HR: 1340h
AN: B33E-1089    [Abstracts]
TI: Development of an Urban Boreal Forest Observatory for Ecosystem and Carbon Exchange Research
AU: * Bertschi, I
EM: afitb@uaa.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Anchorage Environment and Natural Resources Institute, 707 A Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 United States
AU: Welker, J
EM: afjmw1@uaa.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Anchorage Environment and Natural Resources Institute, 707 A Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 United States
AU: Welker, J
EM: afjmw1@uaa.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Biological Sciences, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508 United States
AU: Sveinbjornsson, B
EM: afbs@uaa.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Biological Sciences, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508 United States
AU: Peterson, K
EM: afkmp@uaa.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Biological Sciences, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508 United States
AU: Olsson, P
EM: peter.olsson@uaa.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Anchorage Environment and Natural Resources Institute, 707 A Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 United States
AU: Boggs, K
EM: ankwb@uaa.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Anchorage Environment and Natural Resources Institute, 707 A Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 United States
AU: Carlson, M
EM: afmlc2@uaa.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Anchorage Environment and Natural Resources Institute, 707 A Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 United States
AU: Carlson, M
EM: afmlc2@uaa.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Biological Sciences, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508 United States
AB: We have begun to establish an Urban Boreal Forest Observatory (UBFO) on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus as a research and teaching platform for long-term measurements of atmosphere-biosphere interactions and ecosystem and organismic process studies. During the summer of 2005, two 10-m towers equipped with meteorological sensors were deployed at the UBFO to monitor meteorological parameters throughout the forest canopy, including canopy temperature profiles, soil temperature regimes, soil moisture, and canopy interception of precipitation and solar irradiance. The towers are located in contrasting habitats; an upland site dominated by white spruce and birch and a lowland site dominated by black spruce and sphagnum mosses. Measurements collected this summer indicate the upland and lowland sites have seasonal mean soil temperatures of 12.7 ± 0.9 and 10.6 ± 0.4 °C, respectively. Additionally, soil water content at the lowland site is a factor of 2.6 greater than that of the upland site (0.214 ± 0.002 and 0.082 ± 0.005 dS m^-1, respectively) while the seasonal mean air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and precipitation values are similar for the two sites. This research will contribute to establishing long-term monitoring of the Boreal Forest in an urban setting as part of the National Ecological Observatory Network, NEON, and our measurement array will expand this fall to include CO₂ and H₂O vapor vertical profiling for analysis of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and real-time data delivery to a web site and display screen in the Ecosystem Biomedical Laboratory at UAA. In the coming year, an infrared spectrometer (e.g., Fourier transform infrared or tunable diode laser system) capable of making in situ measurements of atmospheric ¹³CO₂ and ¹²CO₂ will be added to the platforms to observe isotopic CO₂ flux ratios and for partitioning NEE of CO₂ into its components of assimilation and respiration.
DE: 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315)
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
DE: 0454 Isotopic composition and chemistry (1041, 4870)
DE: 0498 General or miscellaneous
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005