Descrizione del progetto
Limitare i modelli del rilascio di carbonio dai depositi artici ghiacciati causato dal riscaldamento globale
Un’enorme quantità di carbonio organico ghiacciato è stoccata nel «permafrost» (PF) dell’Artico, così chiamato perché normalmente rimarrebbe permanentemente congelato per tutto l’anno, e come metano ghiacciato (idrati di metano o metano idratato) nei suoi sedimenti di pendio. Il progetto CC-TOP, finanziato dal Consiglio europeo della ricerca, cercherà di quantificare le incertezze relative al rilascio da parte di questi sistemi con il riscaldamento globale, concentrandosi sull’Oceano Artico della Siberia orientale, il più grande mare di piattaforma del mondo e sede della maggior parte dei permafrost costieri, dei permafrost sottomarini e degli idrati poco profondi. Le scoperte trasformeranno le descrizioni qualitative in quantitative per limitare le emissioni attuali e prevedere quelle future di questi «giganti addormentati» del sistema globale del carbonio.
Obiettivo
The enormous quantities of frozen carbon in the Arctic, held in shallow soils and sediments, act as “capacitors” of the global carbon system. Thawing permafrost (PF) and collapsing methane hydrates are top candidates to cause a net transfer of carbon from land/ocean to the atmosphere this century, yet uncertainties abound.
Our program targets the East Siberian Arctic Ocean (ESAO), the World’s largest shelf sea, as it holds 80% of coastal PF, 80% of subsea PF and 75% of shallow hydrates. Our initial findings (e.g. Science, 2010; Nature, 2012; PNAS; 2013; Nature Geoscience, 2013, 2014) are challenging earlier notions by showing complexities in terrestrial PF-Carbon remobilization and extensive venting of methane from subsea PF/hydrates. The objective of the CC-Top Program is to transform descriptive and data-lean pictures into quantitative understanding of the CC system, to pin down the present and predict future releases from these “Sleeping Giants” of the global carbon system.
The CC-Top program combines unique Arctic field capacities with powerful molecular-isotopic characterization of PF-carbon/methane to break through on:
The “awakening” of terrestrial PF-C pools: CC-Top will employ great pan-arctic rivers as natural integrators and by probing the δ13C/Δ14C and molecular fingerprints, apportion release fluxes of different PF-C pools.
The ESAO subsea cryosphere/methane: CC-Top will use recent spatially-extensive observations, deep sediment cores and gap-filling expeditions to (i) estimate distribution of subsea PF and hydrates; (ii) establish thermal state (thawing rate) of subsea PF-C; (iii) apportion sources of releasing methane btw subsea-PF, shallow hydrates vs seepage from the deep petroleum megapool using source-diagnostic triple-isotope fingerprinting.
Arctic Ocean slope hydrates: CC-Top will investigate sites (discovered by us 2008-2014) of collapsed hydrates venting methane, to characterize geospatial distribution and causes of destabilization.
Campo scientifico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsfossil energypetroleum
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryaliphatic compounds
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesphysical geographyglaciology
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
10691 Stockholm
Svezia