Asha Kaliappan

In the Arctic, climate warming increases the rate of CO2 released into the atmosphere, and iron(III) or ferric iron species can accelerate the decomposition further by serving as electron acceptors in soils with low amounts of oxygen or by inhibiting microbial decomposition through binding organic molecules. In this study, soil pore water samples were taken from Imnaviat Creek at Toolik Field Station to quantify the iron(II) and iron(III) concentrations to determine if iron concentration has an effect on the surrounding vegetation. It was hypothesized that soil pore water samples with higher amounts of iron will have a greater diversity of surrounding vegetation because iron is known to limit crop yield as a result of low availability in soils. To measure the iron(II) and iron(III) concentrations, a transect was created at Imnaviat Creek with five sampling points. At each sampling point, soil pore water samples, temperature, thaw depth, soil moisture, pH, and point framing measurements were taken. From these data, there was no clear indication of distance on the transect having an effect on the iron concentration for both iron(II) and iron(III). However, the results indicated iron favors wet, acidic environments and decreases the number of species in the surrounding vegetation. These findings can be further studied to help determine which plants demonstrate more growth in wetter environments and their effect on the amount of CO2 uptake in the Arctic.