The Soils and 

 Their Nutrients 



P. L. Gersper, V. Alexander, 



S. A. Barkley, R. J. Barsdate, and P. S. Flint 



INTRODUCTION 



Soils of the coastal tundra are formed under conditions of low tem- 

 perature and high moisture. Mean annual precipitation is low, but rela- 

 tive humidity is high and drainage is impeded by permafrost; conse- 

 quently, soil moisture content is high. Low temperatures and high mois- 

 ture contents lead to the accumulation of organic matter. Because of the 

 cold, impervious permafrost there are strong gradients of temperature 

 and oxygen saturation within the thawed soil, but soil profile differentia- 

 tion is retarded by the restriction of downward leaching and associated 

 chemical transformations. Visibly distinct horizons are largely associated 

 with organic matter, a product of organic input from primary produc- 

 tion and physical redistribution via frost churning processes. 



Overall, the soils of the coastal tundra at Barrow are similar to those 

 of other tundra areas. In the data gathered by French (1974) on 27 soils 

 from nine tundra sites studied during the International Tundra Biome ef- 

 fort, soil from a wet meadow of the Biome research area at Barrow falls 

 near the middle of the range of values observed for most soil parameters, 

 although this soil is somewhat wetter than those of most other circum- 

 polar sites. In an analysis based on climate and soil factors (Rosswall and 

 Heal 1975), five microtopographic units from the coastal tundra at Bar- 

 row (meadows, polygon troughs, rims and basins of low-centered poly- 

 gons, and centers of high-centered polygons) were found to be similar to 

 each other, but were also very similar to the meadow site on Devon 

 Island and the moss turf and moss carpet on Signy Island, Antarctica. 

 The soils near Barrow are different from those at Prudhoe Bay, 320 km 

 to the east, which are calcareous and lower in organic matter (Douglas 

 and Bilgin 1975, Everett and Parkinson 1977). The properties of the soils 

 of the coastal tundra at Barrow are therefore the products of both the 

 climatic factors common to arctic tundra regions and the specific 

 geologic history of this area. 



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