Arctic Soil Classification and Patterned Ground

Soil Nitrogen Transformations Associated with Small Patterned-Ground Features along a North American Arctic Transect

Small patterned-ground features (PGFs) in the Arctic have unique soil properties that vary with latitude and may greatly affect tundra biogeochemistry. Because nitrogen availability can strongly limit arctic vegetation growth, we examined how soil nitrogen transformations differ between PGFs and the surrounding inter-PGF tundra along an arctic latitudinal gradient. We collected soils at eight s...

Concepts of Soil Formation and Classification in Arctic Regions

S' OME eighty years ago, when Dokuchaev (Margulis, 1954) distinguished five natural soil zones tundra, podzol, chernozem, desert, and laterite -the stage was set for a systematic study of soils as naturally occurring bodies. Of these, the tundra has received by far the least attention. European investigators, notably the Russians, have made many studies of the northern regions but in North Amer...

Rich and cold: diversity, distribution and drivers of fungal communities in patterned-ground ecosystems of the North American Arctic.

Fungi are abundant and functionally important in the Arctic, yet comprehensive studies of their diversity in relation to geography and environment are not available. We sampled soils in paired plots along the North American Arctic Transect (NAAT), which spans all five bioclimatic subzones of the Arctic. Each pair of plots contrasted relatively bare, cryoturbated patterned-ground features (PGFs)...

Linkages between Patterned Ground, Alder Shrubland Development, and Active Layer Temperature in the Northwest Siberian Low Arctic

Satellite photo-comparisons indicate extensive expansion of alder (Alnus) shrubs since 1968 within tundra ecotones near Kharp in northwest Siberia. Field observations reveal that nearly all expansion occurred on exposed circles in patterned ground. We mapped the location of alders and circles and measured surface organic thickness, mineral soil thickness, nearsurface soil temperature, shrub hei...

Soil and ground water salintty and their relations to physiography