Project MOMENTplus

Permafrost regions are a central element of our climate system. The soils in these regions store large amounts of organic matter, most of which has so far been preserved in permanently frozen ground, the so‑called permafrost soil.

When permafrost thaws, both the vegetation and key biological and chemical processes in the soil change. These changes affect the release and uptake of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O), whose interactions are crucial for future climate projections. However, there are still major uncertainties about how the processes that produce these greenhouse gases will develop in the coming decades.

This is where the MOMENTplus project comes in. Building on the predecessor project MOMENT, the interactions between vegetation, microorganisms, and soil properties will be comprehensively investigated for all three greenhouse gases for the first time. New studies suggest that increased vegetation productivity can release additional CO₂ emissions from thawing soils. At the same time, changes in soil water and vegetation can cause the reduction of one greenhouse gas to intensify the emission of another. Initial measurements in western Greenland, for example, show that dry tundra areas absorb methane but release small amounts of N₂O, while moist sites exhibit high methane emissions.

MOMENTplus will use modern field measurements, laboratory studies, and modeling to better understand these complex interactions and scale them up to the landscape level. A particular focus is on the previously little‑studied CO₂ and N₂O fluxes and their high temporal variability. The new insights will then be integrated into the global vegetation and soil model ICON‑Land to enable more realistic predictions of future greenhouse gas budgets.

Through close international collaboration, the use of unique long‑term datasets, and the training of young researchers, MOMENTplus will make an important contribution to reducing uncertainties in climate projections and significantly expanding our understanding of Arctic ecosystems.

The overarching goal is to reduce uncertainties in future greenhouse gas projections.
MOMENTplus will determine a complete greenhouse gas budget for the three most important greenhouse gases in Arctic ecosystems in order to understand the coupling of biogeochemical processes in permafrost regions affected by climate change. The insights gained will be implemented in Earth system models to enable reliable projections of future greenhouse gas fluxes in permafrost‑influenced ecosystems.

The field research on greenhouse gas fluxes takes place in Kuup Ilua, north of Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island, Greenland:

MOMENTplus is divided into four sub-projects:

• Subproject 1: Process studies on the influence of vegetation, microbial communities and soil properties on carbon storage and greenhouse gas fluxes in a changing Arctic
• Subproject 2: Greenhouse gas monitoring and upscaling
• Subproject 3: Recent and future arctic greenhouse gas balance
• Subproject 4: Scientific-technical coordination

Research institutions involved

Several German research institutions are working together on the MOMENTplus project:

• University of Hamburg
• German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam
• Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry,  Jena
• Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg
• Leibniz Universität Hannover
• University of Cologne

Partner projects

• University of Hamburg
  • associated to the CEN (Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability) 
  • close cooperation with the team of project A1 (Carbon Dynamics in the Arctic) of the Cluster of Excellence CLICCS, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
• Leibniz Universität Hannover
  • close cooperation with German-Czech (DFG-GAČR) cooperation project CryoVulcan (Vulnerability of carbon in Cryosols - substrate-microorganisms-aggregate interactions
• Alfred-Wegener-Institut
  • close cooperation with the research taking place on Greenland within the permafrost projects of the Technical University of Denmark under the leadership of Thomas Ingeman-Nielsen.
  • close cooperation with the ERC-fundet research group COLDSPOT under the leadership of Carolina Voigt.
  • close cooperation with the Schmidt Sciences-fundet project PeTCaT under the leadership of Guido Grosse.
• Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology
  • close cooperation with the partner projects ERC Q-ARCTIC and EU ESM2025.