EDI Staging Environment
In this study, we are asking the question: how permafrost degradation may influence foliar mineral element cycling with changing subarctic tundra vegeatation? We are answering this question by using a combination of field measurements (aboveground biomass, foliar biomass, foliar net primary productivity (NPP)) and laboratory measurements (mineral element foliar concentration: Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mn, P, S, Si, and Zn) to evaluate the mineral element foliar stocks and the mineral element foliar fluxes upon annual litterfall. We covered 7 vascular plant species and 2 groups of non-vascular species (mosses and lichens) from an established tundra field site near Healy, Alaska in the foothills of the Alaska Range. Field measurements center on a natural experiment where permafrost has been observed to warm and thaw over the past several decades. This area represents a gradient of sites each with a different degree of change (active layer, water table depth, and vegetation composition) due to permafrost thawing. As such, this area is unique for addressing questions at the time and spatial scales relevant for change in arctic ecosystems. Elemental analyses of plant species typical from a moist acidic tundra, combined with aboveground biomass and NPP measurements, brought key information on the influence of the vegetation composition on the litter elemental composition, and thereby the plant nutrient cycling across the subarctic tundra.
EDI is a collaboration between the University of New Mexico and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Center for Limnology:
