Arctic Great Rivers Observatory Data

The Arctic Great Rivers Observatory project (Arctic-GRO; NSF-OPP-0732985) focuses on the source, export and fate of water and water-borne constituents from the pan-arctic watershed to the Arctic Ocean. The project is sequel to the NSF-ARCSS PARTNERS project which established and implemented standard protocols (including seasonally representative sampling) for use on all the rivers. Samples for the Arctic-GRO project are from the same sampling locations as for the PARTNERS project, at downstream stations on the six largest rivers within the pan-arctic watershed: the Yenisey, Ob, Lena, and Kolyma Rivers in Siberia and the Yukon and Mackenzie Rivers in North America. The Arctic-GRO protocol contains two collection schemes. First, using the PARTNERS collection protocols, samples for a comprehensive suite of constituents are taken at 5 key timepoints that were specifically chosen to capture conditions during peak flow, base flow, and flows during maximum yearly permafrost melt. Depth/width integrated samples are collected just after ice clears from each of the rivers and twice at weekly intervals thereafter, and in late August-early September. An under-ice surface water sample is further collected between November and April. Second, a continuous (daily) sample collection has been added during the spring freshet period. This high resolution sampling begins as ice begins to break up on the river, and continues for approximately 30 days. Samples are collected from shore and processed for a subset of the constituents collected during the depth/width integrated samplings. Sample collection for Arctic-GRO began in spring 2009, and will continue through 3 full yearly cycles.