Arctic Observing Networks: Collaborative Research: Sustaining and amplifying the ITEX AON through automation and increased interdisciplinarity of observations

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该项目的目标是维持现有的ITEX AON，并增加收集的数据对更大科学界的适用性。国际冻土带实验（ITEX）网络收集了物候、植物生长、群落组成和生态系统特性方面的数据，作为研究北极环境变化的更大努力的一部分。该网络始于1990年初？通过在北极主要植被类型的一系列地点和生态系统中使用实验变暖和未操纵的样地（即对照），在推进与北极变暖可能产生的影响相关的知识方面发挥了关键作用。虽然具有很大的价值，但大多数ITEX测量都是劳动密集型和耗时的，这限制了采样的频率和空间范围。传感器技术的最新进展有望使这些人工测量的替代物在更大的区域内快速采样。这项工作将继续ITEX AON观测，并使用机器人传感器平台（网络信息机械系统，NIMS）启动一套相关的非侵入式测量。这些新的测量将通过与现有的1平方公里样本网格和卫星图像相连接，使测量能够按比例缩放到区域一级。我们迫切需要这些数据来提高我们监测苔原植被变化对北极系统影响的能力。这项工作将提高我们对陆地大气界面碳和水交换的认识，并为草食动物提供饲料质量信息。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The goal of this project is to maintain the existing ITEX AON and increase the applicability of the data collected to the greater scientific community. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) network has collected data on phenology, plant growth, community composition and ecosystem properties as part of a greater effort to study environmental arctic change. The network, started in early 1990?s, has played a key role in advancing knowledge related to the likely impacts of a warmer arctic through the use of experimentally warmed and un-manipulated plots (i.e., the controls) across a range of sites and ecosystems that span the major vegetation types of the Arctic. While of great value, most ITEX measurements are labor intensive and time consuming, which limit the frequency and spatial extent of sampling. Recent advances in sensor technology hold the promise to allow sampling of surrogates of these manual measurements rapidly and over larger areas. This work will continue the ITEX AON observations and initiate a suite of related, non-intrusive measurements using robotic sensor platforms (networked infomechanical systems, NIMS). These new measurements will enable scaling of measurements to the regional level by linking to existing 1 km2 sample grids and satellite imagery. These data are urgently needed to improve our capacity to monitor the impacts of changing tundra vegetation on the arctic system. This work should improve our understanding of the exchange of carbon and water across the land atmosphere interface and provide information on forage quality for herbivores.