The cold season dominates most of the year in Arctic and high latitude regions but is understudied due to difficult access and challenging working conditions. Nonetheless, plant and microbial activity and biogeochemical turnover continues during the non-growing season under snow cover and sub-zero temperatures. Such activity is likely to play an important role in year-round biological activity and ecosystem functioning, greenhouse gas fluxes, and nutrient cycling.
High latitude climate change is particularly pronounced during winter - where changing weather including extreme winter warming events, rain-on-snow events, and variable snow melt dates may substantially alter the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of terrestrial ecosystems and ecosystem interactions. However, there is a lack of data and understanding of the disruptions to soil-microbe-plant-snow-atmosphere interactions and ecosystem functioning resulting from changing winter conditions. Addressing the cold-season knowledge gap will bring us closer to a more comprehensive understanding of high latitude ecosystems and responses to seasonal and climatic changes.
In this interdisciplinary session, we aim to attract researchers working on the themes of Arctic and high latitude cold season biogeochemistry, microbiology and plant-soil processes. We want to bring multiple varied perspectives from different ecosystem constituents together, forming an integrated ecosystem approach that considers drivers, transformations, feedbacks, and interdependencies. We welcome studies focusing on experimental and modelling approaches to understand Arctic winter plant and microbial functioning, biogeochemical cycling, and associated impacts on the growing season, responses to changing Arctic seasonality, and winter climate regimes.