TUNDRA Research Objectives

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The TUNDRA project is organised in three research groups which study 1) climate change and the carbon cycle, 2) climate change and the hydrological cycle, and 3) industrial pollution and social awareness. The latter group will assess how pollution might affect ecosystem function, and how human attitudes could change environmental legislation and its implementation.

Research groups will develop base-case scenarios that include pre-industrial natural variability, validate their finds with detailed analyses at field sites, and subsequently develop future global change scenarios. Cooperation among partners is enhanced by working together at four selected field sites as part of a nested catchment experiment for the Usa Basin. All research groups will make use of the same Geographical Information System (GIS, ARC-INFO software) and work at the same scale for the entire Usa Basin (maps 1:1.000.000) and the four selected field sites (maps 1:100.000), warranting compatibility and exchangeability of data.

The main goal of the TUNDRA project is to obtain net fluxes for carbon and freshwater from an Arctic catchment under base-case and global change scenarios. To achieve this goal, the following research tasks are planned:
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  • A 15-year simulation of present climate with the HIRHAM regional climate model will provide GIS gridded climate data with 20 km resolution that will adequately represent topographical features in the Usa Basin.
  • A multi-proxy record of environmental variability over the last 2000 years will be established based on the analysis of past treeline-, wetland-, permafrost-, lake- and river-dynamics.
  • A GIS-based landscape / vegetation inventory with associated phytomass allocation, soil carbon and carbon fluxes will be developed to evaluate the terrestrial carbon balance under base-case and global change scenarios. Additional information will be provided by hydrologists with annual estimates of DOC and POC losses in freshwater runoff.
  • A GIS-based hydrological model will be developed to estimate freshwater runoff under base-case and global change scenarios, including assessments of sediment load, contaminants, nutrients and carbon.
  • Base-case scenarios for carbon balance and hydrology will be validated by detailed mapping, modelling and field observations in four study areas as part of a nested catchment experiment for the Usa Basin.
  • A GIS-based map of pollution in terrestrial and aquatic environments will indicate in which areas critical loads could be exceeded resulting in widespread ecosystem degradation.
  • Measured pollution levels will be compared to social perception of environmental degradation among Indigenous Peoples and ‘Russian Immigrants’ in the region, bridging the gap between natural sciences and traditional knowledge. Special emphasis is put on the forms of action local inhabitants are prone to take in relation to environmental legislation and its implementation.
  • A ‘most realistic’ global change scenario will be adopted, based upon past analogues, observed geographical gradients, GCM output superimposed on the modelled regional climate data, pollution loading and societal factors.

    • A CD-ROM of the complete GIS data base will be prepared for the entire Usa Basin (maps 1:1.000.000) and selected field study areas (maps 1:100.000), with data layers of topography, climate, hydrology, soils, landscape / vegetation units, pollution, and permafrost and infrastructure (from a related INTAS project).         ššššš Back to the TUNDRA Homepage