The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change, 2015-2016

The summer of 2015 was an extraordinary year for fire in the Arctic, including in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, presaging a future where tundra and boreal fire is far more common. Remarkably, the area burned in the YK Delta in 2015 exceeds the total area burned from 1940-2014 combined. The response of...

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Main Authors: Ludwig, Sarah, Holmes, Robert M, Natali, Susan, Schade, John, Mann, Paul
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: NSF Arctic Data Center 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a2n29p731
https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi:10.18739/A2N29P731
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spelling ftdatacite:10.18739/a2n29p731 2023-05-15T14:40:10+02:00 The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change, 2015-2016 Ludwig, Sarah Holmes, Robert M Natali, Susan Schade, John Mann, Paul 2018 text/xml https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a2n29p731 https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi:10.18739/A2N29P731 en eng NSF Arctic Data Center dataset Dataset 2018 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.18739/a2n29p731 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z The summer of 2015 was an extraordinary year for fire in the Arctic, including in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, presaging a future where tundra and boreal fire is far more common. Remarkably, the area burned in the YK Delta in 2015 exceeds the total area burned from 1940-2014 combined. The response of the YK Delta in the first year post-fire will set the stage for longer-term changes in delta carbon storage and transport among tundra, aquatic and marine systems, and to the atmosphere. Quantifying carbon export and understanding the immediate ecosystem response to fire is critical because long-term recovery is, to a considerable degree, dependent on short-term responses. A major question that this research will address is how fire influences the amount and form of carbon transported from delta ecosystems seasonally and in the first year following fire. Ultimately, these results will inform long-term trajectories of the vulnerability and fate of delta carbon pools. This research will significantly improve our understanding of the role of fire in the loss of both modern and ancient carbon from arctic river deltas, which contain >10% of the Arctic’s massive permafrost carbon store. This funding will allow project scientists to engage with Alaska Native faculty and students in STEM-focused teacher training programs at the tribal college in Bethel, which will provide teachers with experience conducting research on climate change and arctic system science and the opportunity to develop curriculum focused on climate change and the feedbacks that result from fire and other changes in ecosystems in the Yukon River Delta. This project will also improve the infrastructure for arctic research and teaching at a small Undergraduate Institution in central Minnesota. Arctic river deltas are hotspots for carbon storage, occupying <1% of the pan-Arctic watershed but containing >10% of carbon stored in arctic permafrost. They are also heterogeneous mosaics of linked terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and are susceptible to changes in land, river, and marine systems. The vulnerability of carbon stored in arctic river deltas is a major unknown and is critically important as climate warming and increasing fire frequency may make this carbon vulnerable to transport to aquatic and marine systems and to the atmosphere. The goal of this proposal is to examine the immediate effects of fire on carbon storage in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and exchange between terrestrial and aquatic components of the Delta. By extension this work will yield critical insights into how the carbon balance of deltas in the arctic system will change over the coming decades as warming continues and fire frequency increases. Dataset Arctic Climate change Kuskokwim permafrost The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change Tundra Yukon river Alaska Yukon DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Arctic Yukon
institution Open Polar
collection DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology)
op_collection_id ftdatacite
language English
description The summer of 2015 was an extraordinary year for fire in the Arctic, including in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, presaging a future where tundra and boreal fire is far more common. Remarkably, the area burned in the YK Delta in 2015 exceeds the total area burned from 1940-2014 combined. The response of the YK Delta in the first year post-fire will set the stage for longer-term changes in delta carbon storage and transport among tundra, aquatic and marine systems, and to the atmosphere. Quantifying carbon export and understanding the immediate ecosystem response to fire is critical because long-term recovery is, to a considerable degree, dependent on short-term responses. A major question that this research will address is how fire influences the amount and form of carbon transported from delta ecosystems seasonally and in the first year following fire. Ultimately, these results will inform long-term trajectories of the vulnerability and fate of delta carbon pools. This research will significantly improve our understanding of the role of fire in the loss of both modern and ancient carbon from arctic river deltas, which contain >10% of the Arctic’s massive permafrost carbon store. This funding will allow project scientists to engage with Alaska Native faculty and students in STEM-focused teacher training programs at the tribal college in Bethel, which will provide teachers with experience conducting research on climate change and arctic system science and the opportunity to develop curriculum focused on climate change and the feedbacks that result from fire and other changes in ecosystems in the Yukon River Delta. This project will also improve the infrastructure for arctic research and teaching at a small Undergraduate Institution in central Minnesota. Arctic river deltas are hotspots for carbon storage, occupying <1% of the pan-Arctic watershed but containing >10% of carbon stored in arctic permafrost. They are also heterogeneous mosaics of linked terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and are susceptible to changes in land, river, and marine systems. The vulnerability of carbon stored in arctic river deltas is a major unknown and is critically important as climate warming and increasing fire frequency may make this carbon vulnerable to transport to aquatic and marine systems and to the atmosphere. The goal of this proposal is to examine the immediate effects of fire on carbon storage in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and exchange between terrestrial and aquatic components of the Delta. By extension this work will yield critical insights into how the carbon balance of deltas in the arctic system will change over the coming decades as warming continues and fire frequency increases.
format Dataset
author Ludwig, Sarah
Holmes, Robert M
Natali, Susan
Schade, John
Mann, Paul
spellingShingle Ludwig, Sarah
Holmes, Robert M
Natali, Susan
Schade, John
Mann, Paul
The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change, 2015-2016
author_facet Ludwig, Sarah
Holmes, Robert M
Natali, Susan
Schade, John
Mann, Paul
author_sort Ludwig, Sarah
title The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change, 2015-2016
title_short The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change, 2015-2016
title_full The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change, 2015-2016
title_fullStr The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change, 2015-2016
title_full_unstemmed The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change, 2015-2016
title_sort carbon balance of arctic river deltas: tundra fire as an agent of system change, 2015-2016
publisher NSF Arctic Data Center
publishDate 2018
url https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a2n29p731
https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi:10.18739/A2N29P731
geographic Arctic
Yukon
geographic_facet Arctic
Yukon
genre Arctic
Climate change
Kuskokwim
permafrost
The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change
Tundra
Yukon river
Alaska
Yukon
genre_facet Arctic
Climate change
Kuskokwim
permafrost
The Carbon Balance of Arctic River Deltas: Tundra Fire as an Agent of System Change
Tundra
Yukon river
Alaska
Yukon
op_doi https://doi.org/10.18739/a2n29p731
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