We measured soil respiration using a LICOR 6400 IRGA with soil respiration chamber over the course of the season. Measurements were made on PVC collars that were installed in 1999 and clipped of aboveground vegetation. We installed collars by cutting vertically into the peat with a serrated knife and placing collars so that their tops were level with the moss surface. We clipped all vascular vegetation as well as green moss biomass to the soil or brown moss surface. We repeated clipping as needed during 2000. Concurrent with soil respiration measurements, we measured soil temperature at 5 cm below the moss surface, volumetric soil moisture in the top 5 cm of soil with a portable time-domain reflectrometry probe (TDR, Campbell Scientific Instruments), and thaw depth using a stainless steel probe.

Reference Citations: "Hobbie, SE, TA Miley, and MS Weiss. 2002. Carbon and nitrogen cycling in soils from different glacial surfaces in northern Alaska. Ecosystems Vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 761-774.