Eight Mile Lake Research Watershed, Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Research (CiPEHR): Invertebrate Communities, 2015

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. In this study, we examined how Arctic terrestrial invertebrate communities are affected by warmer summer temperatures and thawing permafrost through the changes in plant productivity, quality, and composition. Using a seven year manipulation of summer air temperatures and winter soil temperatures in the Alaskan tundra we sampled the invertebrate communities in the summer of 2015. Specifically, we asked (1) how do invertebrate communities differ with warmer summer temperatures and thawing permafrost, and (2) are invertebrate community differences due to changes in plant composition, productivity or quality?