SUN SPEARS: Soil development and ecological succession in a glacial ecosystem

Arctic soils are becoming increasingly widespread as large expanses of previously ice-covered regions are exposed due to glacier retreat. These soils are also experiencing the amplified effects of climate change in polar regions. Despite previous efforts to trace the development of soils ab initio following glacier retreat, it remains unknown to what extent seasonal processes affect their evolution on annual to multi-decadal timescales. Due to the inaccessibility of most Arctic regions outside of a brief summer period, the seasonal dynamics of pioneer Arctic soil systems are largely unexplored. To resolve these challenges, the project's ambition is to achieve continuous year-round monitoring of dynamic processes across an age gradient of Arctic soils using a network of buried geophysical sensors in a High-Arctic glacier forefield. This effort will be coupled with temporal monitoring of soil biogeochemical processes via state-of-the-art molecular techniques, and development of a microbially-explicit biological-geophysical model to describe soil evolution. The overarching aim is to improve understanding of how seasonal processes contribute to long-term development of Arctic soils. This is necessary to develop a holistic understanding of Arctic soil evolution, and make accurate predictions about the future fate of soils.