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Imnavait Creek MAT

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General Information

Created: 2014-02-03 13:11:11
Modified: 2014-02-03 13:15:36

Active: No
Country:United States
Site:Imnavait
CALM-Code:U11 C
Responsible Countries: United States,
Timezone:UTC/GMT -09:00 hours
Vegetation Type:Tundra
Responsible Person:Nikolay Shiklomanov
Type:Grid
Nodes:121
Rows:11
Columns:11
Offset:10 m

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)

 

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.

Slope:6 °
Aspect:54.4
Permafrost Zone:Continuous
Vegetation:Moist acidic tundra
Landform:Glaciated foothills
Lithology:Pergelic Cryaquepts (82%), Histic Pergelic Cryaquepts (18%). Organic layer thickness: 15 + 1.9 cm. Soil texture - silt
Access Timeseries
Bibliographic References
Walker, D. A., and J. G. Bockheim, Site selection for the portable flux towers, ARCSS/LAII/Flux Study, 1316 June 1995, Summary of field activities, Land-Atmos.-Ice Interact. Sci. Manage. Off., Geophys. Inst.,Univ. of Alaska-Fairbanks, 1995.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2172/290848
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic609
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-444-53643-3.00095-9
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp.452
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp.425
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02723646.2001.10642754
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2001.12003416
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1552606
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1552131
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/98jd00534
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
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp.3430010210
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/28839
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1551985
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.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3800(99)00127-1

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U11c Imnavait Creek MAT U11c Imnavait Creek MAT 2
Map

Longitude:-149.30933 °
Latitude:68.611 °
Elevation:907.68933105 m
EPSG:4326
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