For the first time, a Portuguese team will conduct research in Greenland and an integrated study on the effects of global warming on the dynamics of mercury and organic matter in permafrost. On 18th July, João Canário, a researcher from Instituto Superior Técnico, left for the Zackenberg Research Station, located at 74ºN on the east coast of Greenland. The Técnico PhD students Beatriz Martins and Diogo Ferreira are also part of the team.

The study will involve collecting water and soil samples. “The water will be collected from lakes resulting from permafrost degradation (at different depths) and soils where methane emissions have recently started to occur”, explains João Canário. The researchers will measure the amount of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane) released into the atmosphere in this area, and then relate these emissions to the chemical and microbiological composition of the soils.

The 112kg of equipment that will be used left Técnico in early June and will allow the initial processing of samples. The samples collected in this expedition will be sent to Técnico, which will process part of them. The others will be analysed in Canada by Beatriz Martins and Diogo Ferreira.

The team intends to “assess the distribution of mercury and methylmercury” (the most toxic form of mercury) and how the chemical composition of the lake can explain this, the degradation of the permafrost and also the microbiological composition. The latter is particularly relevant since the transformation from the less toxic into the more toxic form of mercury (a highly environmental pollutant) is done at the expense of microbial activity.

Studying the dynamics of mercury and the organic matter involves “understanding all the biogeochemical processes by which these materials behave as soon as they become available in the environment”. This is an opportunity to “study natural processes that are still in the early stages of development”, as this is a zone where “only very recently the permafrost has started to degrade”, and “mercury studies have never been carried out” there. According to João Canário, understanding these processes is vital to assess the impacts on the environment and wildlife and, in some way, investigate potential mitigation or remediation measures”.

The researchers arrived on site on July 19 and should not expect temperatures above 6ºC during their stay. This zone is only possible to work in the summer, and the presence of polar bears can also affect the work.

The fieldwork will run until August 3rd and will involve Danish researchers from the Aarhus University and the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring, and other partner universities of the project such as Trent University and Laval University in Canada, the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning (Universidade de Lisboa), and the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (University of Porto).