gravel in their samples before flying off to the lab.

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Collecting a soil core sample.
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Soil samples in yellow plastic bags being prepared for transport off King George Island.

Heitor Evangelista da Silva, a paleoclimatologist from the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, prepares a sampling campaign (a plan of action detailing where to sample when). Behind his laptop, is a tube-like drill used to collect sediment core samples.

Soil samples collected from King George Island and other benchmark areas are being processed in the laboratories in Brazil, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Chile, Belgium, Russia, Spain and IAEA.

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Is it Permafrost or Isn't It?

Permafrost is ground - including soil and rocks - which has been frozen for at least two consecutive years. The state of permafrost affects soil, water and ecosystem quality, biomass production, and even the stability of buildings and other infrastructure with foundations in the permafrost. But chiefly with regard to this project, permafrost could hold the key to understanding future global climate.

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The melting of permafrost can cause soils to become unstable. This can lead to mud flows or rivers carrying sediment (soil particles) downstream, which leads to rising riverbeds, and therefore more instances of flooding.

A small river bringing large amounts of sediment down from higher altitudes.
"Permafrost is thawing; especially in the Arctic. Therefore microorganisms can now degrade the organic matter in the soil. This can create the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane that could be released into, and further heat, the atmosphere.
The amount of carbon that is stored in permafrost soils worldwide - in mountain systems, but also in the Arctic and Antarctic-is about twice as much carbon as we now have in the atmosphere."

- Andreas Richter, a member of the nine-person team in Antarctica, and a microbiologist from the University of Vienna in Austria.

Does it Float?

The IAEA funded the construction of this platform, which facilitates sediment sampling in lakes. Here, researchers take it for a spin to ensure it really floats.

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Outreach initiatives have been taken, particularly by participating experts from the particularly through experts from the United States, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UNESCO, to inform different interest groups about the IAEA's collaborative work with various countries to investigate the effects of climate change.

At the same time, scientists from Tanzania have been trained in the analyses and interpretation of samples taken from Kilimanjaro. Many young scientists have, since then, participated in the team expert missions and received training on field sample collection and the use of remote sensing for assessing glacier dynamics

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Group SHot!

Research Team Members: Gerd Dercon, Andreas Richter, Bulat Mavlyudov, Heitor Evangelista da Silva, Alejandra Paola Castillo Santana, Sergio Gonçalves Junior, Stephanie Kusch, Valentin Golosov and Sergei Verkulich.

Check out our website to learn more about the project and the work planned for the 13 benchmark sites around the globe.

The only Russian Orthodox church on the island, Trinity Church, stands in the background.
Footnote: Photos and Videos by G. Dercon/IAEA and B. Mavlyudov. Text by Sasha Henriques.
King George Island, Antarctica