Monitoring seawater CO2 release from thawing permafrost mobilized by Bayelva proglacial stream, RiS ID 11654

The Bayelva River (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard) is a crucial site for studying carbon release from thawing permafrost into coastal waters. In September 2023, Italy’s Institute of Polar Sciences (ISP-CNR) installed the “Mooring Aldo Pontremoli” (MAP) near the river’s prodelta to monitor seawater CO2 linked to permafrost carbon degradation, essential for understanding Arctic ocean acidification. MAP sensors acquire and store data internally, and in September 2024, a firs set of high-resolution CO2 data was collected thanks to a successful recovery of the mooring line. Then, in the same field activity campaign, the MAP mooring was deployed again for a new year of monitoring. With the current Arctic Field Grant, CNR and the Norwegian Polar Institute aim to recover the mooring in 2025 to continue the crucial acquisition of marine CO2 and to establish the beginning of a new long-term CO2 time series specifically focused on the effects of thawing permafrost on the acidification process of the Arctic Ocean.