TOMSK, May 3 – RIA Tomsk. Senior research associate of Tomsk State University (TSU) Laboratory for Biogeochemical and Remote Sensing Methods for Environmental Monitoring (BIO-GEO-CLIM) Tatiana Raudina got support from the Presidential Grants Foundation for study of West Siberian swamps. She explores mechanisms of transfer and decomposition of organic matter in marsh landscapes of cryolithozone.
Grant for the Raudina's project is – 600 thousand rubles a year for two years. Details – in the material of RIA Tomsk.
Earlier it was reported that the Council for grants of the President of the Russian Federation supported several projects of young scientists of Tomsk State University at once.
The fate of carbon flowing down from swamps
"Many scientists are engaged in studying of a carbon cycle. The forest-swamp zone of Western Siberia is of considerable interest in studies of this kind, since bog ecosystems not only accumulate organic matter in the form of peat deposits, but also preserve it in their frozen strata", – Raudina tells the correspondent of RIA Tomsk.
"During the movement from peat soils to water bodies, organic matter undergoes various processes of transformation and decomposition. But until now, the mechanisms and factors responsible for the decomposition and formation of migration flows on land remain poorly studied for the northern part of the boreal and subarctic belts", – explains the specialist.
Raudina adds that in order to better understand the mechanisms governing the modern flow of carbon and related elements, it is necessary to conduct a detailed study, including field observations and experiments. It is this task that is facing the scientists of TSU.
"The project will allow to establish patterns of decomposition of dissolved organic matter and metals, determine the shares of their biologically available forms, identify the dominant forms of migration (soil waters – primary watercourses – intermediate lakes – depositing a water body), and also detail the patterns of joint migration of metals with organic matter", – says Raudina.
Bio-Geo-Clim
According to Raudina, the project “The Behavior of Organic Matter and Metals in Solutions of Peat Soils in the Forest-Bog Zone in the North of Western Siberia” will provide missing information on the role of the soil waters of frozen bog watersheds in the biogeochemical carbon cycle.
Research will be conducted on the basis of the Laboratory for Biogeochemical and Remote Sensing Methods for Environmental Monitoring (Bio-Geo-Clim) of TSU. It is equipped with world-class analytical equipment, which allows not only to carry out comprehensive monitoring observations, but also to predict the biogeochemical evolution of ecosystems in the context of global changes and local characteristics of the regions.
"The staff of our laboratory – is a multidisciplinary team of scientists and graduate students who have extensive experience in conducting comprehensive studies of biogeochemical processes based on the combination of experimental laboratory modeling and field observations", – summarizes Raudina.