DATA REPORT BIOCOMPLEXITY OF FROST-BOIL ECOSYSTEMS July 2003 Banks Island Expedition Vegetation, Biomass, NDVI, Soil, Thaw layer, Invertebrates, Decomposition, Biogeochemistry, and Turf-hummock Studies funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, grant OPP-0120736 Corinne A. Munger, Martha K. Raynolds, Donald A. Walker Alaska Geobotany Center Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska 99775 May 2004 Table of Contents List of Figures.................................................................................................................2 List of Tables..................................................................................................................4 Introduction ....................................................................................................................5 Description of the Site..................................................................................................... 5 Terrain and Bioclimate of the Green Cabin Area......................................................... 5 Study Sites.................................................................................................................. 5 Methods & Types of Data Collected ............................................................................... 8 Climate ....................................................................................................................... 8 Vegetation mapping .................................................................................................. 10 Thaw depth ............................................................................................................... 10 Plant biomass............................................................................................................ 10 LAI & NDVI ............................................................................................................ 10 Soil pits..................................................................................................................... 10 Vegetation relevés..................................................................................................... 12 N factor..................................................................................................................... 12 Biogeochemistry ....................................................................................................... 12 Invertebrates ............................................................................................................. 13 Decomposition.......................................................................................................... 14 Class transects........................................................................................................... 14 Turf hummocks......................................................................................................... 15 Results.......................................................................................................................... 16 Grid data................................................................................................................... 16 NDVI & LAI ............................................................................................................ 22 Soils description of studied s ites............................................................................... 26 Relevé data ............................................................................................................... 46 Biogeochemistry data................................................................................................ 59 Class transects........................................................................................................... 60 Decomposition.......................................................................................................... 60 Turf hummocks......................................................................................................... 61 Acknowledgements....................................................................................................... 70 Participant List.............................................................................................................. 70 References .................................................................................................................... 72 List of Figures Figure 1. Aerial photo of Green Cabin area, with 2003 sampling sites marked .............. 6 Figure 2. Typical toposequences, A: dry ridge, B: hillslope with hummocks, C: moist meadow................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 3. Green Cabin Grids, (a) Grid 1, zonal site; (b) Grid 2, xeric site; (c) Grid 3, hydric site .......................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 4. (a) Valdimir Romanovsky installing a climate station at the zonal grid site. The tripod behind him holds a sonic snow meter, solar panel, and air temperature sensor. The probe he is holding was buried in the soil, as shown in photo (b), and will measure temperature and moisture at depth. ......................................................................... 8 Figure 5. Frost heave scriber. When the grey metal plate and sleeve slide up along the copper rod due to frost heaving of the soil, the curved scribe will scratch the copper, leaving a record of the height of the heave. ............................................................. 9 Figure 6. Anja Kade mapping 1-m grid .................................................................... 11 2 Figure 7. Thaw depth probe ......................................................................................... 11 Figure 8. Alexia Kelley clipping biomass near Grid 2. ................................................. 11 Figure 9. Charles Tarnocai in soil pit near grid 2 ........................................................ 11 Figure 10. Soil crusts (a) Dry wrinkled mineralized crust on edge of frost boil in Grid 1. (b) Moist wrinkled crust on edge of wet frostboil in Grid 3. (c) Knife shows cross-section of moist crust in-situ. (d) Piece of moist crust, showing the sub-surface green algae layer. .............................................................................................................................. 11 Figure 11. Sampling for soil nitrogen content. (a) Howie Epstein collecting small soil sample. (b) Alexia Kelley adding acetylene to samples. ......................................... 13 Figure 12. Transect sampling scheme. Thaw depth, microrelief, and vegetation cover were sampled at 10- cm intervals along the 20-meter transect. Ten soil samples were taken to 10-cm depths in boil and interboil areas and invertebrates were sampled using 10 pitfall traps in boil and interboil areas. ........................................................................... 14 Figure 13. Biodiversity transect. Boils and interboils flagged in red and pitfall traps in yellow.................................................................................................................... 15 Figure 14. (a) Grid at Mould Bay. (b) Litter bags at Mould Bay, left on surface to measure the rate of decomposition over one year. ............................................................... 15 Figure 15. Plant community maps of 10 x 10 m grids: (a) Grid 1 - zonal, (b) Grid 2 - xeric, (c) Grid 3 – hydric, (d) Percent area of plant community types mapped on the 10x10-m grids...................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 16. Major types mapped on Grids 1 and 2: (a) Barren frostboil with frost cracks; (b) Edge of frostboil with cryptogamic crust and scattered Carex rupestris; (c) Interboil Dryas integrifolia, Saxifraga oppositifolia community. .......................................... 17 Figure 17. Major types mapped on Grid 3: (a) Barren frostboil with wrinkled cryptogamic crust; (b) Moist sedge-shrub-moss interboil with Carex membranacea, Eriophorum triste, Dryas integrifolia, Salix arctica, and Hypnum bambergeri; (c) Wet sedge-moss interboil with Carex membranacea and Pseudocalliergon brevifolius..................... 17 Figure 18. Maps of 1x1-m grids, showing polygonal cracking and vegetation. (a) Micro-grid 1. Located 20m NW of mesic 10x10-m grid. (b) Micro-grid 2. Located within mesic 10x10-m grid......................................................................................................... 18 Figure 19. Maps of thaw depth on 10x10-m grids, (a) Grid 1, zonal; (b) Grid 2, xeric (c) Grid 3, hydric (Note different scales.) Measurements were taken July 9, 2003....... 19 Figure 20. Soil pits. (a) Mould Bay Pit 1, Grid 1 (zonal site) dug to frozen soil. (b) Green Cabin Pit 1,Grid 1 (zonal site A). (c) Green Cabin Pit 2, Grid 2 (xeric site); before digging (left) and pit to >1m depth (right). (c) Green Cabin Pit 3, Grid 3 (hydric site); before digging (left) and dug to frozen soil (right). ................................................ 27 Figure 20 (cont.) (e) Green Cabin Pit 4, Grid 1 (zonal site B); before digging (left) and dug to >80 cm. (right). (f) Green Cabin Pit 5 (dry barren ridge site); before digging (left) and dug to >80 cm. (right). (g) Green Cabin Pit 6 (snowbed hummock site). (h) Green Cabin Pit 7 (small hummock site).........................................................................