Concept information
Preferred term
MERGE
Definition
- MERGE is an umbrella program that aims to understand the responses of terrestrial, limnetic and supraglacial polar ecosystems to climate change. Theme 1: Diversity and biogeography answers "What taxa are present, how are the communities organized and how are they distributed, and where are they?" Conventional and modern techniques, i.e., culture-dependent to meta-genomic approaches will be used to analyze community structure and biogeography of Polar terrestrial, limnetic and supraglacial ecosystems. Addressing this theme will produce reference collections of Polar organisms and genetic material such as bulk environmental DNA. Selected groups of organisms will be studied to associate species diversification with geographical separation, and to screen for unique physiological and biochemical functions that occur in response to the extreme conditions of polar habitats. Theme 2: Food webs and ecosystem evolution will answer the question "How do high-latitude biota interact and function?" Food webs in polar habitats have reduced complexity relative to lower latitudes and are thus likely to be sensitive to changes in species composition. Food web analyses have also highlighted the vulnerability of polar terrestrial ecosystems to climate changes. Palaeo-environmental analysis of diatoms, chemical biomarkers and other records in lake sediment cores have the potential to reveal how climate and environmental changes have driven species successions and ecosystem evolution. Process studies will include analysis of microbial production and interactions, in addition to carbon and nitrogen cycling including microbial controls on CO2 and CH4 dynamics. Theme 3: Linkages between biological, chemical and physical processes in the supraglacial biome lucidates "How do physical, chemical and biological processes interact in icy ecosystems?" Supraglacial habitats include water-saturated snow, supraglacial channels, cryoconite holes and veins in ice. Biogeochemical processes in these environments transform atmospheric inputs to the glacier, in a similar way that watershed surfaces modify atmospheric inputs in temperate environments. This work will document the range and nature of aquatic ecosystems on the surfaces of glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic. In doing so controls on biological productivity (physical, chemical, biological); key biogeochemical transformations; and linkages between biological activity and atmospheric fluxes of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus to glacial surfaces will be characterised. Some complementary studies will also be undertaken on ice shelf cryo-ecosystems that occur in both polar regions and that have some microbiological similarities to cryoconite systems. The major purpose of the MERGE umbrella is to provide and expand the chances for sharing/exchanging/offering data, samples, logistics, expedition opportunities, field facilities, laboratories, analytical instruments, etc between the research themes. MERGE contributes to the EBA SCAR programme. (en)
Broader concept
- M - O (en)
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/004d93e3-1a3b-4308-9917-d522e822f1d3
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