Looking at the photo, you can see Dr. Amanda Young (US scientist) and Dr. Stine Pedersen (Danish scientist) are collecting soil CO2 that has accumulated over 1.5 months in a molecular sieve trap that can be removed and then be shipped to UC Irvine for 14C aging.
The traps are replaced at intervals allowing us to follow the microbial decomposition of organic matter that is both ancient and modern that diffuses into the atmosphere, even in winter. We then use mixing models to estimate the fractions of ancient C being emitted on successive 90-day intervals. At the same time they are sampling the proportion of ancient C being emitted under deeper snow conditions (25 year ITEX snow manipulation). They have found that in a snowier Arctic, like this winter in Lapland, more and more ancient C is emitted to the modern atmosphere, adding to the rising CO2 concentrations, future warming, future sea ice loss and cascading consequences across the north and beyond. The long soil well heads are tall so that the traps can be accessed as the snow accumulates over the winter.