Drs. Frida Keuper
- E-mail:f.keuper@vu.nl
- Unit:faculteit der aard- en levenswetenschappen (subafdeling systeemecologie)
f: +31-20-5987123
Introduction
Frida Keuper is a PhD student at the Department of Systems Ecology and investigates the impact of melting permafrost on dry tundra vegetation in subarctic ecosystems. Her projects focus on changes in nutrient availability, water availability and active layer depth due to thawing permafrost and on how such changes might affect overall vegetation characteristics.
During the growing season she works mainly in the Abisko area (Sweden), but part of her research is situated in the Kytalyk Reserve (Siberia) and during the rest of the year you might find her in the greenhouse of the VU Hortus Botanicus.
This is one out of four projects that together form the project ‘Biogeological feedbacks between temperature change, hydrology, vegetation change, and the carbon cycle at high latitudes’ which is funded by the Darwin Center for Biogeology and the VU Amsterdam.
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Prior to working at the department of Systems Ecology, Frida finished an MSc in Biology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) and participated in the MSc course ‘Environment and Resource Management’ of the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM). During her MSc she served an internship at the department of Plant-Animal Interactions of the Centre for Limnology (NIOO-KNAW) in Nieuwersluis.
Projects
Is dry tundra vegetation water inhibited?
How does increased winter snow affect overall vegetation characteristics?
Will permafrost melting increase nutrient availability in northern ecosystems?
What will be the response of dry tundra vegetation to increased nutrient availability at the thaw front?
Approach:
a) A water addition experiment is performed in the Abisko area and the Kytalyk reserve;
b) Vegetation responses to snow addition in Open Top Chambers (Abisko) are monitored;
c) Soil samples from superficial and currently frozen deeper layers are analysed on available nutrient content. Samples are taken from the Abisko area and analysed by means of KCl extractions and phyto assays with both Poa alpina and Betula nana as testplants;
d) Vegetation responses to fertilization in deeper soil layers of a dry peat bog are monitored.
Additional activities
Newsletter officer of the Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN)
Links
PYRN website
Abisko Reseach Station
Darwin Center for Biogeology
Frans-Jan Parmentier (Darwin project)
Daan Blok (Darwin project)
NIOO-KNAW hompage
Prof Dr Rien Aerts
Dr Ellen Dorrepaal
Dr Peter van Bodegom
last updated April 1, 2008
