| Summary: | The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) was chartered in 1990 to test the effects of increased temperature on tundra plant phenology, growth, species composition and ecosystem function. Since 2007, the ITEX-Arctic Observatory Network (ITEX-AON) has continued and expanded on the ITEX program across a latitudinal transect of five sites in Alaska and Greenland, collecting core ITEX data specifically designed to address the current needs outlined in the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) Implementation Report. The goal of this effort is to maintain the continuity of the temporally-critical datasets of the ITEX-AON in Alaska and Greenland. Core datasets include the long-term manual observations of phenology, vegetation structure and composition, ecosystem function, and surface properties on the long-term ITEX control and experimental warming plots, repeat measurement of the vegetation plots on the 1 km 2 Arctic Systems Science (ARCSS) grids, and a multifactor warming-moisture experiment in Greenland. The simultaneous measurement of multiple surface properties at the small scale has allowed detection of relationships not previously recognized, e.g., in moss-dominated areas of the intensive transects, higher albedo is linked to higher temperatures. This data package includes spectroradiometer data from the Mobile Instrumented Sensor Platform (MISP), formerly known as the Networked Info-mechanical Systems (NIMS).
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