U-008 - ITEX AON
PI: Dr. Craig Tweedie
Project Lead: Craig Tweedie
Funding Source: NSF/PLR 0856628
Location: Barrow, Alaska
Dates: 2010-08-19 to 2013-05-30
Project Summary
The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) Arctic Observing Network (AON) network has collected data on phenology, plant growth, community composition and ecosystem properties as part of a greater effort to study environmental arctic change. The network has played a key role in advancing knowledge related to the likely impacts of a warmer arctic through the use of experimentally warmed and un-manipulated plots (i.e., the controls) across a range of sites and ecosystems that span the major vegetation types of the Arctic. UNAVCO is supporting the ITEX project with terrestrial LiDAR Scanning (TLS) and GPS survey equipment. The goal of this project is to maintain the existing ITEX AON in Barrow, AK and increase the applicability of the data collected to the greater scientific community. Historically, most of the ITEX measurements are labor intensive and time consuming, which limit the frequency and spatial extent of sampling. Recent advances in sensor technology hold the promise to allow sampling of surrogates of these manual measurements rapidly and over larger areas. This work continues the ITEX AON observations and initiates a suite of related, non-intrusive measurements using robotic sensor platforms (networked infomechanical systems, NIMS), and TLS surveys. These new measurements will enable scaling of measurements to the regional level by linking to existing 1-square km sample grids and satellite imagery. These data are urgently needed to improve our capacity to monitor the impacts of changing tundra vegetation on the arctic system. This work should improve our understanding of the exchange of carbon and water across the land atmosphere interface and provide information on forage quality for herbivores.
Project Sites
- PS01 BEO NIMS
- PS02 IBP Ponds
- PS03 Atqasuk NIMS
- PS04 Chukchi Thermokarst
- PS05 BEO BCE
- PS06 IBP MicroTopo