Working Group "Soils in the Climate System"
Peatlands and permafrost soils are long-term repositories for great amounts of carbon. Global climate change could lead to a partial release of this carbon into the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gases. The Research Group “Soils in the Climate System” investigates the role that these carbon-rich landscapes play in the regional and global climate system. How do climate change and changes in land use affect the water and carbon fluxes in these landscapes? Expeditions to the Russian Taiga, the Arctic Lena Delta in Siberia or the undisturbed peatlands of Patagonia provide data from these difficult to access regions, which have hardly been investigated up to now. We combine observations and experiments with hydrological and biogeochemical models in close cooperation with modeling and observation groups within CliSAP/CEN.