Aboveground biomass was determined in twelve plots at the Kougarok hillslope site Kougarok Road, Mile Marker 64 (KG_MM64), Seward Peninsula, Alaska, from samples collected in late July of 2016. The sampled plots were located across six ecotypes present at this site (n=2 replicates per ecotype). Methods employed included destructive harvests to sample understory species (“Understory Clip plots”) and shrub surveys combined with existing allometric relationships to determine the aboveground biomass of tall shrub species (“Shrub Clip Plots”). Current year leaves and stems were separated to quantify net primary production of leaves and stems. This data package contains two CSV data files, one pdf and one zip file.
The October 2020 update (*.v3) now provides of aboveground biomass and net primary production data (NPP) by plant species and tissue type. The initial release (*.v2) reported just aboveground biomass by plant functional type. Both versions are provided.
Foliar specific leaf area, %C, %N, %P, d15N and d13C were measured on an array of vascular plant leaves collected at the Kougarok hillslope site starting in 2016. Leaves were collected during various plant harvests, including understory clip plots, shrub clip plots, nodule biomass plots, N fixation rate measurements and alder point-center-quarter transects. Paired observations from these harvests are also available through the NGEE Arctic data catalogue (see supplemental files).
This October 2020 update (*v3) only removed the Ecotype column. No data were changed from initial release (*v2). Both versions are provided.
The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a 10-year research effort (2012-2022) to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research.
The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.
Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy’s Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).
