Draining peat causes high CO₂ emissions, and rewetting could potentially help solve this problem. In the dry year 2020 we measured that subsurface irrigation reduced CO₂ emissions by 28 % and 83 % on two research sites. We modelled a peat parcel and found that the reduction depends on seepage and weather conditions and increases when using pressurized irrigation or maintaining high ditchwater levels. We found that soil temperature and moisture are suitable as indicators of peat CO₂ emissions.

An integrated monitoring approach has developed for the Ob river. The novelty is in transition to high-performance computing under processing of remote sensing data for the Gulf of the Kara Sea the Ob Bay and modeling of aquatic ecosystem degradation. The long-term trend in the development for the ecosystem of the Novosibirsk reservoir in the Ob river basin are explained by the structural-dynamic modeling.

Earth system models (ESMs) are our main tools for understanding future climate. The Arctic is important for the future carbon cycle, particularly due to the large carbon stocks in permafrost. We evaluated the performance of the land component of three major ESMs at Arctic tundra sites, focusing on the fluxes and stocks of carbon. We show that the next steps for model improvement are to better represent vegetation dynamics, to include mosses and to improve below-ground carbon cycle processes.

Changes in tundra vegetation structure may amplify Arctic climate warming. Our simulations with a new tundra vegetation model suggest that precipitation increases favour grass abundance, whereas warming favours shrub dominance. However, abrupt permafrost thaw initiating wetland formation leads to grass dominance. Our simulations show that a wetter tundra, due to increased precipitation or abrupt permafrost thaw, could result in local shrub decline instead of the widely expected shrub expansion.

To identify site specific differences in CO2-related processes in open peatlands, we calibrated a process oriented model to fit to detailed measurements of carbon fluxes and compared the resulting parameter ranges between the sites. For most processes a common configuration could be applied. Site specific differences were identified for soil respiration coefficients, plant radiation-use efficiencies and plant storage fractions for spring regrowth.