Volatile organic compound Emissions and Reactive Nitrogen from Northern Active Layers (VERNNAL)
Where: NOAA David Skaggs Research Center
When: April - May 2025
How: Laboratory incubation of soil and chamber gas flux measurements
Science Question: How do changes in boreal active layer soils impact atmospheric chemistry?
Permafrost-affected soils comprise the largest global reservoir of organic carbon. These soils are rapidly warming, inducing permafrost thaw, fires, and ecosystem shifts, which are altering biogeochemistry and microbial activity over large regions. Soils are a major source and sink of reactive gases. Previous research on permafrost-laden soils shows emissions are potentially underestimated but this is limited to a small set of soils primarily sampled in Scandinavia. Thus, the consequences of wide-spread disturbance in these soils on atmospheric chemistry remains an open question.
NOAA CSL and the Turetsky Lab group at CU Boulder will conduct an incubation of 28 boreal soils collected in Fairbanks, AK that capture various end-member states of disturbance: thaw, fire, and vegetation shifts. Soils will be placed in custom Soil Layered and Ecosystem Emission Chambers (SLEECs) to simultaneously quantify a suite of reactive nitrogen and volatile organic compounds in addition to other gases by up to seven instruments. Measurements will be made as frozen soils thaw, are held at a low temperature, are held at a higher temperature, and undergo dry-down and rainfall treatments.
