Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Research (CIPEHR) project: Foliar mineral element concentrations, stocks, and annual litterfall fluxes in July 2009 and 2017

• Main Authors: Mauclet, Elisabeth, Opfergelt, Sophie, Agnan, Yannick, Hirst, Catherine, Monhonval, Arthur, Ledman, Justin, Taylor, Meghan, Schuur, Edward, Bonanza Creek LTER
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Environmental Data Initiative 2021
• Subjects: alaska range; permafrost; Subarctic; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/597c40c5d699eec918da3e9c2eaa7bea; https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?packageid=knb-lter-bnz.781.3

In this study, we are asking the question: how permafrost degradation may influence foliar mineral element cycling with changing subarctic tundra vegeatation? We are answering this question by using a combination of field measurements (aboveground biomass, foliar biomass, foliar net primary productivity (NPP)) and laboratory measurements (mineral element foliar concentration: Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mn, P, S, Si, and Zn) to evaluate the mineral element foliar stocks and the mineral element foliar fluxes upon annual litterfall. We covered 5 vascular plant species from an established tundra field site near Healy, Alaska in the foothills of the Alaska Range. Field measurements center on at a warming experiment located in an upland tundra field site near Healy, Alaska in the foothills of the Alaska Range. Elemental analyses of plant species typical from the moist acidic tundra (in 2009 and 2017), combined with relative aboveground biomass and NPP measurements, brought key information on the influence of permafrost degradation and the vegetation composition on the litter elemental composition, and thereby the plant nutrient cycling across the subarctic tundra.