Stordalen Mire

A palsa permafrost mire and lake system with climate and vegetation research reaching back to the 1970’s

68.20°N, 19.03°E, 351m above sea level

Map

About Stordalen

Stordalen mire is the subarctic region located about 10 km southeast of the Abisko Scientific Research Station and ten meters above Lake Tornetrask. The mire is in the discontinuous permafrost zone, encompassing a mosaic of thaw stages with associated distinct hydrology and vegetation, microbiota, and organic matter chemistry. 

It is made up of four major habitats: (1) elevated, nutrient-deficient (ombrotrophic) areas with hummocks and small shallow depressions; (2) wet, nutrient-richer (minerotrophic) depressions; (3) pools and (4) brooks. 

Stordalen mire is characterized by three land cover types: palsa, sphagnum, and eriophorum, respectively. The topography in Stordalen is characterized by a gradient from high elevation (≈800 m.a.s.l.) in the southern part to low lying topography (≈360 m.a.s.l.) in the north. The upper (southern) catchment has steep slopes consisting of igneous and metamorphic rock outcrops and tundra, with patchy lakes and mires. Lower catchment streams are dispersed and drain into larger lower lying lakes. The inflection point of the catchment is marked by birch forest (Betula pubescens spp) and further towards the north, by the emergence of mires and lakes.

The permafrost at Stordalen is thawing, and this thaw is altering habitats and plant and microbial communities. According to vegetation surveys and analyses of aerial photographs taken at Stordalen, permafrost thaw between 1970 and 2000 has caused dry permafrost hummocks to decrease in area by 10%, giving way to wetter minerotrophic sites, which increased by 17%. These changes have been accompanied by shifts in plant community from shrubs and lichens in permafrost hummocks to Sphagnum spp. in wetter sites followed by evolution to tall graminoid species as thaw-induced subsidence increases.[1] 

Stordalen Mire was part of the International Biological Programme and has been of environmental research interest for several decades.

The mire is in the discontinuous permafrost zone. Peat depth is 1-3 m and permafrost is usually found at depths below 0.5-1 m. The soil is organic, with 99% organic matter content. As a result of recent years warming in the area, permafrost has been observed to degrade in many parts of the mires. The permafrost thaw is altering habitats and plant and microbial communities. The extent of the wetland vegetation has grown considerably, and methane emissions have increased.

Data is available on plant community, permafrost distribution and carbon flux dynamics since the 1970s.

The site hosts an ICOS ecosystem station. Besides standard ICOS measurements (primarily data on greenhouse gas concentrations and fluxes, latent and sensible heat fluxes, meteorological and soil parameters), laughing gas N2O flux measurements, as an example, are carried out at the site.

Site Established: Early 1970’s

Research Projects

• The study of the ecological impacts of permafrost degradation

• Microbial ecology

• Soil viromics

• Carbon cycling

• Methane flux

Projects

Data Collected

Data collected at Stordalen is primarily data on greenhouse gas concentrations and fluxes, as well as latent and sensible heat fluxes. In addition: several meteorological and soil parameters.

Available Instruments & Infrastructure

Descriptions of instruments in the field collecting data, e.g. climate stations, flux towers, etc.

• ICOS ecosystem station

Principal Investigators

Meet the PI's working on projects at the Nuolja Field Site (use field site name tags in a summary block)

Collaborators

list of hyperlinked collaborators on projects at this site

Funders

Note: we get a Funders page set up later, this can be a summary widget displaying funder blog posts tagged to this field site.

Stordalen Field Site Photo Gallery

Stordalen in the News

The work of researchers in Stordalen was recently featured in two episode of our podcast, Field Notes on Climate Change. The first, ‘Methane-burping Lakes,’ explores dissolved carbon dioxide and methane transfer into the air from surface water and how that varies with different vegetation in lakes, and ebullition - the bubbles of methane produced by microbes in lakes. The second, ‘Copepods,’ explores the growth rates of copepods in ponds with differing vegetation to understand how they react to an increase in organic matter, which is likely to occur with climate change.

Listen to the episodes using the player below, or find the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher and Acast.

Articles

Myren ger svar på jordens hälsa (The ant gives answers to the health of the earth), Sydsvenskan, 2008

Klimatförändringarna får kalfjället att växa igen (Climate change causes the scales to grow again), Sveriges Natur ,2017

Permafrosten kan snart vara ett minne blott (The permafrost may soon be just a memory), Gefle Dagblad, 2008

Illustrations

Publications

Explore publications associated with Stordalen Mire.