The PhD defence and trial lecture will be held in Auditorium 1 in The Geology Building. In some cases, it will be possible to attend the trial lecture and dissertation digitally, in that case a link to Zoom will be posted.
Trial lecture
Friday 14 August, 10:15-11:00, Aud 1, The Geology Building:
The fate of carbon transported by major rivers to the marine realm
Conferral summary (in Norwegian)
Nordlige torvmyrer lagrer store mengder karbon, og noen av dem inneholder permafrost som nå tiner i et varmere klima. I sin avhandling har Jacqueline K. Knutson undersøkt hvordan tining av permafrost endrer landskapet og vannets bevegelser, og hvordan dette påvirker transport og prosessering av løst organisk karbon (DOC) fra torvmyrer til elver. Studien viser at pågående endringer i landskapet og hydrologien er avgjørende for karbonets videre skjebne, og gir ny kunnskap om hvordan karbonkretsløpet på nordlige breddegrader vil påvirkes av klimaendringer.
Main research findings
Popular scientific article about Knutson’s dissertation:
Transport and Processing of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Peatland-Dominated Catchments in Subarctic Scandinavia
Northern peatlands store enormous amounts of carbon, and some contain permafrost that has remained frozen for thousands of years. As the climate warms, this permafrost is thawing, transforming areas with frozen peat plateaus into ponds and wetlands. The change reshapes the landscape and alters the pathways through which water and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) move, and the consequences for northern carbon cycling are not fully understood.
In her doctoral work, Jacqueline K. Knutson has investigated how permafrost thaw, hydrology, and landscape characteristics influence the transport and processing of DOC across northern Scandinavia. By combining detailed field studies at a thawing permafrost peatland in Finnmark with DOC analyses spanning the Tana River basin, Knutson followed the carbon from newly formed thermokarst ponds through streams and rivers to understand how landscape change affects organic carbon movement and fate.
The study shows that thawing permafrost does more than expose previously frozen carbon. It reorganizes the landscape itself, creating new connections between ponds, wetlands, and streams that determine whether DOC is stored, transformed, or transported downstream. The research also demonstrates that peatlands are important sources of organic carbon to northern river networks, both within and beyond areas underlain by permafrost.
These findings improve our understanding of how northern carbon cycling is responding to ongoing climate warming and provide new, basic knowledge for predicting the future of rapidly changing subarctic landscapes.
Photo and other information:
Press photo: Jacqueline Kay Knutson, portrait; 900px. Photo: Private
Other photo material: Photo with description and credit as specified in the article above, size 2000px.
