I had problems copying this 2-page article from Der Spiegel. Url for the slide gallery is
http://tinyurl.com/28jjvb

~Maria

Researchers Explore Siberia's Role in Climate Change

By Gerald Traufetter
German researchers have constructed a massive tower deep in the Siberian wilderness where, under the watchful eyes of the Russian intelligence service, the scientists are measuring levels of environmental toxins and greenhouse gases. Their goal is to determine if the forests are helping to slow global warming or if they are heating up the planet even further.

From the top of the 300-meter steel tower, the surrounding countryside is a sea of green, stretching to the horizon in every direction. The uniform carpet of treetops is uninterrupted by roads or cities, with not even a single house in sight. The tower itself juts out of this vast carpet of green emptiness like a beacon. The red-and-white painted structure -- 120 tons of steel welded together, piece by piece -- is held in place by long wire cables.

PHOTO GALLERY: EUROPE'S GREEN LUNGS

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Ernst-Detlef Schulze, 65, is panting by the time he sets foot on the triangular platform at the top. He takes a quick, vertigo-inducing look down at the ground, snaps his safety belt to a metal ring and complains about a pain he has been having in his right knee for the past few day

But no orthopedist could stop Schulze from climbing up the tower's narrow ladder. The structure is the crowning achievement of his scientific career, and the culmination of 30 years of grueling work in a country where a Western academic like Schulze is viewed primarily as a potential spy.

"The tower is in fact something like a listening post," Schulze whispers conspiratorially into the wind. Indeed, it could more aptly be described as a sniffing tower for various gases: oxygen, carbon dioxide, aerosols, nitrous oxide, methane and carbon monoxide. "The instruments measure the breath of the taiga," says Schulze, referring to the moist, subarctic forest that begins where the tundra ends.

To christen the unusual measuring tower Schulze, an ecologist with the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in the eastern German city of Jena, brought an illustrious collection of directors of other Max Planck Institutes, young researchers and forestry experts to Siberia. The group spent one week trekking through the surrounding forests, swamps and steppes.
Victims, Perpetrators or Saviors?

The draw for the scientists was a question that Schulze has made it his life's mission to answer: What role do Eurasia's giant boreal regions, home to the largest contiguous stretch of forested land on earth, play in climate change? To this day, Siberia's enormous primeval forests remain one of the greatest mysteries in greenhouse research. "They could be victims, perpetrators or saviors," says Schulze.

The vegetation could suffer under rising temperatures, making the forests victims. They could be perpetrators because the soil in the region, which is 27 times the size of Germany, has the potential to emit massive quantities of greenhouse gases in the future and they could be saviors because the trees and bushes store large amounts of the gas emitted in the burning of fossil fuels in their branches, needles and trunks. "We hope to be able to answer this question with the help of this tower," says Schulze.

posted to ClimateConcern


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