Mercury release from melting permafrost (MercPerm) RiS-ID 11376

This Arctic Field Grant applies for funding to cover two fieldwork periods in Ny-Ålesund to collect soil and water samples for studying mercury release from thawing permafrost at the Arctic tundra and soil. Both total mercury and methylmercury will be included in this project. Hypothesis is that due to higher content of organic matter in the topsoil, fractions of mercury potentially released from the deeper thawing layers will be enriched through sorption and complexation reaction over the season in the topsoil. To test this hypothesis and study the significance of thawing permafrost as mercury sources to the Arctic area, levels of total mercury and methyl mercury in topsoil will be analyzed for samples collected during spring (June) and autumn (August). This will be carried out through three approaches; a) manually collected samples analyzed for total mercury in upper 10 – 20 cm soil layer, b) use of passive samplers deployed in the topsoil (10 - 20 cm) to determine levels of total mercury and methyl mercury, c) analyze levels of total mercury and methyl-mercury in puddles in well-developed soil areas. This is also the reason why to carry out the fieldwork at Brøggerdalen and Kiærstranda; both being good location for soil studies easily accessible from Ny-Ålesund.