Award Abstract # 0909155
Canopy gas exchange and growth of white spruce near the Arctic treeline: confronting measurements with models along natural and experimental resource gradients

NSF Org: OPP
Office of Polar Programs (OPP)
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE
Initial Amendment Date: June 30, 2009
Latest Amendment Date: June 30, 2009
Award Number: 0909155
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: William J. Wiseman, Jr.
OPP
 Office of Polar Programs (OPP)
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: September 1, 2009
End Date: October 31, 2012 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $512,445.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $512,445.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2009 = $512,445.00
History of Investigator:
  • Patrick Sullivan (Principal Investigator)
    pfsullivan@alaska.edu
  • Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Alaska Anchorage Campus
3211 PROVIDENCE DR
ANCHORAGE
AK  US  99508-4614
(907)786-1777
Sponsor Congressional District: 00
Primary Place of Performance: University of Alaska Anchorage Campus
3211 PROVIDENCE DR
ANCHORAGE
AK  US  99508-4614
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
00
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): DZFJT2KH9C43
Parent UEI: KNP1HA2B9BF8
NSF Program(s): ANS-Arctic Natural Sciences
Primary Program Source: 0100CYXXDB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 0000, 1079, 9150, OTHR
Program Element Code(s): 528000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.078

ABSTRACT

The position of the arctic treeline has important implications for surface energy budgets and carbon cycling in a changing climate. Modeling efforts suggest these effects are relevant on regional and global scales. Our understanding of the controls on tree growth at the arctic treeline has been developed using tree ring studies, which are necessarily correlative and not mechanistic in nature. These tree ring studies have identified both positive and negative radial growth responses to warming in the later half of the 20th century. Investigators have speculated that negative growth trends reflect an increasing importance of temperature-induced drought stress and that treeline advance may be expected in mesic and wet areas, but not in dry areas, with future climate warming. Recent work has revealed several important complexities that clearly show we have oversimplified the relationships between climate and tree growth at the arctic treeline. Detailed measurements of seasonal changes in tree physiology and growth in response to changes in resource availability are now required to take our understanding to the next level. This work will coordinate continuous measurements of white spruce canopy gas exchange with weekly measurements of branch gas exchange and leader, branch, radial and fine root growth in trees receiving factorial nutrient and water supplements along a gradient of parent material depth. Results of the study will, for the first time: resolve the seasonality of C uptake and water loss in treeline white spruce; compare the seasonality and magnitudes of growth in all major organs; articulate the consequences of changes in resource availability for white spruce gas exchange physiology and growth along a gradient where resource availability varies naturally; and identify a process-based model that accurately describes the relationships between climate and tree growth at the arctic treeline.


PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Iverson CM; Murphy MT; Allen MF; Childs J; Eissenstat DM; Lilleskov EA; Sarjala TM; Sloan VL; Sullivan PF "Advancing the use of minirhizotrons in wetlands" Plant and Soil , v.352 , 2012
Sullivan and Sveinbjornsson "Environmental controls on needle gas exchange and growth of white spruce (Picea glauca) on a riverside terrace near the Arctic treeline" Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research , v.43 , 2011 , p.279-288 DOI: 10.1657/1938-4246-43.2.279
Sullivan PF "Snow distribution, soil temperature and late winter CO2 efflux from soils near the Arctic treeline in northwest Alaska" Biogeochemistry , v.99 , 2010 , p.65
Sullivan PF; Sveinbjornsson B "Environmental controls on needle gas exchange and growth of white spruce on a riverside terrace near the Arctic treeline" Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research , v.43 , 2011 , p.279
Sullivan PF; Sveinbjornsson B "Microtopographic control of treeline advance in Noatak National Preserve, northwest Alaska" Ecosystems , v.11 , 2010 , p.275
Wolken, Hollingsworth, Rupp, Chapin, Trainor, Barrett, Sullivan et al. "Evidence and implications of recent and project climate change in Alaska?s forest ecosystems" Ecosphere , v.2 , 2011 , p.124
Wolken JM; Hollingsworth TN; Chapin FS III; McGuire AD; Schuur EAG; Sullivan PF et al. "Evidence and implications of recent and projected change in Alaska's forest ecosystems" Ecosphere , v.2 , 2011

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