KYTALYK /CHOKURDAGH site PAGE21 WP4 Meeting, Department of Geography and Geology –University of Copenaghen 9-10 February 2012 (1)Vrije Universiteit, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences Amsterdam, The Netherlands Ko van Huissteden (1) Luca Belelli Marchesini (1)

PAGE21 observation sites in Siberian tundra Cherskii, continuous tundra Kytalyk, continuous tundra Samoylov Island, continuous tundra Vorkuta, discontinuous boreal forest Nadym, discontinuous boreal forest

Yakutsk Kytalyk Kytalyk research station (70 o 49’ 45’’N; 147 o 29’ 39’’E) Kytalyk Yakutsk Quite a remote site!! Equipment (and researchers) travel: by airplane from Yakutsk to Chokurdakh Airport (1239 Km) From Chokurdakh to destination by boat (~3hrs), despite air distance only 30 km. Chokhurdak h

Kytalyk site: main features Cold continental climate Mean annual air T: o C Air T range: [-25,-45] o C winter [+5,+25] o C summer Growing season limited to July and August Vegetation: graminoid tussock tundra (Walker et al., 2005) (tussock-sedge, dwarf shrub, moss tundra) 'Yedoma': organic-rich (about 2% carbon by mass) Pleistocene-age loess permafrost with ice content of 50–90% by volume. Active thaw lakes

Kytalyk landscape spatial variability Dry/wet tundra on drained thaw lake bottom active layer cm active layer tickest on wet locations River floodplain, active layer > 40 cm Dry tundra on 'ice complex' hills and plateaus active layer cm Lakes: 20% of area floodplain 'ice complex’ hills drained thaw lakes

Ecosystem scale fluxes: NEE and surface energy Micrometeorological (Eddy Covariance) measurements of: CO 2 and energy turbulent fluxes (H, LE) (relevant for WP2) operated since 2003 with maximum duration from early spring (April) to late autumn ( end of September) CO 2 vertical profile measurements added in 2008 Location: thaw lake bottom * start of measurements x end of measurements (Parmentier et al. JGR 2011)

Meteo tower:  wind profile,  air temperature and humidity  upward, downward PAR radiation  net radiation (LW+SW)  rain  atm. pressure  Eddy covariance tower:  3D wind speed  sonic temperature  CO 2,H 2 O molar densities  CH 4 with laser spectroscopy  Soil temperature profiles (20 sensors)  Soil heat flux (4 replicates)  Deeper borehole: 6 m, since 2010, operated by Hokkaido University (Go Iwahana / Atsuko Sugimoto)  Soil temperature profiles (20 sensors)  Soil heat flux (4 replicates)  Deeper borehole: 6 m, since 2010, operated by Hokkaido University (Go Iwahana / Atsuko Sugimoto) Measured variables

Thaw lake flux tower (#1) CH4 eddy covariance measurements started in 2008 but… 2010: inoperable methane analyzer due to power supply failure 2011: few good quality data in due hardware communication problems EC tower (#2) for CO 2 /H 2 O/CH 4 fluxes installed over the river floodplain in June 2011 LI7700 open path analyzer failure- no methane fluxes data collected yet. Ecosystem scale methane fluxes DLT-100 Cavity Ringdown Laser Los Gatos Research scroll pump Gill R3-50 Sonic anemometer data logging power supply: 180 kg 5 kW diesel generator wind generators solar panels LI7500 CO 2 /H 2 O IRGA

CO 2, CH 4, N 2 O Chambers (opaque, transparent) +photo-acoustic multi gas analyzer (INNOVA) 1-6 week(s) summer campaigns since 2004 Location: thaw lake bottom, river plain Leaf photosynthesis measurements Chamber based measurements Wet / dry tundra transect flux chamber transects 2010 Ice-rich Pleistocene deposits with mass wasting (down slope movement) Floodplain transect

CH 4 emission outside the growing season Mastepanov et al., 2009 (Nature): tundra in northern Greenland has high CH4 emission in the autumn escape from the stored CH4 during freezing? Not measured so far because of logistical difficulties in Kytalyk

Involved scientific staff: Ko van Huissteden (PI); Luca Belelli Marchesini (post doc) ; Angela Gallagher (PhD)*; Artem Budishchev (PhD)*; *cooperation with Wageningen University in manipulative experiments on vegetation/active layer. Looking forward to start..