Design of the tundra rainfall experiment (TRainEx) to simulate future summer precipitation scenarios

The majority of climate models predict severe increases in future temperature and precipitation in the Arctic. Increases in temperature and precipitation can lead to an intensification of the hydrologic cycle that strongly impacts Arctic environmental conditions. In order to investigate effects of future precipitation scenarios on ecosystems, precipitation manipulation experiments are being performed to simulate drought and extreme precipitation conditions. However, most of the existing research so far has been unevenly distributed, primarily focusing on temperate grasslands and woodlands. Despite large changes in the predicted precipitation and potentially high sensitivity of the Arctic tundra ecosystem to these changes, it is among the most understudied ecosystems for precipitation manipulation experiments. Gherardi and Sala (2013) presented a design for precipitation manipulation experiments that, relative to other methods at the time, was cheap, simplistic, and easily reproducible. In this study, we:•Present modifications to the original Gherardi and Sala (2013) design that are adapted to cold, harsh conditions, such as those present in the Siberian Arctic tundra.•Provide a detailed documentation of the improved design.•Validate our modified experimental design based on the first two years of our experiment.