Arctic LTER News

The Arctic LTER Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Statement and Action Plan has been updated for 2023. 

Lessons from the Arctic: Ecological Research with Lasting Value

Rachel Kaplan's articles from Columbia University's website GlacierHub.

Ed Rastetter stands on a small hill

As the Arctic warms, scientists at this remote field station try to make sense of the changing environment.

 

North Slope lakes get artificial warmth to simulate climate change

A North Slope "fish spa" might hold answers to how arctic grayling will react in a changing climate.

Celeste Cruse, a 7th-grade teacher at Lawrence School in Falmouth, spent two weeks in arctic Alaska. More at  MBL website and Falmouth Enterprise

 

A Changing Arctic: Ecological Consequences for Tundra, Streams, and Lakes. edited by John E. Hobbie and George W. Kling.

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Recent Arctic LTER Publications

2024 Soil nutrient availability affects tundra plant community composition and plant–vole interactions
2024 Climate warming restructures food webs and carbon flow in high-latitude ecosystems
2024 Root-associated fungi and acquisitive root traits facilitate permafrost nitrogen uptake from long-term experimentally warmed tundra
2024 Warming alters cascading effects of a dominant arthropod predator on fungal community composition in the Arctic
2024 The Arctic Plant Aboveground Biomass Synthesis Dataset
2023 Vertical gradients in photosynthetic physiology diverge at the latitudinal range extremes of white spruce
2023 Ecosystem feedbacks constrain the effect of day-to-day weather variability on land–atmosphere carbon exchange
2023 Oxygen depletion and sediment respiration in ice-covered arctic lakes
2023 NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska
2023 Insights into the tussock growth form with model data fusion
2023 Soil carbon availability decouples net nitrogen mineralization and net nitrification across United States Long Term Ecological Research sites
2023 Insights into the tussock growth form with model–data fusion
2023 Metaproteomics reveals functional partitioning and vegetational variation among permafrost-affected Arctic soil bacterial communities
2023 Diel, seasonal, and inter-annual variation in carbon dioxide effluxes from lakes and reservoirs
2023 Using structure to model function: incorporating canopy structure improves estimates of ecosystem carbon flux in arctic dry heath tundra

See all Arctic LTER Publications

Welcome to the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research Site

The Arctic Long Term Ecological Research (ARC LTER) site is part of a network of sites established by the National Science Foundation to support long-term ecologicalLooking South of Toolik Field Station research in the United States. Our research site is located in the foothills region of the Brooks Range, North Slope of Alaska (68° 38'N, 149° 36.4'W, elevation 720 m) and is based out of the University of Alaska's Toolik Field Station. The Arctic LTER project's goal is to understand and predict the effects of environmental change on arctic landscapes, both natural and anthropogenic. We use long-term monitoring and surveys of natural variation of ecosystem characteristics, experimental manipulation of ecosystems (years to decades) and modeling at ecosystem and watershed scales to gain an understanding of the controls of ecosystem structure and function. Through this understanding we hope to addresses an important societal goal of predicting the response of arctic ecosystems to environmental change. The data and insights gained are provided to federal, Alaska state and North Slope Borough officials who regulate the lands on the North Slope and through this web site.

  • Tracer Techniques

    A tracer approach to investigation of the nitrogen (N) cycle of streams, first developed at the Arctic LTER, has transformed scientific understanding of the nitrogen cycle and food web structure in flowing waters.

  • Cascade Effect

    The experimental addition of low levels of phosphorus to an arctic stream created a gradual transformation from a cobble-bottom stream covered with diatom-dominated biofilm to a moss-dominated bottom

  • Arctic Warming

    Research at the Arctic LTER site is transforming scientific understanding of how the arctic landscape will respond to climate change. Warming of the Arctic is thawing previously frozen ground (permafrost) and in some places,

  • Linked Cycles

    ARC LTER research over several decades has revealed strong linkages of carbon and nitrogen cycling through organic matter. This linkage is key to understanding and predicting changes in the arctic carbon cycle

  • Process Discovery

    ARC scientists discovered that high concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane dissolved in groundwater are transported to arctic streams and rivers and released to the atmosphere.

  • Food Sources

    ARC scientists have determined that fish in arctic lakes depend on benthic (bottom-dwelling) plants and algae for food since phytoplankton growth is so low in most of these ecosystems.

Toolik Weather and Webcam

Current Toolik Field Station Weather

Looking north from Toolik Field Station Current Toolik Webcam