ALBERT

Description: Vegetation biomass is a globally important climate-relevant terrestrial carbon pool. Landsat, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 satellite missions provide a landscape-level opportunity to upscale tundra vegetation communities and biomass in high latitude terrestrial environments. We assessed the applicability of landscape-level remote sensing for the low Arctic Lena Delta region in Northern Yakutia, Siberia, Russia. The Lena Delta is the largest delta in the Arctic and is located North of the treeline and the 10 °C July isotherm at 72° Northern Latitude in the Laptev Sea region. During the LENA2018 expedition, we set up plots for plant projective cover and Above Ground Biomass (AGB) and sampled shrubs for shrub-ring analyses. AGB is providing the magnitude of the carbon flux, whereas stand age is irreplaceable to provide the cycle rate. AGB data and shrub age data clearly show a separation between i) low disturbance landscape types with dominant AGB moss contribution, but always low vascular plant AGB (〈0.5 kg m-2) characterised by old shrubs of several decades of stand age versus ii) a much higher vascular plant AGB contribution (〉 0.5 kg m-2) with only young shrubs in high disturbance regimes. The low disturbance regimes are represented on the Holocene and Pleistocene delta terraces in form of azonal polygonal tundra complexes and softly dissected valleys with zonal tussock tundra. In contrast, the high disturbance regimes are sites of thermo-erosion such as along thermo-erosional valleys and on floodplains. We upscaled AGB and above ground carbon pool ages using a Sentinel-2 satellite acquisition from early August 2018. We classified via classification training using Elementary Sampling Units that are the 30 m x 30 m vegetation field plots. We then used the land cover classes and grouped them according to their settings either in high disturbance or low disturbance regimes with each associated AGB value ranges and shrub age regimes. We also evaluated circum-Arctic harmonized ESA GlobPermafrost land cover and vegetation height remote sensing products covering subarctic to Arctic land cover types for the central Lena Delta. The products are freely available and published in the PANGAEA data repository under https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.897916 and https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.897045. ESA GlobPermafrost land cover and vegetation height remote sensing products and our Sentinel-2 derived AGB product for the central Lena Delta shows realistic spatial patterns of landcover classes and biomass distribution at landscape level. However, in all products, the high biomass patches of high shrubs in the tundra landscape could not spatially be resolved as they are confined to patchy and linear distribution, not representing large enough areas suitable for upscaling. We found that high disturbance regimes with linked high and rapid AGB fluxes are distributed mainly on the floodplains and as patches along thermoerosioal features, e.g. valleys. Whereas the low disturbance landscapes on Yedoma upland tundra and Holocene terraces occur with larger area coverage representing decades slower and in magnitude smaller AGB fluxes.

Description: Warming air temperatures, shifting hydrological regimes and accelerating permafrost thaw in the catchments of the Arctic rivers is affecting their biogeochemistry. Arctic river monitoring is necessary to observe changes in the mobilization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from permafrost. The Lena River is the second largest Arctic river and 71% of its catchment is continuous permafrost. Biogeochemical parameters, including temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), stable water isotopes, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and absorption by colored dissolved organic matter (aCDOM) have been measured as part of a new high-frequency sampling program in the central Lena River Delta. The results show strong seasonal variations of all biogeochemical parameters that generally follow seasonal patterns of the hydrograph. Optical indices of DOM indicate a trend of decreasing aromaticity and molecular weight from spring to winter. High-frequency sampling improved our estimated annual fluvial flux of annual dissolved organic carbon flux (6.79 Tg C). EC and stable isotope data were used to distinguish three different source water types which explain most of the seasonal variation in the biogeochemistry of the Lena River. These water types match signatures of (1) melt water, (2) rain water, and (3) subsurface water. Melt water and rain water accounted for 84% of the discharge flux and 86% of the DOC flux. The optical properties of melt water DOM were characteristic of fresh organic matter. In contrast, the optical properties of DOM in subsurface water revealed lower aromaticity and lower molecular weights, which indicate a shift toward an older organic matter source mobilized from deeper soil horizons or permafrost deposits. The first year of this new sampling program sets a new baseline for flux calculations of dissolved matter and has enabled the identification and characterization of water types that drive the seasonality of the Lena River water properties.

Description: 〈jats:p〉Modern pollen–vegetation–climate relationships underpin palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate reconstructions from fossil pollen records. East Siberia is an ideal area for investigating the relationships between modern pollen assemblages and near natural vegetation under cold continental climate conditions. Reliable pollen-based quantitative vegetation and climate reconstructions are still scarce due to the limited number of modern pollen datasets. Furthermore, differences in pollen representation of samples from lake sediments and soils are not well understood. Here, we present a new pollen dataset of 48 moss/soil and 24 lake surface-sediment samples collected in Chukotka and central Yakutia in East Siberia. The pollen–vegetation–climate relationships were investigated by ordination analyses. Generally, tundra and taiga vegetation types can be well distinguished in the surface pollen assemblages. Moss/soil and lake samples contain generally similar pollen assemblages as revealed by a Procrustes comparison with some exceptions. Overall, modern pollen assemblages reflect the temperature and precipitation gradients in the study areas as revealed by constrained ordination analysis. We estimate the relative pollen productivity (RPP) of major taxa and the relevant source area of pollen (RSAP) for moss/soil samples from Chukotka and central Yakutia using Extended 〈jats:italic〉R〈/jats:italic〉-Value (ERV) analysis. The RSAP of the tundra-forest transition area in Chukotka and taiga area in central Yakutia are ca. 1300 and 360 m, respectively. For Chukotka, RPPs relative to both Poaceae and Ericaceae were estimated while RPPs for central Yakutia were relative only to Ericaceae. Relative to Ericaceae (reference taxon, RPP = 1), 〈jats:italic〉Larix〈/jats:italic〉, 〈jats:italic〉Betula〈/jats:italic〉, 〈jats:italic〉Picea〈/jats:italic〉, and 〈jats:italic〉Pinus〈/jats:italic〉 are overrepresented while 〈jats:italic〉Alnus〈/jats:italic〉, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, and 〈jats:italic〉Salix〈/jats:italic〉 are underrepresented in the pollen spectra. Our estimates are in general agreement with previously published values and provide the basis for reliable quantitative reconstructions of East Siberian vegetation.〈/jats:p〉