A summer that never came – three months of research on the tundra

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At Latnjajaure Field Station near Abisko in northern Sweden, researchers have been studying the effects of climate change on tundra vegetation since the 1990s. Long-term experiments have been warming the vegetation for around 30 years, while differences in elevation and snowmelt timing allow researchers to investigate how different temperatures and growing-season lengths affect the ecosystem.

“We are trying to understand how warming changes the tundra at several levels – from how individual plants grow and adapt, to how they interact with pollinators and whether the ecosystem stores carbon or releases it into the atmosphere,” says Blandine Lyonnard, PhD student at the University of Gothenburg.

An entire ecosystem under scrutiny

The researchers measure, among other things, how carbon dioxide and methane are taken up and released by the soil and vegetation. They also monitor plant growth and flowering, weather variables and pollinating insects.

In experiments where plants are moved between different elevations and exposed to different temperatures, the researchers can investigate how well they adapt to changing conditions. Long-term observations of vegetation, temperature, moisture and snowmelt also make it possible to distinguish lasting changes from natural variation between years.

An unusually cold and wet summer

Fieldwork in the mountains always means being prepared for rapidly changing weather, but this year’s season was unusually demanding. Rain and strong winds dominated, and temperatures often remained between 0 and 5°C. Even at the end of July, temperatures rarely rose above 8–10°C, making the work both slower and more strenuous.

“Late July is usually warm and sunny, and we can normally work in the field in T-shirts and shorts. But this year, the good weather never came. Entire days of rain and strong winds were the norm. During the three summer months, we were able to wear T-shirts no more than three times. While much of Europe experienced repeated heatwaves, our field season was dominated by cold, cloud, rain and strong winds,” says Blandine Lyonnard.

Equipment had to be protected from the rain, while some tasks required researchers to work with bare hands despite the cold. Moving through the snow with 30-kilogram backpacks was another challenge. Blandine recalls one occasion when her colleague sank so deep that one of her boots became stuck in the snow – and it took 30 minutes to dig it out.

“We had different ways of coping with it. Above all, we encouraged and supported each other. In the evenings, we created a warm environment together where we could recover,” she continues.

Research far from everyday life

Life at the field station is simple and close to nature. Water for drinking, cooking and washing up is collected in 15-litre buckets from the stream next to the kitchen. Electricity comes from solar panels and a generator that is switched on once a day to charge research equipment and phones.

“Contact with the outside world is limited. At the station, there is a single tablet with an internet connection and one shared email address that we use for important messages to colleagues and family. Anyone who wants to make a phone call or have more personal contact with the outside world has to hike about half an hour uphill to a cliff where there is mobile reception,” says Blandine Lyonnard.

There are no showers either. Instead, the researchers can wash in the lake, where the water temperature rose from 0°C to a maximum of 9°C during the summer. Every third day, however, the sauna is heated. There, the researchers can get hot water, warm up properly and spend time with colleagues working on other projects.

But the isolation is also one of the things Blandine Lyonnard appreciates about fieldwork. With everyday emails, messages and other distractions out of the way, research and life at the station take centre stage.

“We become completely immersed in the science and the system we study. We help each other and learn much more about our colleagues’ research than we do through regular meetings. It creates a strong sense of being part of a team.”

Now the work on the results begins

After the summer, the researchers have brought back thousands of plant samples and large amounts of data. Among other things, they have repeatedly measured carbon dioxide and methane exchange in 105 experimental plots, as well as more than 200 individual leaves, monitored the flowering of 45 plant species and measured more than 5,000 plants in experiments along an elevation gradient.

The next step is to process the samples and check, organise and analyse the datasets. The first results are expected during the coming year, while the larger datasets and long-term comparisons will take longer to interpret. The aim is to better understand how changes in vegetation, pollination and plant–soil interactions together affect the tundra’s exchange of carbon dioxide and methane – and what role the tundra may play in a warmer climate.

From left to right, upper line: Radka, field assistant, Carolina, student, me, Kasper, field assistant, Maria, PhD student, Beate, master student, Eugenious, field assistant, Kai, PhD student, then the bottom line: left to right: Klara master student and field assistant, Cristina, field assistant