CALM SITE U11C

IMNAVAIT CREEK MAT

Site code

U11C

Site name

Imnavait Creek MAT

CAPS I Metadata form

NA

CAPS II Metadata form

NA

Site Photograph

Data

Responsible for data submission

Nikolay Shiklomanov

Email Address

shiklom”-at-“gwu.edu

Institution/Organization

GWU

Location description

Arctic Alaska

Location Lat.

68.611 N

Location Lon.

149.309 W

Elevation avg. (m)

938

Methods Grid

100

Methods Other

Air temperature, Soil surface temperature

Landscape Description

Glaciated foothills

Vegetation /Classification

Moist acidic tundra

Soils (or Material)

Pergelic Cryaquepts (82%), Histic Pergelic Cryaquepts (18%).

Thaw depth measurements (year started)               

1995

Air temp. measurements (year started)

1995

Snow cover measurements (year started)

NA

soil temp. measurements (year started)

1995 (soil surface only)

soil moisture measurements (year started)

NA

general description of soil moisture (dry, moist, wet, saturated)

Moist

soil texture: if non organic describe texture, if organic indicate thickness of organic layer (cm)

Organic layer thickness: 15 + 1.9 cm.  Soil texture - silt

 

DESCRIPTION OF AREA CONTAINING SITE:

U11C 1-ha grid located within middle part of the U11A 1-km grid. It occupies Lower hilislope (15 degrees west-facing) above U11B 1-ha grid.

Site description: Lower hilislope (15 degrees west-facing) with water tracks, scattered glacial erratics and nonsorted circles, moist acidic tundra, shrublands in water tracks. Vegetation communities: Inter-water-track areas: (1) Moist Eriophorum vaginatum, Ledum decumbens, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Sphagnum girgensohnii tussock-graminoid, dwarf-shrub tundra. (2) Water tracks: Wet Salix pulchra, Rubus chamaemorus, Sphagnum angustifolium low-shrub tundra, and moist Betula nana, Rubus chamaemorus, Sphagnum spp. dwarf-shrub tundra. Cover of top 5 species: Eriophorum vaginatum (12%), Betula nana (11%), Vaccinium vitis-idaea (9%), Carex bigelowii (8%), Ledum decumbens (6%).

 Mean vegetation height: 3.6 +/- 3.6 cm

Mean live moss layer thickness: 2.5 +/- 1.1 cm

Organic layer thickness: 15 + 1.9 cm.

(Walker and Bockheim, 1995)

 

SOIL DESCRIPTION: (predominant texture, i.e., ‘sand’, ‘gravel’, ‘peat’, etc.): Pergelic Cryaquepts (82%), Histic Pergelic Cryaquepts (18%).

 

SAMPLING DESIGN AND METHOD:

Beginning in 1995, the active layer has been probed at least annually at the site. The procedure involves pushing a metal rod, calibrated in cm, to the point of refusal, interpreted in most cases to be the frost table. Thaw depth measurements at each site were obtained by probing at 5 m intervals along the plot’s two perpendicular and one diagonal transect, resulting in 71 points per plot per probing date.

 

In 1995 the site was instrumented with several OnsetTM portable data loggers connected to probe-type thermistors. Each logger/thermistor system has an effective temperature range of -50oC to +33oC and resolution of approximately 0.32oC. At each site, one thermistor was placed in a radiation shield approximately 2 m above the ground surface, and nine loggers were placed at the interface between mineral soil and organic material in various microtopographic positions within the site. Temperature measurements were collected at, 1 hr, and 2 hr intervals depending on season, and year. Details on methodology are provided in Klene et. al 2001.

 

REFERENCES:

 

Walker, D. A., and J. G. Bockheim, Site selection for the portable flux towers, ARCSS/LAII/Flux Study, 13–16 June 1995, Summary of field activities, Land-Atmos.-Ice Interact. Sci. Manage. Off., Geophys. Inst.,Univ. of Alaska-Fairbanks, 1995.

 

Shiklomanov, N.I. and F.E. Nelson. 2003 Climatic variability in the Kuparuk region, north-central Alaska: optimizating spatial and temporal interpolation in a sparse observation network. Arctic, 56: 136-146.

 

Shiklomanov, N.I. and F.E. Nelson. 2003 Statistical representation of landscape-specific active-layer variability. In Phillips, M., Springman, S. M., and Arenson, L. U. (eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Permafrost, vol. 2. Lisse: A.A. Balkema, 1039-1044.

 

Walker D.A., Jia G.J., Epstein H.E., Raynolds M.K., Chapin III F.S., Copass C., Hinzman L.D., Kane D., Knudson J.A., Maier H., Michaelson G.J., Nelson F.E., Ping C.L., Shiklomanov N.I., Romanovsky V.E., Shur Y.  2003 Vegetation-soil-thaw-depth relationships along a Low Arctic bioclimatic gradient, Alaska: Synthesis of information from the Atlas studies. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 14: 103-123.

 

Shiklomanov N. I. and F. E. Nelson, F. E., 2002. Active-layer mapping at regional scales: a 13-year spatial time series for the Kuparuk region, north-central Alaska. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 13: 219-230.

 

Klene A.E., Nelson F.E., and N.I. Shiklomanov. 2001   The n-factor as a tool in geocryological mapping: seasonal thaw in the Kuparuk River Basin, Alaska.  Physical Geography, 22(6): 449-466.

 

Klene A.E., Nelson F.E., Shiklomanov N.I., and K.M. Hinkel. 2001   The n-factor in natural landscapes: Variability of air and soil-surface temperatures, Kuparuk River basin, Alaska.  Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research, 33(2): 140-148.

 

Nelson, F.E., Shiklomanov, N.I., and G.R. Mueller. Variability of active-layer thickness at multiple spatial scales, north-central Alaska, USA. 1999   Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 31(2): 179-186.

 

Shiklomanov, N.I. and F.E. Nelson. Analytic representation of the active layer thickness field, Kuparuk River basin, Alaska. 1999 Ecological Modelling, 123: 105-125.

 

Bockheim, J.G., Walker, D.A., Everett, L.R., Nelson, F.E. and N.I. Shiklomanov. 1998 .  Soils and cryoturbation in moist nonacidic and acidic tundra in the Kuparuk River basin, Arctic Alaska, USA. Arctic and Alpine Research, 30(2): 166-174.

 

Nelson, F.E., Hinkel, K.M., Shiklomanov, N.I., Mueller, G.R., Miller, L.L., and D.A.

Walker. Active-layer thickness in north central Alaska: systematic sampling, scale, and spatial autocorrelation. 1998    Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 103(D22): 28963-28973.

 

Nelson, F.E., Outcalt, S.I., Brown, J., Shiklomanov, N.I., and K.M. Hinkel. Spatial and temporal attributes of the active-layer thickness record, Barrow, Alaska, USA, 1998   Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Permafrost. Centre de etudes nordiques de l'Universite Laval, Laval, Quebec, Canada, Yellowknife, NWT, Canada, pp. 797-802

 

Walker, D.A., Auerbach, N.A., Bockheim, J.G., Chapin, F.S., Eugster, W., King, J.Y., McFadden, J.P., Michaelson, G.J., Nelson, F.E., Oechel, W.C., Ping, C.L., Reeburg, W.S., Regli, S., Shiklomanov, N.I., and G.L. Vourlitis.1998 Energy and trace-gas fluxes across a soil pH boundary in the arctic. Nature, 394(6692): 469-472.

 

Nelson F.E., Shiklomanov, N.I., Mueller G.R., Hinkel K.M., Walker D.A., and J.G. Bockheim.1997 Estimating active-layer thickness over a large region: Kuparuk River basin, Alaska, USA. Arctic and Alpine Research, 29(4): 167-378.

DATA

 

Site Photos

List of available data

Data Access

 

Additional climate snow and hydrologic data are also available at http://www.uaf.edu/water/projects/NorthSlope/imnavait/imnavait.html