ALBERT

Description: Numerous studies have evaluated the dynamics of Arctic tundra vegetation throughout the past few decades, using remotely sensed proxies of vegetation, such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). While extremely useful, these coarse-scale satellite-derived measurements give us minimal information with regard to how these changes are being expressed on the ground, in terms of tundra structure and function. In this analysis, we used a strong regression model between NDVI and aboveground tundra phytomass, developed from extensive field-harvested measurements of vegetation biomass, to estimate the biomass dynamics of the circumpolar Arctic tundra over the period of continuous satellite records (1982-2010). We found that the southernmost tundra subzones (C-E) dominate the increases in biomass, ranging from 20 to 26%, although there was a high degree of heterogeneity across regions, floristic provinces, and vegetation types. The estimated increase in carbon of the aboveground live vegetation of 0.40 Pg C over the past three decades is substantial, although quite small relative to anthropogenic C emissions. However, a 19.8% average increase in aboveground biomass has major implications for nearly all aspects of tundra ecosystems including hydrology, active layer depths, permafrost regimes, wildlife and human use of Arctic landscapes. While spatially extensive on-the-ground measurements of tundra biomass were conducted in the development of this analysis, validation is still impossible without more repeated, long-term monitoring of Arctic tundra biomass in the field.

Description: Question: How do interactions between the physical environment and biotic properties of vegetation influence the formation of small patterned-ground features along the Arctic bioclimate gradient? Location: At 68° to 78°N: six locations along the Dalton Highway in arctic Alaska and three in Canada (Banks Island, Prince Patrick Island and Ellef Ringnes Island). Methods: We analysed floristic and structural vegetation, biomass and abiotic data (soil chemical and physical parameters, the n-factor [a soil thermal index] and spectral information [NDVI, LAI]) on 147 microhabitat releves of zonalpatterned-ground features. Using mapping, table analysis (JUICE) and ordination techniques (NMDS). Results: Table analysis using JUICE and the phi-coefficient to identify diagnostic species revealed clear groups of diagnostic plant taxa in four of the five zonal vegetation complexes. Plant communities and zonal complexes were generally well separated in the NMDS ordination. The Alaska and Canada communities were spatially separated in the ordination because of different glacial histories and location in separate floristic provinces, but there was no single controlling environmental gradient. Vegetation structure, particularly that of bryophytes and total biomass, strongly affected thermal properties of the soils. Patterned-ground complexes with the largest thermal differential between the patterned-ground features and the surrounding vegetation exhibited the clearest patterned-ground morphologies.

Description: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution June 1995

Description: This thesis addresses the question, "How do small-scale physics and biology combine to produce dense aggregations of certain species of zooplankton in the Great South Channel (GSC) of the Gulf of Maine?" The thesis consists of three relatively independent parts: an observational study made while following two right whales as they fed on dense patches of the copepod Galanus finmarchicus in the northern GSC; a detailed description of a tightly integrated set of biological and physical observations made in the GSC by means of a new instrument, the Video Plankton Recorder (VPR); and a two-dimensional Eulerian numerical model that simulates one way in which a physical flow field, combined with a biological behavior pattern, may produce dense plankton patches at a convergent front. Part I: Data from a wide variety of instruments was combined to produce a coherent picture of the physical and biological environment near two feeding right whales observed in June, 1989. Instruments included a CTD (with transmissometer), a MOCNESS net system, a 150-kHz ADCP, and a towed acoustic plankton profiler operating at 120 and 200 kHz. Acoustic data were intercalibrated with net-tow data and with "noise" in the transmissometer signal in order to estimate copepod abundance in the plankton patches on which the whales were feeding. One of the whales was observed to reverse course when copepod abundance dropped below about 1.5- 4.5 x 103 copepods/m3 , which is consistent with independent estimates of the density of copepods necessary for a right whale to gain more energy from the prey it ingests than it loses to the extra hydrodynamic drag it experiences while feeding. Part II: The VPR is a towed underwater microscope designed to image plankton non-invasively with sufficient resolution to obtain information on the spatial distribut ion of organisms on scales ranging from millimeters to hundreds of kilometers. CTD instrumentation mounted on the VPR makes it possible to correlate biological and hydrographic data with great precision. This study reports data from one transect made across the GSC in May, 1992. The data show close correlations between hydrographic features (such as fronts, plumes and water masses) and broad-scale plankton distribution. In addition, it was possible to correlate the fine-scale (order tens of meters) patchiness in plankton distribution with the local stability of the water column (as indicated by gradient Richardson number). In one case, biological data provided an aid in determining the origin of one of the observed water masses. Part III: This chapter presents a two-dimensional Eulerian numerical model that shows how depth-keeping swimming behavior on the part of an organism, combined with a convergent flow field at a surface front , can create dense patches of the organism. In this model a steady-state flow field and vertical diffusivity field are prescribed, along with the initial distribution of the plankton. The plankton swim vertically with speeds that depend only on depth, but the form of that depth-dependence may take into account such factors as the vertical variation in light level or in the concentration of some prey organism. An analysis of various nondimensional parameters associated with the model illustrates the roles played in determining the final structure of the patch by such factors as diffusion, water velocity and details of the animals' swimming behavior. Output from the model is compared with data taken at a dense plankton patch observed near a front in the northern Great South Channel in early June, 1989.

Description: My first three years in the Joint Program were paid for by the Office of Naval Research under an ONR Fellowship. I would also like to acknowledge subsequent support from the National Science Foundation under grant OCE 93-13671 and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under grants NA36GP0374 and NA26GP0431.

Description: Remote sensing has become a valuable tool in monitoring arctic environments. The aim of this paper is ground-based hyperspectral characterization of Low Arctic Alaskan tundra communities along four environmental gradients (regional climate, soil pH, toposequence, and soil moisture) that all vary in ground cover, biomass, and dominating plant communities. Field spectroscopy in connection with vegetation analysis was carried out in summer 2012, along the North American Arctic Transect (NAAT). Spectral metrics were extracted, including the averaged reflectance and absorption-related metrics such as absorption depths and area of continuum removal. The spectral metrics were investigated with respect to “greenness”, biomass, vegetation height, and soil moisture regimes. The results show that the surface reflectances of all sites are similar in shape with a reduced near-infrared (NIR) reflectance that is specific for low-growing biomes. The main spectro-radiometric findings are: (i) Southern sites along the climate gradient have taller shrubs and greater overall vegetation biomass, which leads to higher reflectance in the NIR. (ii) Vegetation height and surface wetness are two antagonists that balance each other out with respect to the NIR reflectance along the toposequence and soil moisture gradients. (iii) Moist acidic tundra (MAT) sites have “greener” species, more leaf biomass, and green-colored moss species that lead to higher pigment absorption compared to moist non-acidic tundra (MNT) sites. (iv) MAT and MNT plant community separation via narrowband Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) shows the potential of hyperspectral remote sensing applications in the tundra.