Summer 2002 field report for Webber et al,
Arctic Ecology Laboratory,
http://www.cevl.msu.edu/ael/
Grant Support:
Personnel:
Supported Visiting Researchers (Field based):
General remarks
The summer field season of 2002 was highly successful for the Arctic Ecology Laboratory (AEL) and we would like to thank BASC and VECO for their logistic support, UNAVCO for excellent on and off site DGPS technical support and all of the volunteers who helped with processing biomass samples from the herbivory resampling effort. Field work began on May 2nd, ended on August 26th and included 842 user days.
Projects:
1. Response of tundra vegetation to variation in temperature (ITEX):
ITEX plot warming experiments have been maintained in wet and dry land cover classes in Barrow since 1994 (the Barrow wet site was established in 1995) and in Atqasuk since 1996. Since 2001 the data collection component of the project has been greatly reduced. The current emphasis is integration of the project with FAV, the North American Tundra Experiment (NATEX) and various synthesis efforts. The ITEX experimental manipulation and infrastructure is being maintained to address long-term plant community changes. This summer we continued the ITEX open-top chamber passive warming treatment, maintained data logger instrumentation, end of season active layer depths and plot based CO2 flux and hyperspectral measurements in collaboration with Oberbauer and Gamon and Huemmerich respectively (see below). PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) sensors were added to automatic weather stations this summer.
1.1. Plot-level CO2 flux
Plot based CO2 flux measurements have been performed at our ITEX sites since 2000 as part of our NATEX collaboration with Oberbauer. This year, diurnal CO2 flux measurements were made every week in Barrow (11 total) and every other week in Atqasuk (5 total). Kuchy was primarily responsible for the data collection and was assisted by Bronson, Van Dalen and Tweedie. See Oberbauer’s 2002 field report for more information.
2. Forecasting arctic vegetation: The interaction between surface
disturbance and climate change (FAV):
The FAV project is investigating
the impact and response of surface disturbance and climate change on Arctic
tundra. A significant portion of this project has involved resampling
former research plots such as those established during the International
Biological Program (IBP) at Barrow. Sites resampled
to date include Webber’s IBP floristic plots, IBP site 4 topographic and microtopographic grids, Webber floristic plots established
during the Research in Arctic Terrestrial Ecosystems (RATE) Program in Atqasuk, and the Viereck, Johnson
and Brown sites at the
2.1. Herbivory exclosures
This summer we resampled a range of herbivory exclosures in the Barrow
area in collaboration with Shaver. These included those established by Pitelka
and Thompson, which date back to the early 1950’s. Of the 60 exclosures
relocated, 27 appear to be intact as evidenced by the physical state of the exclosures and lack of mammal fecal material inside the
exclosures. We believe that these may be the oldest herbivory exclosures in the
2.2. Land cover mapping
An accuracy assessment of a supervised land cover classification of the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) area derived from IKONOS imagery acquired in 2000 was also performed this summer. Most of the data was collected by Bronson who was assisted by Serbin, Anderson, Van Dalen, Kuchy and Tweedie. Approximately 750 locations were derived randomly across the BEO area and visited using a real time kinematic DGPS survey technique. Most locations were visited twice over the summer to further understand seasonal active layer progression. Information recorded at each site included three land cover classifications (IKONOS in prep, USGS NPRA BLM 1988, Batty and Webber 1973), topographic position, degree of polygonization (sensu Drew 1956), size of polygons, scales of greenness and surface roughness, soil type (sensu Drew 1956), soil moisture and pH, dominant vascular plant species, and total cover of bare ground, vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and standing dead plant matter.
3. Joint ITEX and FAV Activities:
3.1. Hyperspectral
remote sensing
This summer we expanded our collaboration with Gamon and Huemmrich, who conduct plot and low altitude hyperspectral remote sensing in the Barrow and Atqasuk area. Van Dalen collected most of the data and was assisted by Kuchy, Bronson, Anderson and Tweedie. Gamon, Huemmrich and Schwyzer visited throughout the summer period. Weekly measurements (every other week in Atqasuk) were made on ITEX flux plots in Barrow and Atqasuk, adjacent to the GCRG/SDSU (Global Change Research Group at San Diego State University) tower near CMDL (Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory – NOAA) and NIAES (National Institute of Agro Environmental Sciences) -GCRG/SDSU tower in Central Marsh and along Gamon and Huemmrich’s 100m tram line. The latter has been monitored for the past 3 years. One-time measurements were also made at Bigfoot MODIS (http://www.fsl.orst.edu/larse/bigfoot/index.html) primary productivity validation plots prior to being harvested and various land cover types to facilitate analysis of satellite imagery.
4. BASC Subcontracts:
4.1. Management of the Real Time DGPS
facility at Barrow
Tweedie arrived in Barrow on May 2nd and helped Bjorn Johns and Shad O’Neel of UNAVCO with the installation and testing of the new Trimble 5700 real time Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) at BASC. Installation was complete by May 14. Testing included a snow-machine trip to Atqasuk, conducting post-corrected sampling for multiple time periods at multiple locations to assess the accuracy of the DGPS away from the Barrow area. Full details of the DGPS facility are located on the UNAVCO web site at http://www.unavco.ucar.edu/project_support/polar/barrow/barrow.html. In June, Tweedie trained Serbin on the use of the DGPS. Serbin managed the DGPS facility for BASC until late August providing DGPS support to projects (funding agencies included NSF, NASA, DOE, NOAA, North Slope Borough, and BASC). Over 70 separate jobs and 2700 locations were recorded throughout the summer. Equipment usage, survey styles, base station data, post processed reports, job details, job contact information etc were archived in a relational database to facilitate future development of the DGPS facility and management of the data and equipment.
4.2. Barrow Area Information Database (BAID)
We have been developing a Barrow Area Information Database
(BAID) for the past three summers. Until this year this development has largely
been on a voluntary basis. This year BASC provided support by way of a
subcontract, which together with the new DGPS facility at Barrow greatly
facilitated the expansion of the BAID. This project was managed by
BAID has four components:
1. Barrow Area Research Database:
-Project
Information (>60 records)
-Researcher
Information (>70 records)
-Research
sites (>2000 records)
-Bibliography
(>900 records, and includes references for Atqasuk)
-Help
and syntax files
2. Atqasuk Area Research
Database:
-Project
Information (>30 records)
-Researcher
Information (same as for Barrow)
-Research
sites (>200 records)
-Help
and syntax files
3. Barrow Remote Sensing
Database:
-Aerial
Photograph Archive (>300 records)
-Help
and syntax files
4. Barrow Ground Control Point
Database:
-Ground
control Point Library (>150 records)
-Help
and syntax files
4.3. Ground Control for Remote Sensing
Imagery
In collaboration with Bill Manley
and Jim Maslanik at the