Synthesis and Scaling of Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Data on the North Slope and Coastal Zones of Alaska: A Basis for Studying Climate Change

了解陆地-海洋-大气耦合对于形成对北极系统的综合看法是至关重要的，也是北阿拉斯加海岸系统(SNACS)计划研究的关键组成部分。作为对SNAC的一个重要贡献，这是一项从阿拉斯加北坡到阿拉斯加波弗特海的水文变量与组分(营养物质和有机质)通量之间的联系的研究。这项工作的总体目标是对北极盆地的流量-成分关系有一个概括性的理解。主要问题是：北坡三个最大的盆地(库帕鲁克、科尔维尔和萨加瓦尼尔克托克)的流量和组分浓度之间有什么关系？在北极快速变暖的过去25年里，这些关系是否发生了变化？强调主要问题的具体空间和时间部分的三个分问题是：1)从三个最大的北坡盆地到阿拉斯加波弗特海的碳、氮和磷的当代通量是多少。2)三个最大的北坡盆地之间的流量-成分关系有何不同？3)过去25年的流量-成分关系如何告诉我们未来的变化？为了解决这些问题，该小组利用在库帕鲁克河收集的大量数据，作为北极LTER项目的核心部分。自20世纪70年代末以来，研究人员一直积极参与收集营养物质和有机物数据，并记录库帕鲁克河的流量。该研究小组将使用这些数据来定义开放水域季节的流量-成分关系。他们将开发与现有水文模型(NASA基于流域的陆面模型，CLSM)一起使用的传递函数，以估计科尔维尔河和萨加瓦尼尔克托克河流域当代和长期的组成通量。这种方法是必要的，因为我们缺乏关于科尔维尔和萨加瓦尼尔克托克的足够的历史数据来进行直接分析。对当代通量的估计将与该项目第二年和第三年在萨加瓦尼尔克托克河和科尔维尔河上进行的测量进行比较。为了综合目前在许多地点和许多尺度上收集的信息，需要确定广义的排放-组分传输关系。例如，在北极LTER遗址，目前的一个生物复杂性项目正在模拟山坡和小流域的水文学和生物地球化学。LTER Streams小组正在研究整个库帕鲁克流域范围内的营养螺旋。在更大的范围内，由淡水倡议支持的工作正在量化来自俄罗斯的Ob河、Yenisey河、Lena河和Kolyma河以及北美的Mackenzie河和Yukon河的当代陆地-海洋通量。在整个项目中将强调教育和外联。除了研究生的参与，该小组还打算让REU的学生(本科生的研究经验)参加该项目的第二年和第三年，无论是在实地还是在实验室。

Understanding land-ocean-atmosphere coupling is essential for developing an integrated view of the arctic system, and is a key component of the Study of the Northern Alaska Coastal System (SNACS) program. As an important contribution to SNACS, this is an investigation of the linkage between hydrologic variables and constituent (nutrients and organic matter) fluxes from the North Slope of Alaska to the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. The overarching goal of the work is to develop a generalized understanding of discharge-constituent relationships in arctic basins. The primary question is: What are the relationships between discharge and constituent concentrations in the three largest North Slope basins (Kuparuk, Colville, and Sagavanirktok) and have these relationships changed over the past 25 years of rapid warming in the Arctic? Three sub-questions that emphasize specific spatial and temporal components of the primary question are: 1) What are the contemporary fluxes of C, N and P from the three largest North Slope basins to the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. 2) How do discharge- constituent relationships differ among the 3 largest North Slope basins? 3) How do the discharge-constituent relationships over the past 25 years inform us about future changes? To address these questions, the group take advantage of extensive data collected in the Kuparuk River as a core part of the Arctic LTER project. Researchers have been actively involved in gathering nutrient and organic matter data and recording discharge in the Kuparuk River since the late 1970s. The team will use these data to define discharge-constituent relationships over the open-water season. They will develop transfer functions for use with an existing hydrologic model (the NASA Catchment-based Land Surface Model, CLSM) to estimate contemporary and long-term constituent fluxes from the Colville and Sagavanirktok river basins. This approach is necessary because we lack sufficient historical data on the Colville and Sagavanirktok for a direct analysis. Estimates of contemporary fluxes will be compared to measurements made on the Sagavanirktok and Colville rivers during Year 2 and Year 3 of the project. The generalized discharge-constituent transport relationships that will be defined are needed to synthesize information now being collected at many locations and at many scales. For example, at the Arctic LTER site a current BioComplexity project is modeling hillslope and small catchment hydrology and biogeochemistry. The LTER streams group is studying nutrient spiraling at the scale of the entire Kuparuk catchment. At a much larger scale, work supported by the Freshwater Initiative is quantifying contemporary land-ocean fluxes from the Ob, Yenisey, Lena, and Kolyma rivers in Russia, and Mackenzie and Yukon rivers in North America. Education and Outreach will be emphasized throughout the project. In addition to graduate student participation, the group intends for REU students (Research Experience as Undergraduate) to participate in Years 2 and 3 of the project, both in the field and in the lab.