Alpine and subarctic environments encounter many changes in landscape, induced by government policies, land use and climate changes.  This includes restoration efforts of the Icelandic government towards more vegetated and bushy areas, shrub encroachment by green alder due to land abandonment in the Swiss Alps as well as the natural potential of shrub encroachment induced by the contemporary climate change in southwest Greenland. A key issue of this project is to assess the effect of vegetation change has on carbon sequestration, accumulation and quality of carbon in the soils of the mentioned high dynamic environments chronologically by the analysis of different aged vegetation unities. Beside the effect of vegetation change on carbon sequestration the change of other soil properties, which influence slope stability or SOC storage capacity, as well as limiting parameters, which hamper the spreading of vegetation, are analyzed.