• Energy Research

Aims: An Arctic Vegetation Classification (AVC) is needed to address issues related to rapid Arctic-wide changes to climate, land-use, and biodiversity. Location: The 7.1 million km2 Arctic tundra biome. Approach and conclusions: The purpose, scope and conceptual framework for an Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA) and Classification (AVC) were developed during numerous workshops starting in 1992. The AVA and AVC are modeled after the European vegetation archive (EVA) and classification (EVC). The AVA will use Turboveg for data management. The AVC will use a Braun-Blanquet (Br.-Bl.) classification approach. There are approximately 31,000 Arctic plots that could be included in the AVA. An Alaska AVA (AVA-AK, 24 datasets, 3026 plots) is a prototype for archives in other parts of the Arctic. The plan is to eventually merge data from other regions of the Arctic into a single Turboveg v3 database. We present the pros and cons of using the Br.-Bl. classification approach compared to the EcoVeg (US) and Biogeoclimatic Ecological Classification (Canada) approaches. The main advantages are that the Br.-Bl. approach already has been widely used in all regions of the Arctic, and many described, well-accepted vegetation classes have a pan-Arctic distribution. A crosswalk comparison of Dryas octopetala communities described according to the EcoVeg and the Braun-Blanquet approaches indicates that the non-parallel hierarchies of the two approaches make crosswalks difficult above the plantcommunity level. A preliminary Arctic prodromus contains a list of typical Arctic habitat types with associated described syntaxa from Europe, Greenland, western North America, and Alaska. Numerical clustering methods are used to provide an overview of the variability of habitat types across the range of datasets and to determine their relationship to previously described Braun-Blanquet syntaxa. We emphasize the need for continued maintenance of the Pan-Arctic Species List, and additional plot data to fully sample the variability across bioclimatic subzones, phytogeographic regions, and habitats in the Arctic. This will require standardized methods of plot-data collection, inclusion of physiogonomic information in the numeric analysis approaches to create formal definitions for vegetation units, and new methods of data sharing between the AVA and national vegetation- plot databases.

Vegetation surveys were carried out in four different study areas in the Sakha Republic, Russia: in the mountainous region of the Verkhoyansk Range within the Oymyakonsky and Tomponsky District (Event EN21-201 - EN21-219), and in three lowland regions of Central Yakutia within the Churapchinsky, Tattinsky and the Megino-Kangalassky District (Event EN21220 - EN21264). The study area is located within the boreal forest biome that is underlain by permafrost soils. The aim was to record the projective ground vegetation in different boreal forest types studied during the RU-Land_2021_Yakutia summer field campaign in August and September 2021.Ground vegetation was surveyed for different vegetation types within a circular forest plot of 15m radius. Depending on the heterogeneity of the forest plot, multiple vegetation types (VA, VB, or VC) were chosen for the survey. The assignment of a vegetation type is always unique to a site. Their cover on the circular forest plot was recorded in percent.In total, 84 vegetation types at 58 forest plots were assessed. All data were collected by scientists form the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) Germany, the University of Potsdam Germany, and the North-Easter Federal University of Yakutsk (NEFU) Russia.

AbstractThis study assesses the vulnerability of Arctic coastal settlements and infrastructure to coastal erosion, Sea‐Level Rise (SLR) and permafrost warming. For the first time, we characterize coastline retreat consistently along permafrost coastal settlements at the regional scale for the Northern Hemisphere. We provide a new method to automatically derive long‐term coastline change rates for permafrost coasts. In addition, we identify the total number of coastal settlements and associated infrastructure that could be threatened by marine and terrestrial changes using remote sensing techniques. We extended the Arctic Coastal Infrastructure data set (SACHI) to include road types, airstrips, and artificial water reservoirs. The analysis of coastline, Ground Temperature (GT) and Active Layer Thickness (ALT) changes from 2000 to 2020, in addition with SLR projection, allowed to identify exposed settlements and infrastructure for 2030, 2050, and 2100. We validated the SACHI‐v2, GT and ALT data sets through comparisons with in‐situ data. 60% of the detected infrastructure is built on low‐lying coast (10 m a.s.l). The results show that in 2100, 45% of all coastal settlements will be affected by SLR and 21% by coastal erosion. On average, coastal permafrost GT is increasing by 0.8°C per decade, and ALT is increasing by 6 cm per decade. In 2100, GT will become positive at 77% of the built infrastructure area. Our results highlight the circumpolar and international amplitude of the problem and emphasize the need for immediate adaptation measures to current and future environmental changes to counteract a deterioration of living conditions and ensure infrastructure sustainability.

Field investigations were performed in the central Lena Delta. In total, 25 sites were investigated. The sites were chosen to represent a variety of vegetation communities of the investigated region. 30 m² sample plots (sites) were demarcated in the most homogeneous locations. Heterogeneity was accommodated by roughly assorting vegetation into two to three vegetation types per sampling plot. Within each area of roughly estimated vegetation types we selected one 0.5 x 0.5 m subplot for representative ground-layer above-ground biomass (ABG) harvesting (major taxa and other). For moss and lichen AGB harvesting inside 0.5 x 0.5 m subplots representative 0.1 x 0.1 m subplots were chosen. All harvested AGB samples were weighed fresh in the field. In general, AGB samples with a weight of more than 15 g were subsampled. All samples were oven dried (60 °C, 24 h and weighed again). All ground-layer vegetation AGB assessments were calculated for the fifteen-meter radius plot in g/m² for each sample plot, see https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.935923. All data was collected by scientists from Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and University of Potsdam, Germany.

Aggregated moss layer projective vegetation cover is given in percent for each taxon for 57 sites. The cover of different vegetation types at the sites is given in percent as well.The vegetation surveys were carried out in four different study areas in the Sakha Republic, Russia: in the mountainous region of the Verkhoyansk Range within the Oymyakonsky and Tomponsky District (Event EN21-201 - EN21-219), and in three lowland regions of Central Yakutia within the Churapchinsky, Tattinsky and the Megino-Kangalassky District (Event EN21220 - EN21264). The study area is located within the boreal forest biome that is underlain by permafrost soils. The aim was to record the projective ground vegetation in different boreal forest types studied during the RU-Land_2021_Yakutia summer field campaign in August and September 2021.The ground vegetation projective cover in percent was assessed within a circular forest plot of 15m radius. Depending on the heterogeneity of the forest plot, multiple vegetation types (VA, VB, or VC) were surveyed separately. The assignment of a vegetation type is always unique to a site. Up to four quadrats of 2x2 m were surveyed per vegetation type and projective cover in percent recorded separately for herbaceous and moss layers. All vegetation smaller than 40 cm was recorded. Additionally, ground vegetation projective cover was surveyed in 4 rings of 50 cm width around the center of the circular forest plot. Photos of quadrats were taken at the time of survey.Average ground vegetation cover per plot was calculated by using an average weighted by vegetation types for each site. The ring survey data was not included in the plot average.In total, 491 quadrats at 57 forest plots were investigated. All data were collected by scientists form the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) Germany, the University of Potsdam Germany, and the North-Easter Federal University of Yakutsk (NEFU) Russia.

Field investigations were performed in the central Lena Delta. In total, 25 sites were investigated. The sites were chosen to represent a variety of vegetation communities of the investigated region.30 m2 sample plots (sites) were demarcated in the most homogeneous locations. Heterogeneity was accommodated by roughly assorting vegetation into two to three vegetation types per sampling plot. Within each area of roughly estimated vegetation types we selected one 0.5 x 0.5 m subplot for representative ground-layer above-ground biomass (ABG) harvesting (major taxa and other). For moss and lichen AGB harvesting inside 0.5 x 0.5 m subplots representative 0.1 x 0.1 m subplots were chosen. All ground-layer vegetation AGB assessments were calculated for the fifteen-meter radius plot in g m2 for each sample plot.All harvested AGB samples were weighed fresh in the field. In general, AGB samples with a weight of more than 15 g were subsampled. All samples were oven dried (60 °C, 24 h and weighed again).All data was collected by scientists from Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and University of Potsdam, Germany.

The MEthane Remote sensing Lidar missioN (MERLIN) aims at demonstrating the spaceborne active measurement of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, based on an Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) nadir-viewing LIght Detecting and Ranging (Lidar) instrument. MERLIN is a joint French and German space mission, with a launch currently scheduled for the timeframe 2021/22. The German Space Agency (DLR) is responsible for the payload, while the platform (MYRIADE Evolutions product line) is developed by the French Space Agency (CNES). The main scientific objective of MERLIN is the delivery of weighted atmospheric columns of methane dry-air mole fractions for all latitudes throughout the year with systematic errors small enough (<3.7 ppb) to significantly improve our knowledge of methane sources from global to regional scales, with emphasis on poorly accessible regions in the tropics and at high latitudes. This paper presents the MERLIN objectives, describes the methodology and the main characteristics of the payload and of the platform, and proposes a first assessment of the error budget and its translation into expected uncertainty reduction of methane surface emissions.