A BRIDGE seminar by Dr Robert Sparkes, University of Manchester.

Arctic permafrost carbon represents approximately half of the global Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) reservoir, with tundra, taiga and terrestrial ice complexes containing approximately twice as much carbon as the atmospheric carbon pool.  Recent Arctic warming has overtaken predictions and will lead to large-scale thawing of permafrost.  However, study in this area has been restricted, and the fate of Soil OC liberated by permafrost thawing is poorly understood.  Robert will present the results of a series of recent studies from a pan-Arctic consortium, examining the release of terrestrial carbon in the East Siberian Arctic using a range of organic geochemical techniques.