Treeline Snowfence White Spruce Branch Primary Growth, Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska, 2017-2022
The position of the Arctic treeline is an important regulator of land surface energy budgets, ecosystem-atmosphere carbon cycling, wildlife habitat and availability of subsistence resources to local communities. The prevailing hypothesis states that treeline position is determined by air temperature...
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Arctic Data Center
2023
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.18739/A2WH2DG4B |
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dataone:doi:10.18739/A2WH2DG4B 2024-06-03T18:46:35+00:00 Treeline Snowfence White Spruce Branch Primary Growth, Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska, 2017-2022 Patrick Sullivan Hydric site near Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska Mesic site near Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska Xeric site near Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska ENVELOPE(-162.19867,-162.19867,67.469376,67.469376) BEGINDATE: 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z ENDDATE: 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.18739/A2WH2DG4B unknown Arctic Data Center white spruce tree growth treeline Arctic snow Alaska Picea glauca Dataset 2023 dataone:urn:node:ARCTIC https://doi.org/10.18739/A2WH2DG4B 2024-06-03T18:19:06Z The position of the Arctic treeline is an important regulator of land surface energy budgets, ecosystem-atmosphere carbon cycling, wildlife habitat and availability of subsistence resources to local communities. The prevailing hypothesis states that treeline position is determined by air temperature during the growing season. Because trees are taller than tundra vegetation and their canopy extends above the warmer boundary layer, their tissues are colder than tundra vegetation. These colder conditions are hypothesized to limit cell division and growth, such that seedlings are unable to grow into trees. However, our early work revealed that air temperature is warmer than previously thought near the Arctic treeline in Alaska and the indirect effects of temperature on soil nutrient availability may be important determinants of tree growth. We hypothesized that cold soils at treeline, particularly during winter, limit microbial activity and nutrient availability to the point where trees are barely able to survive and grow. In this project, near the Agashashok River in northwest Alaska, we used snowfences over six winters (2016/2017-2021/2022) to experimentally increase snow depth around eight trees at each of three treelines that varied in soil moisture and tundra vegetation. This dataset includes annual manual measurements of branch primary growth of treeline white spruce in control plots and those treated with 1.5 m tall snowfences. There were eight snowfence and eight control plots at each of three treeline study sites that varied in soil moisture and understory vegetation: hydric (wet sedge tundra), mesic (tussock tundra) and xeric (dry heath tundra). Dataset Arctic Tundra Alaska Arctic Data Center (via DataONE) Arctic ENVELOPE(-162.19867,-162.19867,67.469376,67.469376) |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Arctic Data Center (via DataONE) |
op_collection_id |
dataone:urn:node:ARCTIC |
language |
unknown |
topic |
white spruce tree growth treeline Arctic snow Alaska Picea glauca |
spellingShingle |
white spruce tree growth treeline Arctic snow Alaska Picea glauca Patrick Sullivan Treeline Snowfence White Spruce Branch Primary Growth, Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska, 2017-2022 |
topic_facet |
white spruce tree growth treeline Arctic snow Alaska Picea glauca |
description |
The position of the Arctic treeline is an important regulator of land surface energy budgets, ecosystem-atmosphere carbon cycling, wildlife habitat and availability of subsistence resources to local communities. The prevailing hypothesis states that treeline position is determined by air temperature during the growing season. Because trees are taller than tundra vegetation and their canopy extends above the warmer boundary layer, their tissues are colder than tundra vegetation. These colder conditions are hypothesized to limit cell division and growth, such that seedlings are unable to grow into trees. However, our early work revealed that air temperature is warmer than previously thought near the Arctic treeline in Alaska and the indirect effects of temperature on soil nutrient availability may be important determinants of tree growth. We hypothesized that cold soils at treeline, particularly during winter, limit microbial activity and nutrient availability to the point where trees are barely able to survive and grow. In this project, near the Agashashok River in northwest Alaska, we used snowfences over six winters (2016/2017-2021/2022) to experimentally increase snow depth around eight trees at each of three treelines that varied in soil moisture and tundra vegetation. This dataset includes annual manual measurements of branch primary growth of treeline white spruce in control plots and those treated with 1.5 m tall snowfences. There were eight snowfence and eight control plots at each of three treeline study sites that varied in soil moisture and understory vegetation: hydric (wet sedge tundra), mesic (tussock tundra) and xeric (dry heath tundra). |
format |
Dataset |
author |
Patrick Sullivan |
author_facet |
Patrick Sullivan |
author_sort |
Patrick Sullivan |
title |
Treeline Snowfence White Spruce Branch Primary Growth, Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska, 2017-2022 |
title_short |
Treeline Snowfence White Spruce Branch Primary Growth, Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska, 2017-2022 |
title_full |
Treeline Snowfence White Spruce Branch Primary Growth, Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska, 2017-2022 |
title_fullStr |
Treeline Snowfence White Spruce Branch Primary Growth, Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska, 2017-2022 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Treeline Snowfence White Spruce Branch Primary Growth, Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska, 2017-2022 |
title_sort |
treeline snowfence white spruce branch primary growth, agashashok river, northwest alaska, 2017-2022 |
publisher |
Arctic Data Center |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.18739/A2WH2DG4B |
op_coverage |
Hydric site near Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska Mesic site near Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska Xeric site near Agashashok River, Northwest Alaska ENVELOPE(-162.19867,-162.19867,67.469376,67.469376) BEGINDATE: 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z ENDDATE: 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-162.19867,-162.19867,67.469376,67.469376) |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Tundra Alaska |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.18739/A2WH2DG4B |
_version_ |
1800868365179289600 |