In arctic tundra near Toolik Lake, Alaska, we incubated a common substrate in a snow addition experiment to test whether snow accumulation around arctic deciduous shrubs altered the environment enough to increase litter decomposition rates. We compared the influence of litter quality on the rate of litter and N loss by decomposing litter from four different plant functional types in a common site. We used aboveground net primary production values and estimated k values from our decomposition experiments to calculate community-weighted mass loss for each site.
Data Set Results
In arctic tundra, near Toolik Lake, Alaska, we quantified net N-mineralization rates under ambient and manipulated snow treatments at three different plant communities that varied in abundance and height of deciduous shrubs.
Surface organic and mineral soil layers were sampled in retrogressive thaw slump disturbance scars and nearby undisturbed tundra to estmate the influence of this thermo-erosional--thermokarst--disturbance type on soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools. Within six independent sites, we identified multiple thaw slump scars and determined time after disturbance for each scar by (1) aging the population of tall deciduous shrubs rooted in the mineral soil and (2) by dating the basal layer of the re-accumulating soil organic matter.