News from Germany 2003

Germany
National Report Germany for FROZEN GROUND, 2003

Under the framework of the Russian-German co-operation in the Laptev Sea (Hubberten, AWI Potsdam), a coastal permafrost drilling transect in the western Laptev Sea has been performed by a Russian team headed by M.N. Grigoriev (Permafrost Institute, Yakutsk) in April 2003. Starting at the cliff and perpendicular to the shoreline, a transect consisting of 15 permafrost boreholes with depths of up to 30 m has been drilled. The first borehole was located on land near the shore while the other boreholes were drilled from the sea-ice cover in water depths of three meters at maximum. The drilling results, i.e. the position of the sub-sea permafrost table, form the basis for a larger field campaign, which includes deeper drilling and permafrost coring and will be carried out by a team of the Research Unit Potsdam of the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Permafrost Institute (Yakutsk) in spring 2004. Detailed studies of the climatic and environmental history will be studied in ice- rich permafrost at the same cliff between Olenok and Anabar rivers in the western Laptev Sea. These field campaign is strongly related to the planned drilling campaign in spring 2004 and should provide important information for the interpretation of the core material.
The sixth expedition into the Lena Delta (Siberia) began on July 7, 2003 under the leadership of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. Important insights to the microbial methane production and turnover rates during the back freezing of the active layer in autumn and the future fate of produced methane in the thawing phase of the following spring will be expected. These investigations will contribute to the understanding of the Arctic methane budget during the less investigated winter season.
Within the scope of the Expedition “Lena-New Siberian Island-2002” late Pleistocene permafrost sediments were drilled and transported in frozen conditions to Germany. From the astrobiological point of view, terrestrial permafrost, in which micro-organisms have survived for several million years, is considered to be a model for extraterrestrial analogues. Under this aspect, the adaptation strategies and tolerance limits of the methane-forming micro-organisms will be studied by microbiological and molecular ecological methods. These studies in combination with geochemical and physical analysis can give insights into early stage of life in terrestrial permafrost, which can be used as a model for exo-biological processes.
In a joint Russian-American-German project an expedition takes place from beginning of May to end of August to Lake Elgygytgyn in north eastern Siberia. The German scientists from Leipzig University and AWI carry out complex seismic studies of the sedimentary sequence of this impact crater lake, permafrost studies in the surroundings of the lake, observations of the recent hydrological system and coring of sediments. Another expedition (funded by DFG) is dedicated to palaeoclimate research in the Taiga regions of Central Yakutia. Field work by five Russian and eight German scientists in the western Verchojansk Mountains and the Lena foreland during summer 2003 studies the regional glacial history and the subpolar palaeo-environment of well preserved moraine landforms, permafrost sequences, loess deposits, and palaeo-limnological archives.
The research group of the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn (Richard Dikau) continues geomorphological and permafrost research in the Turtmanntal, Valais, Switzerland. A PhD thesis on morphometric landscape analysis (Rasemann) was completed, another PhD project started (Otto). The main focus is given on permafrost and rock glacier distribution. The investigation on permafrost distribution and rock glacier sediment storages by means of geophysical methods and and the analysis landscape structure is carried out by M. Nyenhuis, while I. Roer continues the monitoring of rock glacier kinematics using remote sensing techniques and terrestrial surveying. The ongoing monitoring of BTS and snow distribution (by a digital camera) in a cirque with active and inactive rock glaciers will contribute to deepen the knowledge on energy transfer processes at the lower boundary of the discontinuous permafrost zone and on probable input parameters on rock glacier development.
The Institute for Geography, University of Giessen (Lorenz King) continues permafrost temperature monitoring in the Matter valley at the boreholes Stockhorn plateau and Ritigraben. Shallow ground temperature data recorded at Gornergrat at 3000 m a.s.l. indicate, that permafrost is confined to locations consisting of coarse materials, while it is absent in fine grained substrates (Simone Philippi). However, temperature measurements at Ritigraben block slope (Thomas Herz) at only 2615 m a.s.l. gave remarkably lower ground temperatures, mainly due to differences in snow cover development and depth.
Permafrost investigations are continued in varies projects in the Department of Geography in Jena. A new model routine called CLOUDMAP as part of PERMAMAP (M. Hoelzle, ETH Zürich) accounts for the higher amount of diffuse radiation in the northern Alps and calculates the distribution of permafrost by use of global radiation as controlling factor. This routine was developed by O. Mustafa and M. Gude (Jena) within the EU-project PACE. Studies on alpine permafrost distribution and its geotechnical significance at the highest peak in Germany (Zugspitze, 2964 m a.s.l.), started by M. Gude and D. Barsch (Heidelberg) within the PACE project, are continued in cooperation with the Bavarian Geological Survey and a local tourist company. Non-alpine sporadic permafrost is researched in highland scree slopes in Germany, Czech Republic and France (M. Gude, interdisciplinary research programme SCREECOS - Scree Ecosystems). Terrestrial biosphere modelling focusses on the influence of permafrost on biomass productivity in northern areas (Ch. Schmullius, EU-project SIBERIA II, in cooperation with Ch. Beer, M. Gude, Jena, and W. Lucht, Potsdam).
At the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, University of Karlsruhe, new geophysical investigation and data processing schemes are developed for ground ice detection and permafrost monitoring in mountain regions (Christian Hauck). In addition to the application of various geophysical techniques new mathematical approaches using fuzzy logic are developed for the detection and characterisation of frozen ground. Field studies are conducted at various presumed permafrost sites in Germany and Switzerland in collaboration with the Universities of Würzburg (Christof Kneisel), Jena (Martin Gude), Freiburg (Christoph Schneider), Zurich (Martin Hoelzle) and ETH Zurich (Hansruedi Maurer). High-altitude sites are investigated (e.g. Schilthorn, Swiss Alps) as well as isolated ground ice occurrences at low altitude (e.g. in middle mountain ranges). Numerical experiments of the energy exchange processes between permafrost and atmosphere are conducted using different coupled ground-atmosphere models.
At the Department of Geo- and Agroecology, ISPA, University of Vechta, Gabriele Broll continues the investigations on long-term ecosystem monitoring in the Canadian Arctic. Research is carried out in the Auyuittuq National Park (Baffin Island) and the Quttinirpaaq National Park (Ellesmere Island) in cooperation with Charles Tarnocai (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa) and Joyce Gould (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada). In Finnish Lapland research continues on soil ecological investigations in the treeline ecotone, in cooperation with Friedrich-Karl Holtmeier (University of Münster, Germany) within the EU framework LAPBIAT. Research on interactions between soil and vegetation in West Greenland (Kangerlussuaq) was finished in 2002 (PhD thesis by Ulrich Ozols).
A Russian-German joint project on the Late and Middle Quaternary in the Verkhojansk Mountains, Yakutia, is currently in progress by the universities of Bayreuth and Aachen, and the AWI Potsdam. Research topics are periglacial and glacial forms and processes, and the Late Quaternary climatic change derived from ice wedges, relict soils and glacial sediments.
At the Department of Physical Geography, University of Regensburg, H. Strunk continues his research in the Ob region in western Siberia, together with L. Agafonov, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg. The topics of research are the reconstruction of the thermokarst history of the last 500 years (M. Krabisch) and the reconstruction of the corresponding summer temperatures (M. Staudinger). Both studies are based on dendrochronological analysis of living trees (Pinus sibirica). First findings show that summer temperatures in western Siberia between 1610 and 1640 AD must have been about 4°C higher than today
At the Institute of Physical Geography, Freiburg University, H. Gossmann and S. Vogt continue to host the SCAR Geospatial Information Group project King George Island GIS (KGIS). The KGIS project provides a spatial database for King George Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, with a focus on high-resolution data sets for the periglacial areas of the island.
At the Department of Physical Geography, University of Stuttgart, the field investigations on geomorphic processes in Nordenskiöldland at Svalbard (PhD thesis by Silke Sander) verify the potential link between climatic change and geomorphic features.
Boese and Klose (Berlin) study the postglacial and recent morphodynamics in the Nanhuta Mountains (Taiwan) within a DFG project. The subtropical climate is influenced by the monsoon and typhoon-rains. However above approx. 3000 m a.s.l. the monsoon gives way to the Westerlies which are dominant year-round. A meteorological station was set up at 3540 m a.s.l. in the Nanhuta Shan area. Monitored ground temperature in three depths (1cm, 10cm and 20cm) are analysed in terms of freeze-thaw cycles, freezing depth, dependence on air temperature and daily and seasonal variations. Postglacial changes of the temperature and precipitation regimes including phases of periglacial activity are studied, as well as landforms as indicators for past climatic changes, dated by OSL.
Field work for a GIS-based three dimensional ecological model and an environmental atlas of the Jakutsk region (E-Siberia) is started by Venzke, Bremen (PhD thesis by Carsten Borowy) in cooperation with Vladimir Makarov (Permafrost Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences).
Compiled by Lorenz King, August 2003