Earth’s Cryosphere, 2017, Vol. XXI, No. 1, p. 52-59

ASSESSMENT OF THE POSSIBLE DYNAMICS OF ORGANIC MATTER IN SOIL IN ANTARCTICA UNDER CONDITIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE USING THE ROMUL MATHEMATICAL MODEL

M.A. Nadporozhskaya1, E.V. Abakumov1, Yu.S.Khoras’kina2, S.S. Bykhovets2,
V.N. Shanin2, A.S. Komarov2

1 St. Petersburg State University, 7/9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia; m.nadporozhskaya@spbu.ru
2 Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, RAS,
2, Institutskaya str., Pushchino, Moscow region, 142290, Russia

The basic approaches to modeling the dynamics of organic matter of two typical soils of Antarctica, litozem and petrozem, with steady-state climatic characteristics and with the warming gradient of 1.6 °C over 40 years have been described. The key areas are located on King George Island, part of the South Shetland Islands, in Western Antarctica. Computational experiments have been carried out using the ROMUL mathematical model of the dynamics of soil organic matter. It has been demonstrated that the increase of the carbon dioxide flow is insignificant both at present and under conditions of further possible warming. It has been pointed out that there is shortage of field data and certain problems in computational experiments due to the lack of the block of material removal from the soil profile in the model. An attempt to compare the results of computational experiments and measurements in natural conditions for carbon dioxide flows has been made.

Cryogenic ecosystem, petrozem, litozem, Antarctica, mathematical models

DOI: 10.21782/EC2541-9994-2017-1(52-59)