Arctic expedition on ice breaker Amundsen in the Beaufort Sea
Julie Lattaud
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ETH Zurich
Lay summary
Methane emissions in the Arctic region are expected to rise due to thawing permafrost and global increase in temperature and, while they are increasingly studied on land, their marine counterpart is still understudied. The link between marine ecosystem changes, thawing of subsea permafrost and methane emission in the Arctic Ocean is currently insufficiently understood. A planned expedition to the Beaufort Sea on board the Canadian ice breaker Amundsen offers the unique opportunity to collect samples from the water column as well as surface sediments and longer sediment cores (Holocene timescales, about 10 000 years).
Bacteria and Archaea phylum contain many species involved in the methane cycle and these phylum have specific membrane lipids, so-called biomarkers that are remarkably stable after the death of the organisms and can be found in settling particles in the water column and in the underlying sediment. These biomarkers are specific for a class of organism or a metabolism and their abundances can be studied using top-of-the-art instruments. These new samples will bring new knowledge and understanding of the how the methane cycle evolves under the ongoing rapid anthropogenic climate changes and how it varied under the slower (geological timescales) climatic changes recorded since the Holocene.
