CALM SITE U32A |
SAGWON HILLS MNT |
Site code |
U32A |
Site name |
Sagwon
Hills MNT |
CAPS I Metadata form |
NA |
CAPS II Metadata form |
NA |
Responsible for data submission |
Nikolay
Shiklomanov |
Email Address |
Shiklom”-at-“gwu.edu |
Institution/Organization |
GWU |
Location description |
Arctic Alaska |
Location Lat. |
69 deg.
26.46 min. N |
Location Lon. |
148 deg.
40.22 min. W |
Elevation avg. (m) |
269 |
Methods Grid |
100 |
Methods Other |
Air temperature, Soil surface temperature |
Landscape Description |
Foothills
tundra and prostrate-dwarf-shrub. Hill, gentle northwest-facing slope (4
degrees) with nonsorted circles |
Vegetation /Classification |
Moist
nonacidic tundra |
Soils (or Material) |
Pergelic Cryaquolls
(43%), P. Cryaquepts (18%), P. Cryoborolls
(14%), others (25%). |
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: 9 +/- 1.2 cm.
Soil texture - silt |
DESCRIPTION OF AREA CONTAINING SITE:
Hill, gentle northwest-facing slope
(4 degrees) with nonsorted circles; moist nonacidic
tundra.
Vegetation communities: (1)
Vegetated nonsorted circles: Moist Eriophorum triste, E. vaginatum, Dryas integrifolia, Hylocomium splendens, Racomitrium lanuginosum, Thamnolia subuliformis graminoid,
prostrate-shrub tundra. (2) Barren nonsorted circles:
Dry Saxifraga oppositifolia,
Juncus biglumis, Ochrolechia frigida forb, crustose-lichen barren (3) Areas between nonsorted circles: Moist Dryas integrifolia, Salix reticulata, Eriophorum triste, Tomentypnum nitens, prostrate-shrub,
graminoid, moss tundra. Cover of top 5 species: Carex bigelowii (20%), Dryas integrifolia (14%), Eriophorum triste (14%), Hylocomium splendens (10%), Eriophorum vaginatum (9%)
Mean vegetation height: 3.9 +/- 4.6
cm
Mean live moss layer thickness: 2.1
+/-1.4 cm
Organic layer thickness: 9 +/- 1.2
cm.
(Walker and Bockheim,
1995)
SOIL DESCRIPTION:
(predominant texture, i.e., ‘sand’, ‘gravel’,
‘peat’, etc.): Pergelic Cryaquolls (43%), P. Cryaquepts
(18%), P. Cryoborolls (14%), others (25%).
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 the
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.
The
soil climate station (Sagwon1) was established in June of 1996 and is located
0.5 miles west of the Haul road (Dalton Hwy.) in the Sagwon
hills within the CALM U32A site. The elevation is about 244 m (800 ft). This
station monitors air temperature, soil temperature at various depths to a
maximum of 70 cm, and soil water contents at 10, 25, and 40 cm depths.
Measurements are made at 20-minute intervals and averaged and recorded every
hour.
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
Soil temperature and soil moisture metadata and data are
also available at http://soils.usda.gov/survey/scan/alaska/Sagwon1/