Applied Paleoecology: Vegetation History, Soil Carbon Accumulation and Climatic Interactions of the Peatlands on the North Slope, Alaska

Wendy R. Eisner    weisner1@cs.com (Principal Investigator current)

Abstract    

     Abstract  ATM-9416858  Eisner, Wendy R.  Ohio State University  Title:
     Applied Paleoecology: Vegetation History, soil carbon  accumulation and
     climatic interactions of the Peatlands on the  North Slope, Alaska    This
     award supports research under the ARCSS/PALE Program .  A wide  range of
     paleoecological indicators from selected North Slope  peatlands will be
     analyzed in order to reconstruct vegetation  history and the relationship of
     tundra vegetation to carbon  accumulation rates.  Cores and surface samples
     will be taken from  sites currently under investigation within the ARCSS
     Program  initiatives.  Surface samples will be used to calibrate biotic
     indicators with vegetation type, soil temperature, thaw depth, and  moisture.
     Pollen, spores, fungi, algae, and macrofossils will be  analyzed as proxy data
     for the past ecosystem. Vegetation  reconstruction will be compared to changing
     carbon accumulation  rates in the cores, offering ecologists and soil
     scientists a very  long-term monitoring device of landscape dynamics in this
     complex  environment.  The arctic tundra plays a significant role as a major
     repository of the world's carbon.  Northern peat may still be  accumulating
     soil carbon or may actually be losing it.  This  question has important
     consequences for global change scenarios.