'Regional high-latitudes' by Dr. Bart van Dongen
Dr. Bart van Dongen's short biography:
Dr Bart van Dongen is a reader in Organic Geochemistry at the University of Manchester (UoM).
He obtained a MSc in Chemistry from the University of Leiden (1998) and a PhD in Earth Sciences from Utrecht University (2003), after which he accepted a Post-Doctoral Research Associate (PDRA) position at the University of Bristol. Research conducted in this capacity included reconstruction of tropical sea surface temperatures during the early Eocene using the membrane lipids of marine Crenarcheota from cores drilling in coastal Tanzania. He moved to Stockholm University in 2005 for a second post-doc, focussing on the effects of amplified warming in the Arctic region on the remobilization and preservation of recalcitrant soil organic carbon. In 2007, he moved to the UoM to accept a lecturer position, was promoted to senior lecturer in 2012 and reader in 2016.
His current research focuses on the application of organic geochemical techniques to the study of biogeochemical processes. He has extensive experience with a large number of organic geochemical/analytical techniques including (compound specific) radiocarbon analysis and field experience including a 50-day cruise to the East Siberian Arctic Shelf Seas. Dr. van Dongen was the PI on a NERC funded project looking into the effects of a warming climate on organic carbon cycling in the Eurasian Arctic. He currently supervises 2 PDRAs and 7 PhD students, published >65 publications, is an associate editor for Organic Geochemistry, board member of the European Association of Organic Geochemists, chair of the NERC-LSMSF Steering Committee and member of the UK Polar Partnership Steering Committee.
Dr. Bart van Dongen's personal homepage.
Lecture's abstract - 'Regional high-latitudes':
Northern hemisphere permafrost is a significant and vulnerable store of organic carbon (OC), containing approximately half of the global soil OC budget, with tundra, taiga and terrestrial ice complexes containing approximately twice as much carbon as the atmospheric carbon pool. The vast amount of soil OC currently freeze-locked in the permafrost is vulnerable to global warming and can be remobilised through permafrost thawing, increased river runoff and coastal erosion. The Arctic region is warming twice as fast if compared to other parts of the world indicating that both the flux and nature of remobilised terrestrial OC is projected to change in the coming decades. Indeed, in parts of the Eurasian Arctic region, global warming caused an increase in permafrost temperatures of up to 2 °C between 1971 – 2010 and up to 7 % increase in discharge rates of the main Eurasian rivers. Coupled warming and increased discharge is releasing ‘old’ carbon from thawing permafrost, previously stored for thousands of years. However, study in this area has been restricted, and the fate of terrestrial OC liberated by permafrost thawing is still a matter of debate.
In his lecture Dr. van Dongen will discuss the latest advance in our understanding of the export and deposition/degradation of terrestrial OC in the Arctic region. He will focus on the OC transported from the easternmost Great Russian Arctic Rivers (Lena, Indigirka and Kolyma) and coastal erosion to the East Siberian Arctic Shelf.
Recommended background publication on this presentation:
Sparkes, R. B., Do˘grul Selver, A., Bischoff, J., Talbot, H. M., Gustafsson, Ö., Semiletov, I. P., Dudarev, O. V., and van Dongen, B. E.: GDGT distributions on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf: implications for organic carbon export, burial and degradation. Biogeosciences, 12, 3753–3768, (2015). Doi:10.5194/bg-12-3753-2015.