Air and soil temperatures and soil moisture in the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) plots at Utqiaġvik and Atqasuk, Alaska

Arctic ecosystems are changing in response to arctic warming, which is proceeding more than twice as fast as the global average. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) was established in the early 1990s to understand the effects of warming and environmental variability on tundra vegetation properties and ecosystem function. The ITEX program has been extremely valuable for detection of changes in tundra plant and ecosystem responses to experimental warming and to background climate change across sites that span the major ecosystems of the Arctic.
These files contain data representing the detailed microclimate of ITEX plots in Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) and Atqasuk in a text comma delimited format. The data presented are hourly plant canopy temperature, soil temperature, soil moisture, and soil salinity of four plots (two experiment open-top chamber plots and two control plots) at four sites (Atqasuk Wet Meadow, Atqasuk Dry Heath, Utqiaġvik Wet Meadow, and Utqiaġvik Dry Heath).

北极生态系统正随北极变暖发生改变，而北极变暖的速率是全球平均水平的两倍以上。国际冻原实验计划（International Tundra Experiment, ITEX）于20世纪90年代初启动，旨在探明增温与环境波动对冻原植被特征及生态系统功能的影响。该项目在横跨北极主要生态系统的多个样点中，为检测冻原植物及生态系统对实验性增温与背景气候变化的响应变化提供了极具价值的科研数据。
本数据集包含以逗号分隔的文本格式文件，记录了位于乌特恰维克（Utqiaġvik，旧称巴罗）与阿特萨苏克的ITEX样地的详细微气候数据。所呈现的数据为四个样点的逐小时观测值，每个样点包含四个样地（两个开顶式生长室（open-top chamber）实验样地与两个对照样地），观测指标涵盖植物冠层温度、土壤温度、土壤湿度及土壤盐度；这四个样点分别为阿特萨苏克湿草甸、阿特萨苏克干石南荒原、乌特恰维克湿草甸及乌特恰维克干石南荒原。