Winter C-Flux in Arctic Ecosystems Under Changing Climate: Effects of Soil Carbon and Active Layer Dynamics

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ABSTRACT OPP-9713999, 9732732 SCHIMEL, WELKER, PING UNIV. CALIFORNIA, UNIV. WYOMING, UNIV. ALASKA This project is designed to develop a sufficient understanding of winter carbon dynamics in arctic soils to model effectively the spatial dynamics of winter carbon dioxide fluxes, and how they will vary with altered climate. The work will involve field measurements of carbon dioxide fluxes and environmental factors likely to control them coupled to modeling and mechanistic studies. The project has four main objectives: 1) to quantify the magnitude and timing of winter carbon dioxide fluxes across a range of arctic tundra types; 2) to determine how winter respiration is controlled by the physical regime of the soils; 3) to evaluate how organic matter composition control winter carbon cycling; and 4) to develop simple models of winter microbial activity. These objectives will link the soil thermal and unfrozen water regimes to microbial activity and substrate use. The overarching goal is to develop the simplest possible models that can be driven by broad scale parameters while retaining necessary mechanistic information to provide reliable estimates of carbon dynamics.