We spent the first day scouting out possible field sites. We prepared as possible in in advance, – via Google Earth, maps and landcover products, talking to people familiar with the area, reading the literature, but it’s never quite the same as being there on the ground. We’d earmarked some possible sites from GoogleEarth, – that looked like they were representative of a given ecosystem, and that were homogeneous enough that if we ‘up-scaled’ to satellite data the sampling locations would be as representative of the site as possible. But one thing that we weren’t prepared for was that a lot of the minor roads visible from GoogleEarth, that came off the main road running past Abisko and up to Norway, were private roads to houses, or commercial buildings that were gated off at the main road. This made it really difficult to find (relatively) remote field sites, i.e. away from people, buildings and human-disturbance, and also to be able to get to a tundra site which were up an elevation gradient.
Nonetheless we settled on the following:
A wetland site
Dominant species: Eriophorum angustifolium and Rubus chamaemorus
A dwarf shrub site
Dominant species: Salix spp. and Betula nana
And a deciduous, broadleaf tree site
Dominant species: Betula pubescens
With all the instruments working, and the sun out (happy days), we were able to set up the equipment and take some photosynthesis, reflectance and solar-induced fluorescence measurements at the bog and dwarf shrub sites.
All photo credits: Cheryl Rogers
Arctic Research 