Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

International Tundra Experiment: impacts of long-term experimental warming and climate variability on tundra ecosystems  (ITEX-IPY)

Outline
The International Tundra Experiment is a coordinated network of scientists and sites across the tundra biome established to: a) monitor for long-term changes in terrestrial ecosystems; and b) conduct warming and other environmental manipulations to test hypotheses related to effects of environmental variability and change on these ecosystems. ITEX sites span the tundra biome from alpine sites in Europe and North America to Polar Desert sites in high arctic Canada, Greenland and Svalbard. Many sites have been monitored since the early 1990’s using standardised protocols published in the ITEX Manual. The standardised methods have allowed unique syntheses of data to examine responses at different levels of integration across the biome. Establishing networks of sites conducting standardised observations across the Arctic was a major recommendation in the recent Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Our syntheses have shown that short-term responses to moderate warming are relatively similar at the species level, with increased rates of phenology, growth and reproduction; however, important differences in responses at the plant community level were found depending on location, and initial conditions (soil moisture regimes, and species composition and abundance). For our contribution to IPY, we will use our unique network to examine the long-term responses to experimental warming at the ecosystem level, and begin to scale these results to landscapes and regions through vegetation models, and connections to other terrestrial programs. Changes in the carbon balance of tundra systems will impact feedbacks to global climate, and we are presently unable to predict the effects of warming on the carbon balance because of the lack of experimental studies. For IPY, we will establish new standardised measurements of responses at each ITEX site, including:· changes in organic and inorganic nutrient availability using ion exchange membranes;· stable isotope analysis of major species to determine whether shifts in water or nutrient sources have occurred;· soil respiration rates and net ecosystem carbon exchange using chamber techniques to assess effects on CO2 fluxes and carbon balance;· analysis of 14C of CO2 respired from soils to determine age of carbon lost from the system in response to warming;· use of spectral radiometric techniques to assess the changes in species composition and abundance, which will allow scaling the responses to vegetation models based on satellite imagery; In addition, we will complete a comprehensive synthesis of species and community responses in control plots to ambient climate variability across the biome. This analysis will provide the context for the long-term experimental responses.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
This project will significantly advance knowledge and contribute to the goals in IPY Themes 1, 2 and 3. The ITEX network provides extensive coverage of the variability across the tundra biome, and the combination of long-term monitoring and experimental studies allows excellent assessments of the current and future states of arctic terrestrial ecosystems. These systems play important roles in the feedbacks to global climate change, especially through carbon fluxes and albedo, and our new experimental research will provide important information on the potential changes in the coming decades. Our results will also allow both vegetation and climate modellers to better parameterize their models.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
ITEX is an international research program, involving scientists and research sites in tundra areas of all eight countries of the Arctic Council, as well as alpine sites in China, Japan, and Switzerland. We also collaborate with and contribute to CALM, CEON, CARMA, CAFF, and CAT-B, and will be involved with other IPY projects.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
ITEX sites are located in arctic tundra regions of all eight countries in the Arctic Council, alpine tundra of China, Japan, and Switzerland. We hope to re-establish sites in Russia, and to establish new sites in the Antarctic region.

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: 01/07 – 12/07      01/08 – 12/08      
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
National agencies provide research logistics for each ITEX site. Our network is already well-established, although we hope to establish new sites and re-establish old sites in Russia and elsewhere. We do not anticipate a need for significant field facilities for the project.

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
ITEX sites and research already provides a significant legacy of research infrastructure. Long-term research plots are established at each site, and these plots will continue to be maintained by individual researchers well beyond the life of IPY. Establishing new sites and re-establishing old sites, especially in the Russian Arctic, will greatly increase the significance of the ITEX network. The standardized protocols in the ITEX Manual are “living documents” and have already been used as models in other national and international research programs.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?

Logistical support is supplied by national agencies to each ITEX participant.

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
ITEX is recognized and supported in all arctic countries. An affiliated Canadian project (CANTTEX) has been approved by the Canadian IPY committee, and approval will be sought from the relevant committees in other nations.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?


This will be a new initiative within the ongoing projects in ITEX. The goal is to ensure the new ecosystem level measurements are made using the same techniques in the same summer at each ITEX site.

How will the project be organised and managed?
ITEX already has an organisational structure with a Chair and a Scientific Steering Committee. The committee will be responsible for organizing and managing the planned research for IPY. We will use the ITEX web site forum to fully discuss the new projects, and will formally endorse them at the next ITEX Science Workshop, tentatively planned for January 2006.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
We will include an IPY project page on the ITEX web site, which will be updated regularly. We will also encourage participants to provide short video clips of their research to be shown on the ITEX web site. The IPY results will be presented in a series of special synthesis papers published in refereed journals. We anticipate a single report to be published in a popular science magazine (e.g. BioScience, Ambio) that will synthesize the major findings from all the IPY projects in ITEX.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
Participants in ITEX have gained valuable experience in data management and synthesis over the 14+ years of the program. Data are submitted to the JOSS facility of UCAR in Boulder, Colorado. We will continue to submit data to JOSS and to make data available by request through the ITEX web site.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
Proposals will be submitted to national funding agencies in each of the ITEX countries, including funding from national IPY committees. Funding for the ITEX secretariat will be sought from the Canadian and US IPY committees.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
This IPY initiative will provide the first-ever biome-wide assessment of responses of carbon and nutrient dynamics to experimental warming.Our project is linked to at least four other IPY projects: Back to the Future – revisiting IBP tundra sites (TV Callaghan); Greening of the Arctic (DA Walker); Effect of temperature change in arctic and Antarctic ecosystems (A Huiskes); and the Pan Arctic Isotope Precipitation Network (J Welker). We will work closely with all projects.The Russian Arctic has not been properly included in most international research efforts, and ITEX sites established in the early 1990’s have been neglected. We will use the IPY initiative to provide encouragement to Russian tundra ecologists to initiate these new ITEX studies.

PROPOSER DETAILS

Dr Greg Henry
University of British Columbia
1984 West Mall
Vancouver, BC
V6T 1Z2
Canada

Tel: 1-604-822-2985
Mobile: 1-604-764-5857
Fax: 1-604-822-6150
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation