Sweden permafrost monitoring

Increasing temperature in the Arctic will increase the soil temperature and decrease the area covered by permafrost. Depending on the situation, microbial decomposition of stored soil organic carbon will increase and release carbon dioxide and eventually methane, two greenhouse gases that may accelerate climate change. Some international programs study permafrost development. At 1540 meters altitude in Tarfala, temperature is measured in one borehole down to 100 m and another down to 15 m below soil surface in the Permafrost and Climate in Europe (PACE) program coupled to the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTNP) (Table 5, #2.5). Four more shallow, boreholes near Abisko are suggested candidates for PACE, one managed by Luleå Technical University and three managed by Lund University (Table 5, #1.21). Abisko Research Station carries out manual sonding of the active permafrost layer at Stordalen, an activity on behalf of Geobiosphere Science Center (CGB), Lund University and part of the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) (Table 3). The active layer has been monitored at 11 sites along an 80 km east-west profile from 1978 to 2002. Eight of these were bog sites situated in a transect from the dry and cold east to the milder and wetter west, all at approximately 390 m altitude. Permafrost monitoring started in 1972 at Kapp Linné, Svalbard, by the Geobiosphere Science Center (CGB), Lund University (Table 5, #23), and was reported for the period 1972 to 2002. Soil moisture and soil temperature were also monitored. The 10 monitoring sites differed in vegetation cover, elevation, substrate, active periglacial processes, and distance to the sea.