Substrate Induced Respiration (SIR) from 26 sites across vegetation community gradient in and near sensor network, 2017

In alpine ecosystems, small-scale variations in topography determine the spatial and temporal “patchiness” of snow accumulation, snowmelt, vegetation, and biological activity. In the Niwot Ridge Long-term Ecological Research Program VII proposal, Suding and colleagues specifically articulate a need to determine how asynchronous responses across a landscape affect catchment-scale export of water and nutrients in the context of changing climate (H4). Accordingly, we must develop an understanding of how asynchronous responses in patch-scale behavior including microbial activity and decomposition are connected hydrologically, how they aggregate at the catchment scale, and how those relationships may change in the future. To address this, we measured substrate induced respiration (SIR; analogous to microbial biomass) from alpine tundra soils at 26 locations across a soil moisture and corresponding vegetation community composition gradient that included NWT sensor network nodes 6 through 21 in the Saddle stream catchment. These data help to constrain interactions between patch-scale alpine biogeochemical and hydrological processes over space and time.