Our 2010 summer research activities near Barrow were very successful. From July 1 to August 12, 2010 Ph.D. candidate Cove Sturtevant and assistant Tim Hubbard placed portable eddy covariance towers at 21 lake or vegetated drained lake features over a 150 square mile area near Barrow, Alaska. A total of three portable towers were deployed on the tundra continuously during this period, and were moved using two 4-wheelers and a trailer every three to four days.
The data collected will be used to assess the spatial variability of land-atmosphere fluxes of CO2 and CH4 and evaluate the trajectory of these fluxes accompanying the edaphic and vegetation changes along the thaw lake chronosequence on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska. We plan to repeat these portable tower measurements during the summer of 2011 and hope to add aircraft measurements covering a much larger area.
