The following short report describes the fieldwork conducted in the project Climate warming in Siberian Permafrost Regions: tracing the delivery of carbon and trace metals to the Arctic Ocean – the Lena River Study 2012–2014.

As climate warming affects Siberian ecosystems, including increasing permafrost thawing and changing hydrology patterns, a study of the influences of these changes on carbon and metal transport to the Arctic Ocean has been initiated. In July 2012, we focused on sampling water and suspended particles from the central part of the vast Siberian Lena River watershed. In collaboration with Russian colleagues from Yakutsk and using a small river vessel, we collected samples from 37 stations along the central part of the Lena River and its major tributaries. Water samples and suspended particles were shipped back for laboratory analysis of major solutes, trace elements, carbon content, and isotopic composition.

The aim was to identify the sources of the river water constituents and to provide tracers for identifying changing fluxes from the various sub-basins. Measurement results are now beginning to become available and, in the coming months, a biogeochemical characterization of the Lena River will be presented. A second phase of the project, planned for 2013, will involve fieldwork both at the Lena River’s headwaters and at its mouth where the river drains into the Arctic Ocean.