Arctic Station Dirigibile Italia

Interactions among landform, soil, vegetation, and microbiome during initial colonization stages in High Arctic patterned grounds: sorted circles and frost boils in Brøggerhalvøya (BRISMIC)

Call year: 2023 Status: active IADC_id: 781

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Patterned grounds like sorted circles, frost boils and polygons are widely diffused in the High Arctic, where they are connected to the presence of permafrost. Their structure, development, and pedology have been thoroughly studied, while associated colonizing plants and microbiota are far less characterized, and their distribution in relationship to the developmental stages of the landforms not well known. BRISMIC will address these research needs by integrating with a larger project submitted to the INTERACT Transnational Access Action under the name ISMIC. The general aim of ISMIC/BRISMIC is to evaluate how plants and soil microbiota affect the properties of patterned ground soil and the development of permafrost-driven morphologies in different High Arctic ecosystems along a N-S gradient using latitude and exposure to the North-Atlantic Current as a proxy for climate/temperature change. To reach this goal, three sites at different latitudes, Hornsund in Svalbard (77º 00’ N, 15º 33’ E), Brøggerhalvøya in Svalbard (78° 58’ N, 11° 30’ E) and Villum in Greenland (81º 36’ N, 16º 39’ W), have been selected. Two of them, Hornsund and Villum, are the object of the application ISMIC, submitted to INTERACT TA, while Brøggerhalvøya is the object of BRISMIC, the present application. The opportunity to target three sites will allow strengthen the coverage of the study. In the BRISMIC study site (Brøggerhalvøya), characterized by the presence of  patterned ground systems (Hallet, 2013), sorted circles and frost boils with different degrees of plant and biocrust colonization (slightly, moderately and highly colonized) will be selected. Hence, the study is aimed to assess the different level of plant colonization within a large study area covering the coastal plan of the Brøggerhalvøya along the Kongsfjorden and up to the Kongsfjordneset and to the westernmost point of the peninsula, the Kvadehuken: 1) plant species; 2) soil morphology; 3) soil physical properties (bulk density and structure); 4) soil organic matter content and its pools; 5) microbial community  structure and activity in bulk and rhizosphere soil. Finally, linking soil physical, chemical and biochemical properties and functioning to the presence and activities of microbiota and plants in the three sites targeted by ISMIC and BRISMIC will allow to identify the potential drivers of the early stages of colonization and soil development of patterned ground surface in high Arctic, where cyclic burial and exhumation of material is believed to play an important role in the soil carbon cycle of high latitudes.rnAnother objective is linked to the observation that sorted circles and frost boils are sites where initial colonization stages take place in undisturbed conditions. As a consequence of the rapid retreat of glacial fronts in the terrestrial High Arctic, increasingly large areas of new ice-cleared land are subject to colonization by specialized associations such as biocrusts and pioneer plants. This phenomenon, widespread throughout the Brøggerhalvøya, is amplified by the increase in temperature which makes the spread of the colonizing organisms faster and their metabolic activity and interaction with the mineral component more effective. On the front of retreating glaciers, such a colonization process is disturbed by the high instability of the terrain and hence it is practically impossible to understand in detail the colonization mechanism and distinguish its development stages. The patterned grounds that form in lowlands and other flat areas can therefore represent a model system to study the mechanisms of primary colonization and succession of the microbial and plant components in response to High Arctic warming.

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National cooperation will be mostly based on interactions with researchers involved in the PNRR-NBFC spoke 3 focussing on microbial biodeiversity, but also with a group at CNR-IPSP specialized in plant root microbiome. Ecology of forefronts of retreating glaciers expert, R.Cazzolla Gatti, Unv. of Bologna, will be also involved. The soil chemistry group at the University of Firenze, to whicxh memebrs of our team are tightly connected, will be also involved in collaboration.rnInternational cooperation will mainly consist of collaboration with experts of biocrusts (HUJI and BIDR-BGU, both in Israel) to which the PI has very strong connections developed during a four year stay in Israel as scientific Attaché of the Italian Embassy, and long collaborations with cyanobacterial taxonomists at the Czech Academy of Sciuences and at the HUJI.rnThe research done in the BRISMIC project will be integrated with the study of two other sites in the High Arctic done in the frame of the INTERACT TA program as detailed above.

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Project information

Interactions among landform, soil, vegetation, and microbiome during initial colonization stages in High Arctic patterned grounds: sorted circles and frost boils in Brøggerhalvøya (BRISMIC)