Studies conducted on permafrost in the Arctic and Antarctic regions have shown how these areas store almost twice the carbon currently present in the atmosphere. The permafrost thaw will potentially cause an increase of the greenhouse gases concentrations in atmosphere, raising the global warming effect.
The SENECA project (SourcE and impact of greeNhousE gasses in AntarctiCASourcE and impact of greeNhousE gasses in AntarctiCA), part of the 35th Italian expedition to Antarctica, aims to provide the first evaluation of gas concentrations and emissions from permafrost and/or thaw shallow strata.
The results will be used to derive a first total emission estimate, for methane and carbon dioxide, at Southern Polar Hemisphere.
The two years project which involves 4 Italian universities and research institutes: including CEED here in Norway and those based in New Zealand. The project has four major tasks:
(1) to determine the soil gas content and origin,
(2) the CO2 and CH4 degassing output,
(3) to conduct geoelectric exploration and petrographic characterization of the soils, and
(4) to estimate the seasonal trend of CO2 soil concentration.
The international teams will survey the Dry Valleys (Taylor and Wright valleys) in Antarctica in December-January 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
Read more about the expedition in this article:
NZ scientists to probe climate threat frozen underground, nzherald.co.nz, 1.12.2019