Investigating the spatial and temporal variability in greenhouse gas dynamics in Arctic tundra, Northwest Territories

GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/76806420-17ba-4ecb-8b8b-4361d63aeb67

This dataset includes greenhouse gas flux measurements (chamber method) at an Arctic upland tundra site, Trail Valley Creek. The site is characterized by small-scale land cover type heterogeneity consisting of shrub, tussock and lichen patches, polygonal tundra and thermokarst-affected areas, wetlands, lakes, and streams. To understand the large spatial and temporal variability of greenhouse gas dynamics across these terrestrial and aquatic landcover types we used a nested observational approach at plot-, ecosystem-, landscape- and regional scale. Existing (since 2013) ecosystem-scale eddy covariance (EC) measurements of net CO2 and CH4 exchanges are complemented with plot-scale automated and manual chamber measurements within the EC tower footprint and beyond. These manual and automated chamber measurements were established in June 2019 and are on-going. During the growing season, manual chamber measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are conducted weekly, fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O) are measured once during peak summer. Automated chambers continuously measure exchanges of CO2 and CH4 during the growing season. Greenhouse gas flux observations are complemented with a wide array of auxiliary measurements including soil profile dynamics of the gases CO2, CH4, and N2O, lake and soil pore nutrient concentrations (anions and cations), soil temperature, moisture, and oxygen profiles, thaw depth , leaf area index (LAI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), lake catchment characteristics, and quality and microbial degradability of aquatic dissolved organic matter.

To understand the large spatial and temporal variability of greenhouse gas dynamics across these terrestrial and aquatic land cover types we used a nested observational approach at plot-, ecosystem-, landscape- and regional scale.

Trail Valley Creek