GEOG Associate Research Professor Dong Chen, principal lead of NASA’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) Disturbance Working Group, has led the production of a comprehensive database that compiles field data collected in the Alaskan tundra over the past 50 years. This database, titled the Synthesized Alaskan Tundra Field Database (SATFiD), aims to enhance our understanding of how tundra vegetation and permafrost interact with the rapidly warming regional climate. 

The Arctic tundra is the northernmost terrestrial biome on Earth. Underlain by continuous permafrost, which is rich in carbon, the Arctic tundra plays a crucial role in the Earth's system. However, due to its remoteness and low human presence, the Arctic tundra is one of the most poorly studied biomes. Large uncertainty remains regarding many aspects of the interactions between vegetation, permafrost, and the climate. While there have been field expeditions conducted in the tundra by various teams over the past century, many of them are inconsistent with each other in terms of the variables being measured and the methodologies of the measurements. Additionally, many of the collected data scattered across different data depositories, with others, particularly the early measurements, were never archived.

The synthesized database has been published by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC). Chen's team developed a Google Earth Engine App to allow users to explore this database interactively.

Related Reference:

Chen, D., Zhu, X., Kogure, M., Hoy, E., Xu, X., French, N., Berner, L.T., Breen, A.L., Bret-Harte, M.S., Davidson, S.J., Ebersole, J.J., Frost, G.V., Goetz, S.J., Hewitt, R.E., Hollingsworth, T.N., Hung, J.K.Y., Iversen, C.M., Iwahana, G., Jandt, R.R., Jenkins, L.K., Kade, A.N., Klupar, I., Loboda, T.V., Ludwig, S.M., Macander, M.J., Mack, M.C., Meyers, C.R., Michaelides, R.J., Miller, E.A., Natali, S.M., Nawrocki, T.W., Nelson, P.R., Parsekian, A.D., Rastetter, E., Raynolds, M.K., Rocha, A.V., Schaefer, K., Schickhoff, U., Schuur, E.A.G., Tsuyuzaki, S., Tweedie, C.E., Vargas, S., Walker, D.A., Webber, P.J., Williams, M., & Zona, D. (2023). Field Data on Soils, Vegetation, and Fire History for Alaska Tundra Sites, 1972-2020. ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2177 

Photo by Ahmer Kalam on Unsplash