Landscape-Interactions
The arctic ecological system
includes the interactions
among land, freshwaters, and
the atmosphere. The dominant
forms of interaction between
ecosystems are the flux of
materials and the flux of
energy through climate
forcing. For example, carbon
moves from land to water and
from water to the
atmosphere, while the land
and atmosphere exchange
carbon in both directions.
It appears that the
land-atmosphere connection
is governed by soil
moisture, landscape age and
geological substrate, and
vegetation. Differences in
parent material and soil age
result in landscapes with
varying soil pH and
vegetation composition,
identified in the Arctic as
acidic, nonacidic, and shrub
tundra. The acidic and
nonacidic landscapes appear
to have very different
energy and carbon fluxes,
and we know little about the
shrub tundra. The land-water
connection appears to be
governed by belowground
processes such as
decomposition and the
production rates of
dissolved carbon species,
quality of the carbon
produced, and soil water
movement as driven by
hydrological processes.
Finally, the
water-atmosphere connection
is driven by the spatial
extent of water, carbon
loading from land, and by
the meteorological forcing
of precipitation, net
radiation, and wind.
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Description of
the research
design and sites.
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Access to metadata and data files.
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Landscape Interaction protocols and
methods.
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Maps and photos of the
sites.
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