Energyandtrace-gas fluxesacrossasoil pHboundaryintheArctic

Studies and models of trace-gas flux in the Arctic consider temperature and moisture to be the dominant controls over land–atmosphere exchange 1,2, with little attention having been paid to the effects of different substrates. Likewise, current Arctic vegetation maps for models of vegetation change...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: D. A. Walker, N. A. Auerbach, J. G. Bockheim, F. S. Chapin Iii, W. Eugster, J. Y. King, J. P. Mcfadden, G. J. Michaelsonk, F. E. Nelson, W. C. Oechel, C. L. Pingk, W. S. Reeburg, S. Regli, N. I. Shiklomanov, G. L. Vourlitis
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Arctic
Tundra
Alaska
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.72.9611
http://sinus.unibe.ch/~eugster/publications/FULL/Walker.1998.Nature.394.pdf
Description
Summary:Studies and models of trace-gas flux in the Arctic consider temperature and moisture to be the dominant controls over land–atmosphere exchange 1,2, with little attention having been paid to the effects of different substrates. Likewise, current Arctic vegetation maps for models of vegetation change recognize one or two tundra types 3,4 and do not portray the extensive regions with different soils within the Arctic. Here we show that rapid changes to ecosystem processes (such as photosynthesis and respiration) that are related to changes in climate and land usage will be superimposed upon and modulated by differences in substrate pH. A sharp soil pH boundary along the northern front of the Arctic Foothills in Alaska separates non-acidic (pH � 6:5) ecosystems to the north from predominantly acidic (pH � 5:5) ecosystems to the south. Moist non-acidic tundra has greater heat flux, deeper summer thaw (active layer), is less of a carbon sink, and is a

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