Biocomplexity associated with biogeochemical cycles in arctic frost-boil ecosystems

该项目的中心目标是了解整个北极夏季温度梯度的地球化学循环、植被、扰动和气候之间的复杂联系，以便更好地预测生态系统对气候变化的反应。该项目的重点是霜冻沸腾，因为：（1）这些地貌的自组织过程驱动了广泛的北极生态系统的地球化学循环和植被演替。(2)这些生态系统可能是北极地区最多样化和最具生态重要性的地带性生态系统，对全球碳预算非常重要。(3)图案地面形成，土壤地球化学循环和植被之间的复杂生态关系，以及这些关系在多尺度上的意义还没有被研究。(4)系统对温度变化的响应可能是非线性的，但可以通过检查沿自然北极温度梯度沿着几个地点的系统组件之间的反馈的相对强度来理解和建模。

The central goal of this project is to understand the complex linkages between biogeochemical cycles, vegetation, disturbance, and climate across the full summer temperature gradient in the Arctic in order to better predict ecosystem responses to changing climate. The project focuses on frost-boils because: (1) The processes that are involved in the self-organization of these landforms drive biogeochemical cycling and vegetation succession of extensive arctic ecosystems. (2) These ecosystems contain perhaps the most diverse and ecologically important zonal ecosystems in the Arctic and are important to global carbon budgets. (3) The complex ecological relationships between patterned-ground formation, biogeochemical cycles, and vegetation and the significance of these relationships at multiple scales have not been studied. (4) The responses of the system to changes in temperature are likely to be nonlinear, but can be understood and modeled by examining the relative strengths of feedbacks between the components of the system at several sites along the natural arctic temperature gradient.