NSINK

Training in sources, sinks and impacts of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the Arctic

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

The NSINK Initial Stage Network training network targets one of the most vital, interdisciplinary problems facing future Arctic environmental management: namely the enrichment of Arctic terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by reactive atmospheric nitrogen from low latitude emission centres. This problem will greatly exacerbate ecosystem response to climate change, and urgently requires holistic, sources to sinks type studies of nitrogen dynamics. Thus training in atmospheric sciences, snow physics, hydrology, biogeochemistry and aquatic/terrestrial ecology is necessary, bringing UK, Norwegian, Swedish, Austrian and German expertise (already operative in Svalbard) into a single interdisciplinary project at Ny Ålesund, the site of Europe’s most significant high Arctic environmental monitoring infrastructure. Further, in order to constrain recent change in the nitrogen accumulation in this environment, training in the interpretation of ice core and lake sediment archives will also be offered, and a reanalysis of instrumental observations collected over the last 15 years will be undertaken. NSINK will therefore prepare talented researchers for careers as independent scientists/practitioners across a range of environmental sciences (e.g. biogeochemistry, atmospheric sciences, hydrology) and related sectors either in academia or in industry. The scale of the NSINK ITN is significant (nine Early Stage Researchers, three Experienced Researchers, four training partners and 9 associated or industrial partners) because it addresses the demand for training in this area resulting from the urgent science problem and a major growth in public interest in the environmental sciences that is being experienced by universities across the entire EU.

Introduzione (Teaser)

Young researchers have received theoretical and practical skills training to study nitrogen at the Ny-Alesund Arctic research centre in Svalbard, Norway.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Recent evidence suggests that Arctic soils are accumulating nitrogen pollution from the lower-latitude parts of the world. This is concerning, since nitrogen fluxes can have a profound effect on fragile Arctic ecosystems, and may even compound the effects of climate change.

To help build research expertise on these issues, the EU-funded 'Training in sources, sinks and impacts of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the Arctic' (NSINK) project was set up. The project provided theory, field work and laboratory skills training for nine early-stage researchers and three experienced researchers. In addition, these scientists conducted their own research as part of the NSINK project.

Researchers modelled atmospheric nitrogen over different timescales and in different parts of the Arctic. They found that nitrogen accumulated at very different rates in different areas, due to several major weather events that deposited large amounts of nitrogen.

Other project efforts studied nitrogen accumulation in snow and ice. NSINK found that in this case bacterial communities in wetlands and in snow controlled the fate of the nitrogen.

NSINK launched the academic careers of several promising young scientists in a very important field of climate research. Just as importantly, it improved our understanding of how human activity is influencing Arctic ecosystems.