Funding: Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR)
Project period: 2026 - 2029
Cooperations:
Prof. Dr. Christian Beer, PD Dr. Christian Knoblauch, Prof. Dr. Lars Kutzbach - University of Hamburg
Prof. Dr. Janet Rethemeyer - University of Cologne
Prof. Dr. Victor Brovkin - Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
Dr. Mathias Göckede - Max Planck Institute für Biogeochemistry
Prof. Dr. Torsten Sachs - GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences
Prof. Dr. Georg Guggenberger - Leibniz University Hanover
MOMENTplus is the successor project to MOMENT (running from 2022 to 2026). Building on the interdisciplinary characterization of a Greenlandic permafrost landscape established during MOMENT, the project investigates how vegetation, soil microorganisms, and environmental conditions interact to influence greenhouse gas cycling.
The subproject 1, work package 3 (SP1, WP3) of this project will be approached within the GFZ geomicrobiology section and aims at characterizing the active soil microbiome as drivers of the carbon and nitrogen dynamics in permafrost landscapes in conjunction with vegetation. An important extension of MOMENTplus is the explicit inclusion of vegetation as a factor on the soil microbiome. The work at the GFZ Geomicrobiology section focuses on the interactions between hydrology, redox conditions, vegetation type, and root exudates and their influence on the structure, distribution, and metabolic potential of microbial communities. Particular attention is paid to how different types of exudates control microbial carbon flux and the competition or coupling processes between carbon dioxide, methane and laughing gas -producing metabolic pathways. This will be investigated both in the laboratory and in the field. Ultimately, the results will provide important knowledge for Earth system and ecosystem modeling developed by collaborating research institutions.
More information can be found on the official MOMENT and MOMENTplus homepage (https://www.moment-permafrost.uni-hamburg.de/en.html).