Projects
This page outlines the primary project of the GVSU AEP. Visit the personnel pages for more material, including copies of posters and presentations.

Long-term Vegetation Monitoring
Primary Investigator: Robert D. Hollister

Brief Description:
This study seeks to quantify and improve the understanding of short-term and long-term responses of tundra vegetation to warming. This project provides data for improved prediction of the response of the tundra to climate change.

This experiment, which has been in place in the Barrow since 1994 and at Atqasuk since 1996, has provided new insights on flower and growth responses to temperature. The project examines the response of plants in perminanent plots over time. It also includes a warming experiment. This research is a contribution to the US NSF Arctic Observatory Network (AON) Program and the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX). ITEX sites are located at 37 locations in 13 countries including all the Arctic Nations. ITEX uses small, passive, clear-plastic, open-top chambers to warm the tundra. The chambers raise the daily temperature of the tundra plant canopy by 1.5 to 2.0 ºC which is in the range predicted by global climate simulations.

Measures Collected at all Sites:
Plant Phenology and Growth
Species Composition and Abundance
Screen Height Temperature
Canopy Temperature
Soil Temperature
Precipitation
Canopy Relative Humidity
Soil Moisture
Light Intensity
Wind Speed Near the Ground

Research Design:
There are 24 chambers and 24 control plots at each of the four sites studied. This high amount of replication allows for detection of change in spite of the noise of the system. The sites span gradients of temperature, from cooler Barrow to warmer Atqasuk, and moisture, from wet meadow to dry heath tundra types. This is depicted in the figure below.

Sites by treatment

Observed Species by Site

Barrow		Atqasuk
Dry Heath	Wet Meadow	Dry Heath	Wet Meadow
Alopercurus alpinus Arctagrostis latifolia Carex stans Cassiope tetragona Draba lactea Draba micropetala Festuca brachyphylla Juncus biglumis Luzula arctica Luzula confusa Oxyria digynia Papaver hultenii Papaver lapponicum Pedikalaris kanei Poa arctica Poa malacantha Potentilla hyparctica Salix rotundifolia Saxifraga caespitosa Saxifraga cernua Saxifraga flagellaris Saxifraga foliolosa Saxifraga nivalis Saxifraga punctata Senecio atropurpureus Stellaria laeta Vaccinium vitis-idaea	Alopecurus alpinus Arctophila fulva Calamagrostis holmii Cardamine pratensis Carex stans Carex subspathacea Cerastium beeringianum Cochlearia officinalis Draba lactea Draba micropetala Dupontia fisheri Eriophorum russeolum Eriophorum scheuchzeri Eriophorum triste Hierochloe pauciflora Juncus biglumis Luzula arctica Luzula confusa Melandrium apetalum Petasites frigidus Poa arctica Ranunculus nivalis Ranunculus pygmaeus Salix pulchra Salix rotundifolia Saxifraga caespitosa Saxifraga cernua Saxifraga foliolosa Saxifraga hieracifolia Saxifraga hirculus Stellaria humifusa Stellaria laeta	Antennaria friesiana Arctagrostis latifolia Armeria sibirica Artemesia artica Artemesia borealis Carex bigelowii Carex saxatilis Cassiope tertragona Diapensia lapponica Hierachloe alipina Ledum palustre Luzula arctica Luzula confusa Luzula wahlenbergii Minuartia obtusiloba Polygonum bistorta Salix phlebophylla Trisetum spicatum Vaccinium vitis-idaea	Betula nana Calamagrostis spp. Carex aquatilis Carex rariflora Carex rotundata Dupontia psilosantha Eriophorum angustifolium Eriophorum russeolum Eriophorum scheuchzeri Luzula arctica Luzula wahlenbergii Pedicularis sudetica Polygonum viviparum Salix polaris Salix pulchra

Acknowledgements:
Funding for this research is provided by the Arctic Sciences Division of the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Award # OPP-0632263 & # OPP-0856516) with logistics provided by the Barrow Arctic Research Consortium (BASC).