Eight Mile Lake Research Watershed, Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Research (CiPEHR): Off Plot Soil Incubation By Depth I - Soil Properties and Final Microbial Biomass 2013-2014

The Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Research (CiPEHR) project addresses the following questions: 1) Does ecosystem warming cause a net release of C from the ecosystem to the atmosphere?, 2) Does the decomposition of old C, that comprises the bulk of the soil C pool, influence ecosystem C loss?, and 3) How do winter and summer warming alone, and in combination, affect ecosystem C exchange? We are answering these questions using a combination of field and laboratory experiments to measure ecosystem carbon balance and radiocarbon isotope ratios at a warming experiment located in an upland tundra field site near Healy, Alaska in the foothills of the Alaska Range. We investigated C and nitrogen (N) mineralization within the soil profile by incubating soil cores collected adjacent to (but not within) the CiPEHR site. These soil cores spanned the entire active layer and approximately 30 cm of permafrost. Soil cores were separated into 10 cm depth intervals and incubated for 241 days at 15 degC and field moisture was maintained with water additions. This dataset contains data on the bulk soil %C, bulk soil %N, soil bulk density, initial gravimetric water content measured prior to the incubation. Microbial biomass was measured at the end of the incubation and is presented here as well.