ITEX: Canopy structure and CO2 exchange of arctic ecosystems.
RESEARCH SITES
Field research sites will be at
Toolik Field Station and
nearby Imnavait Creek in northern Alaska, at the
Barrow Arctic Science
Consortium in Barrow, Alaska , at the
Northeast Science Station, Cherskii, Russia, and at
Thule, Greenland. At all
sites a primary goal will be to expand the range of vegetation types included in
our data base on canopy structure (especially LAI and N content), CO2 fluxes,
and production biomass relationships, by surveying a wide range of systems
dominated by different plant forms. At Toolik Lake we will focus on trajectories
of change, working in longterm experimental plots of the Arctic LTER project
based there . At Imnavait Creek, Cherskii, and Barrow we will also work on
upscaling our results, by systematic sampling of different patches of vegetation
in the footprints of established eddy covariance flux towers.
As in the past several summers, we will work at Toolik Lake and nearby
Imnavait Creek all summer long for all three years, taking a smaller crew on 3-6
week expeditions to the other sites in mid-summer (to Barrow in year 1, to
Cherskii in Year 2, and to Thule and/or northern Canada in Year 3). All
sites have well-established, well-described research areas in diverse vegetation
types within walking or driving distance of the labs.
