We used radiocarbon dating of the organic soil surface remaining post-fire to examine whether the fire burned into ancient and likely irreplaceable soil C pools. Suprisingly, it did not; all radiocarbon dates from burned soil surfaces contained bomb carbon, setting the maximum age of the burned soil surfaces at ~50 years.
Data Set Results
This file contains the soil profile data for burned and unburned moist acidic tundra sites used to estimate C and N loss from the Anaktuvuk River Fire (2007). These sites were sampled in summer of 2008. Unburned sites were used to develop a method for estimating soil organic layer depth and plant biomass, and for determining the characteristics of unburned soil organic layers. In burned sites, we characterized residual organic soils and used biometric measurements of tussocks to reconstruct pre-fire soil organic layer depth.
Estimated mean pre-fire C and N pools, and C and N loss from 20 sites in the Anaktuvuk River Fire (2007). These sites were sampled in summer of 2008. In each site, we characterized residual organic soils and used biometric relationships developed in unburned sites to reconstruct pre-fire soil organic layer depth, and plant and soil C and N pools. We then estimated fire-driven losses of C and N from plant and soil organic layer pools.
The Anaktuvuk River Fire occurred in 2007 on the North Slope of Alaska. In 2008, three eddy covariance towers were established at sites represent ing unburned tundra, moderately burned tundra, and severely burned tundra. Several times during the 2008-2014 growing seasons, thaw depth was measured at approximately 70 points near each of these towers . Data presented here are the individual measurements for each site and date.
The Anaktuvuk River Fire occurred in 2007 on the North Slope of Alaska. In 2008, three eddy covariance towers were established at sites representing unburned tundra, moderately burned tundra, and severely burned tundra. Eriophorum vaginatum flowers were counted from annual photographs of each site during peak flowering season (6/17-7/20).
The Anaktuvuk River Fire occurred in 2007 on the North Slope of Alaska. In 2008, three eddy covariance towers were established at sites represent ing unburned tundra, moderately burned tundra, and severely burned tundra. During the 2008-2014 growing seasons, canopy vegetation within the footprint of each of these towers was scanned with a handheld spectrophotometer several times throughout the growing season. Average reflectance spectra per site and collection day are presented here.