Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: Permafrost degradation impacts on soils, human societies, water resources and carbon cycle

该奖项为参与由贝尔蒙特论坛（Belmont Forum）发起的9国全球变化研究倡议竞争性选择的项目的美国研究人员提供支持。贝尔蒙特论坛是一个由超过55个国家的研究资助组织组成的联盟，致力于支持跨学科方法来应对全球环境变化的挑战和机遇。它的目的是通过协调和调动国际资源，加速提供最迫切需要的国际研究，以消除可持续发展的关键障碍。每个伙伴国在一个联盟中为它们的研究人员提供资金，以减轻对跨越国际边界的资金的需求。这种方法有助于有效利用国家资源，支持对全球相关主题的优秀研究，最好通过多国方法解决，同时认识到全球挑战需要全球解决方案。该奖项为美国研究人员在至少三个参与国的合作伙伴组成的联盟中进行合作提供支持。研究小组将努力确定可持续的途径，以帮助减轻对自然资源日益增加的前所未有的压力，这些资源相互作用，为社会提供可持续的生命支持系统和基本利益，如粮食生产和水的质量和数量。将评价土地管理和城市化变化的影响，以制定可持续土壤和地下水管理备选办法，帮助建立和维持可持续的陆地生态系统。该项目旨在了解永久冻土融化对北极和亚北极土壤和地表水/地下水的水文、地球化学、地貌、微生物和社会经济影响，以及它们在气候变化中的可持续性。这项工作的总体目标是比较西伯利亚和阿拉斯加具有不同永久冻土特征（富冰Yedoma永久冻土或富碳永久冻土泥炭地；连续或不连续永久冻土）、气候敏感性、植被和沿纬度和纵向梯度的退化类型的地点。为了实现这一目标，科考队将研究西伯利亚和阿拉斯加几个关键的小流域。每个研究区域的选择都是基于其在该地区的代表性，更重要的是基于广泛的永久冻土、植被和退化类型的比较能力。主要目的是分析不同地点之间的差异和相似之处，以更好地了解影响的变化。为了了解和比较不同地点之间永久冻土退化的影响，该团队定义了土壤、地表水/地下水脆弱性的几个指标：自然和人为压力源、永久冻土条件和退化、水文和水生化学、碳循环和微生物群落。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award provides support to U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 9-country initiative on global change research through the Belmont Forum. The Belmont Forum is a consortium of research funding organizations representing over 55 countries focused on support for transdisciplinary approaches to global environmental change challenges and opportunities. It aims to accelerate delivery of the international research most urgently needed to remove critical barriers to sustainability by aligning and mobilizing international resources. Each partner country provides funding for their researchers within a consortium to alleviate the need for funds to cross international borders. This approach facilitates effective leveraging of national resources to support excellent research on topics of global relevance best tackled through a multinational approach, recognizing that global challenges need global solutions. This award provides support for the U.S. researchers to cooperate in consortia that consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries. The research teams will work to identify sustainable pathways to help alleviate the increasing and unprecedented pressure on the natural resources that interact to provide sustainable life support systems and essential benefits to societies such as food production and water quality and quantity. The impacts of changes in land management and urbanization will be evaluated to develop sustainable soils and groundwater management options that will help create and maintain sustainable terrestrial ecosystems. The project aims to understand the hydrological, geochemical, geomorphological, microbiological, and socio-economic impacts of permafrost thaw to soils and surface/groundwaters in the Arctic and Subarctic, and their sustainability in the changing climate. The overall objective of the work is to compare sites in Siberia and Alaska with different permafrost characteristics (ice-rich Yedoma permafrost or carbon-rich permafrost peatland; continuous or discontinuous permafrost), climate-sensitivity, vegetation, and degradation types along latitudinal and longitudinal gradients. To accomplish this, the team will study several key small watersheds in Siberia and Alaska. Each study area was chosen based on its representativeness of the region and more importantly for comparative power across a broad range of permafrost, vegetation, and degradation types. The main objective is to analyze the differences and similarities between sites to better understand the variations of impacts. To understand and compare the impacts of permafrost degradation between the different sites, the team has defined several indicators of the vulnerability of soils, surface/ground waters: natural and anthropogenic stressors, permafrost conditions and degradation, hydrologic and aquatic chemistry, carbon cycle and microbial communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.