A team of three Técnico researchers led by João Canário, professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering and researcher at the Centro de Química Estrutural (CQE), will study “the dynamics of organic matter and mercury in permafrost and continuous permafrost zones, in the north of Greenland”, he explained.

The funding request for their work submitted in November has now been approved by the European project INTERACT (International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic), which funds access to the research stations in the Arctic that are part of the network.

The scientists will work at Zackenberg Research Station (74ºN), managed by Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring, based at Aarhus University, in Denmark. This will be the first Portuguese field campaign in Greenland and “one of the first field campaigns to study these topics in Greenland”, says the expedition leader.

João Canário will be joined by Beatriz Martins, Environmental Engineering PhD student, who will focus her work on the dynamics of mercury, and Diogo Ferreira, Chemistry PhD student, who will study the dynamics of organic matter.

The work is part of the College on Polar and Extreme of Universidade de Lisboa and the PERMAMERC project (Mercury Biogeochemistry, Fate and Impact in Permafrost Thaw Ecosystems), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

João Canário was recently selected to lead terrestrial working group in the Arctic and will chair the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) terrestrial working group for the next two years.