2010 thaw depth and soil temperature in LTER moist acidic tundra experimental plots

Abstract: 

In 2010, thaw depth and soil temperature were measured throughout the growing season in control and fertilized plots in the Arctic LTER's moist acidic tundra sites.

Project Keywords: 

Data set ID: 

10488

EML revision ID: 

2
Published on EDI/LTER Data Portal

Citation: 

Gough, L. 2012. 2010 thaw depth and soil temperature in LTER moist acidic tundra experimental plots Environmental Data Initiative. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/f42472946a52de02e1e1687d9214a2df
People

Owner/Creator: 

Contact: 

Additional People: 

Associated Researcher
Dates

Date Range: 

Friday, June 4, 2010 to Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Publication Date: 

2012

Methods: 

The LTER moist acidic tussock (Toolik MAT) site was set up in 1989. The experimental design is four blocks of 5 x 20 meter plots with randomly assigned treatments within each block. Treatments include control (CT), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and nitrogen plus phosphorus (NP). Fertilizer is added annually following snowmelt in June as 10 g/m2 nitrogen (as NH4NO3) and 5 g/m2 phosphorous (as triple superphosphate). Exclosure plots were set up at the MAT site in July 1996 on extra 5 x 20 meter plots within the four-block design of the 1989 LTER acidic tussock experimental plots. On each plot a 5 x 10 meter section was fenced with large mesh (4-inch square mesh) and within this fence a 5x5-meter plot was fenced with a small mesh (1/2-inch square mesh). In each block two fenced plots were setup: a plot with no fertilizer and a plot with annual fertilization treatments as described above. Thus the treatments created are no fence, no fertilizer (NFCT); small mesh fence, no fertilizer (SFCT); large mesh fence, no fertilizer (LFCT); no fence, N plus P (NFNP); small mesh fence, N plus P (SFNP); and large mesh fence, N plus P (LFNP). In 2006, a new set of experimental treatments were established in MAT near the earlier plots described above. These include a gradient of fertilization treatments that receive nitrate or ammonium alone, or receive N and P additions with 0.5, 1, 2, 5, or 10 g N added with half of that amount added as P. Only Blocks 1-3 of the 2006 plots were sampled.

For this dataset, only the CT and NP plots were sampled in each of the three sets of experiments (set up in 1989, 1996, and 2006). The 1996 NP plots are the NFNP plots described above, and the 2006 NP plots are the 10gN plots (F10) described above.
Calculations: none Sampling Description. On each sampling date, a metal thaw depth probe with centimeter increments was inserted in 3-5 random locations within each plot. Once the probe hit permafrost, the value for depth of thaw was recorded. Immediately adjacent to this sampling, a hand-held soil thermometer was inserted to a depth of 5 cm and the temperature was recorded. If thaw exceeded 10 cm, a second soil temperature measurement was made at 10 cm depth.

Version Changes: 

Metadata and data entered (LG); formated for online etc. (JD-Dec2013)
Version 2: Checked keywords against the LTER network preferred list and replaced non-preferred terms. Jim L 11Feb14
Version 3: Changed Distrubution URL since the LTER network DAS system is being discontinued. JimL 9Apr2015

Sites sampled.

Full Metadata and data files (either comma delimited (csv) or Excel) - Environmental Data Initiative repository.

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