Climarctic Seasons

The field-based study was conducted in two locations situated in the vicinity of the research settlement of Ny-Alesund (Svalbard): Knudsenheia and Ossian Sarsfjellet. At these locations, an environmental gradient along a typical Arctic toposequences was established, and three slope sites of different microtopography, named upslope, midslope and downslope, were determined along each gradient. Three replicated plots of 1m2 were defined at each site and a randomized sampling scheme was put into place, involving subdivision of each plots into 12 small squares of which three were sampled and pooled to constitute one sample at each season. Biological soil crusts (0 to 2 cm depth) and mineral soils (5 to 10 cm depth) were collected from each 18 plots (2 locations x 3 microtopography slope sites x 3 replicated plots) at 4 occasions: summer 2017 (July to August), spring 2018 (June), winter 2019 (February) and autumn 2019 (September). Winter samples were collected only at the Knudesnheia location.