Mapping of soil organic carbon content in the glacier foreland of midtre lovenbreen, spitsbergen in northern norway

Abstract

Climate change is leading to the rapid melting of glaciers in the Arctic, resulting in the exposure of new soil surfaces. In this proglacial ecosystem, soil organic carbon (SOC), which is essential for the growth of plants and microorganisms, starts accumulating along soil chronosequence. The change in SOC content is also affected by several environmental factors, however, these influences have not (yet) been considered ("investigated" might be better) significantly. Therefore, the aim of this study is to estimate the SOC stock in the glacier foreland with a consideration of soil age and environmental factors such as microtopography, runoff, etc. The study site was the glacier foreland of the Midtre Lovenbreen, Spitsbergen, Norway (79°N, 12°W). Soil samples were collected at 30-cm depth from 36 sampling points, and vegetation was investigated from 93 points. The SOC content and soil texture were analyzed to estimate the SOC stock. Vegetation and SOC data were converted to qualitative data to conduct Multiple Correspondence Factorial Analysis (MCFA) to realize their relationship. Hierarchically classification (Ward criteria) was conducted on the results of MCFA to discriminate sampling points in the study area. Since environmental data profiles were considered as the feature of each class, each pixel of the whole area of the glacier moraine was assigned into the class based on environmental data. Through this procedure, we are going to produce a map of SOC distribution and to estimate the SOC stock in the glacier moraine. This result will provide a good insight into the process of ecosystem development comprehensively including time, microtopography, disturbances, etc. Currently, we are on the way of analyzing data.