As part of the SITES Water program at Abisko, lake monitoring in Stordalen is being established. Stordalen is a peatland catchment area with sporadic permafrost, which has been an important site for data collection since the 1950s. The SITES Water lake and stream monitoring will complement the already existing spectral and ecosystem flux monitoring, as part of SITES Spectral and ICOS, respectively.
As part of the SITES Water program, water balance, lake meteorological measurements, lake thermal stratification and biogeochemical dynamics are monitored. On the lake in Stordalen, a raft has already been installed, which monitors lake temperature, conductivity, and oxygen. Grab samples for lake biogeochemistry have been collected this summer, and will give a first indication of the background concentrations in the lake. This week a station for water level measurements is being installed on the lake shoreline, which requires drilling into a rock so that the installation can be bolted in place.
Abisko Scientific Research Station staff are busy getting the lake set up before the lake becomes ice-covered in about two months.
Photos: Shore installation at lake in Stordalen (left) and Ruben Werle drilling into the rock so that the installation can be bolted in place (right), photographer: Niklas Rakos.