CALM SITE U15

CHANDALAR SHELF

Site code

U15

Site name

Chandalar Shelf Grid

CAPS I Metadata form

GGD401

CAPS II Metadata form

GGD313U_15

Site Photograph

Data

Responsible for data submission

Vladimir Romanovsky

Email Address

Ffver”-at-“uaf.edu

Institution/Organization

University of Alaska-Fairbanks

Location description

Arctic Alaska

Location Lat.

68 deg. 04 min. N

Location Lon.

149 deg. 35 min. W

Elevation avg. (m)

976

Methods Grid

30

Methods Other

Air Temperature, Soil, Snow cover

Landscape Description

Glaciated mountain terrace

Vegetation /Classification

Alpine meadow with low shrubs

Soils (or Material)

Ruptic-Histic Aquiturbel

Thaw depth measurements (year started)                

1996

Air temp. measurements (year started)

1997

Snow cover measurements (year started)

NA

soil temp. measurements (year started)

1997

soil moisture measurements (year started)

2000

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)

Ruptic-Histic Aquiturbel. Organic layer thickness is 27 cm

 

DESCRIPTION OF AREA CONTAINING SITE:

Broad glaciated mountain valley.  Landcover units include Graminoid-moss tundra and graminoid,  prostrate-dwarf-shrub, moss tundra (wet and moist nonacidic). The site is located at the southern slope of Brooks Range

 

SOIL DESCRIPTION: (predominant texture, i.e., ‘sand’, ‘gravel’, ‘peat’, etc.): Ruptic-Histic Aquiturbel. Organic layer thickness is 27 cm

 

SAMPLING DESIGN AND METHOD:

100-m grid consists of a square array of surveyed permanent stakes separated by 10 m. Sampling was conducted by manual probing at each stake. The active layer was not measured at locations where grid points intersect rocks or large water ponds.

 

REFERENCES:

 

Walker, D. A., H. E. Epstein, W. A. Gould, A. Kade, A.M. Kelley, J. A. Knudson, W. B. Krantz, R. A. Peterson, G. Michaelson, R.A. Peterson, C. L. Ping, M. A. Raynolds, V. E. Romanovsky, Y. Shur, and M.D. Walker, Frost-boil ecosystems: complex interactions between landforms, soils, vegetation, and climate, Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 15: 171-188, 2004.

Sturm, M., Schimel, J., Michelson, G., Welker, J., Oberbauer, S. F., Liston, G. E., Fahnestock, J., and V. E. Romanovsky, Are winter biological processes important in converting arctic tundra to shrubland?, BioScience, Vol. 55, No. 1: 17   26, 2005.

Shimel, J. P., Fahnstock, J., Michaelson, G. J., Mican, C., Ping, C., Romanovsky, V. E. and J. Welker, A microbial activity based model of winter CO2 fluxes in Arctic tundra communities, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research,Vol. 38, No. 2, 249-256, 2006.

Kade, A., Romanovsky, V. E. and D. A. Walker, The N-factor of nonsorted circles along a climate gradient in Arctic Alaska, Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 17: 279-289, 2006.

Nicolsky, D. J., Romanovsky, V. E., Alexeev, V. A. and D. M. Lawrence, Improved modeling of permafrost dynamics in Alaska with CLM3, Geophysical Research Letters, VOL. 34, L08501, doi:10.1029/2007GL029525, 2007.

Nicolsky, D. J., Romanovsky, V.E., and G. S.Tipenko, Using in-situ temperature measurements to estimate saturated soil thermal properties by solving a sequence of optimization problems, The Cryosphere, 1, 41 58, 2007.

Brown, J. and V. E. Romanovsky, Report from the International Permafrost Association: State of Permafrost in the First Decade of the 21st Century, Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 19: 255 260, 2008.

Nicolsky, D. J., Romanovsky, V.E., Tipenko, G. S., and D. A. Walker, Modeling biogeophysical interactions in non-sorted circles in the Low Arctic, Journal of Geophysical Research, in press

Walker, D.A., H.E. Epstein, V.E. Romanovsky, C.L. Ping, G.J. Michaelson, R.P. Daanen, Y. Shur, R.A. Peterson, W.B. Krantz, M.K. Raynolds, W.A. Gould,

G. Gonzalez, D.J. Nicolsky, C.M. Vonlanthen, A.N. Kade, P. Kuss, A.M. Kelley, C.A. Munger, C.T. Tarnocai, N.V. Matveyeva, and F.J.A. DaniКls, Arctic patterned-ground ecosystems: a synthesis of studies along a north American arctic transect, Journal of Geophysical Research, in press

Nicolsky, D. J., Tipenko, G. S., Romanovsky, V. E. and D. A. Walker, Modeling Observed Differential Frost Heave within Non-Sorted Circles in Alaska, In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, June 29-July 3, Fairbanks, Alaska, 2008, in press

Romanovsky, V. E., Marchenko, S. S., Daanen, R., Nicolsky, D. J., Sergeev, D. O., and D. A. Walker, Soil climate and frost heave along the Permafrost/Ecological North American Arctic Transect, In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, June 29-July 3, Fairbanks, Alaska, 2008, in press

DATA

Only thaw depth data determined by mechanical probing is reported on CALM website. For additional data refer to http://www.gi.alaska.edu/snowice/Permafrost-lab/index.html or contact site investigators directly

Site Photos

Data Access