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Betty Pingo WET

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General Information

Created: 2014-02-03 14:11:11
Modified: 2014-02-04 08:08:17

Active: No
Country:United States
Site:Betty Pingo
CALM-Code:U7 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:

Site description: Flat with low-centered polygons; wet nonacidic tundra.

Vegetation communities: (1) Lower microsites, including polygon basins and troughs: Wet Eriophorurn angustifolium, Carex aquatilis, Scorpidiurn scorpioides graminoid tundra. (2) Raised microsites, including polygon rims and hummocks: Moist Eriophorum triste, Dryas integrifolia, Tomenthypnum nitens graminoid, prostrate-shrub tundra. Cover of top 5 species: Eriophorum angustifolim (28%), Scorpidium scorpioides (11%), Carex aquatilis (10%), Drepanocladus brevifolius (3%),Dryas integrifolia (3%)

Mean vegetation height: 4.1 +/- 3.9 cm

Mean live moss layer thickness: 0.8 +/- 0.7 cm

Organic layer thickness: 25 + 1.5 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.

 

Additional Climate data are also available at http://www.uaf.edu/water/projects/NorthSlope/coastal_plain/betty/betty.html

Aspect:265
Permafrost Zone:Continuous
Vegetation:Flat with low-centered polygons; wet nonacidic tundra
Landform:Outer coastal plain, drained lake basins
Lithology:Histic Pergelic Cryaquolls (39%), P. Cryaquolls (25%), P.Cryofibrists (24%), others (12%). Organic layer thickness: 25 +/- 1.5 cm mineral texture -- silty loam /silt/peat
Description:General description of soil moisture : Very wet to saturated
Access Timeseries
Bibliographic References
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.
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.
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.
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., 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.
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 nordiques de l'Universite Laval, Laval, Quebec, Canada, Yellowknife, NWT, Canada, pp. 797-802
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.
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.
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.

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Longitude:-148.919 °
Latitude:70.275 °
Elevation:179.01748657 m
EPSG:4326
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