Filling in critical knowledge gaps of ecosystem properties across the Arctic.

The Arctic is a critical biome for biodiversity, biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem services but most research in the region is strongly clustered around a few locations. This means that scientific understanding of Arctic processes, which guide both predictive models and policy debates, probably disproportionately influence by only a few locations with environmental conditions which may or may not be representative of the biome as a whole. This project will use a unique map of Arctic scientific research to identify six sites representing the least studied regions of the Arctic then perform a wide-ranging, rapid field survey of key environmental properties at each site. These results will be compared with matching surveys at two of the most intensively studied Arctic sites. The results will provide key insights into the full range of environmental variation across the Arctic, thereby helping to improve predictions and models of whole-Arctic processes and conditions under climate change.

This project is financed by the Strategic Research Area BECC.