Skip to main content

Arctic Landscape Conservation Cooperative

thumbnail
Information on the nature and distribution of permafrost is critical to assessing the response of Arctic ecosystems to climate change, because thawing permafrost under a warming climate will cause thaw settlement and affect micro-topography, surface water redistribution and groundwater movement, soil carbon balance, trace gas emissions, vegetation changes, and habitat use. While a small-scale regional permafrost map is available, as well as information from numerous site-specific large-scale mapping projects, landscape-level mapping of permafrost characteristics is needed for regional modeling and climate impact assessments. The project addresses this need by: (1) compiling existing soil/permafrost data from available...
thumbnail
The Arctic Tern completes annual epic migrations from pole to pole covering at least 40,000 kmon their round-trip journeys. They breed throughout Arctic Alaska from boreal to tundra habitatsand have their highest nesting densities inland (Lensink 1984). Arctic Terns typically choose nestsites on open ground near water and often on small islands in ponds and lakes (Hatch 2002).Arctic terns consume a wide variety of fish and invertebrate prey, fish are particularly importantduring the breeding season for feeding young (Hatch 2002). This species spends their winters(austral summers) in offshore waters near Antarctica (Hatch 2002). Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plainpopulation estimates from 2011 range from 7-12,000 (Larned...
thumbnail
The Red-necked Phalarope commonly breeds in both the Brooks Range foothills and ArcticCoastal Plain of Alaska. In Alaska, this species typically nests in wet tundra near water’s edge.It differs from the Red Phalarope in that it breeds further inland and at higher elevations (Rubegaet al. 2000). Like other phalaropes, this species depends on aquatic food sources for much of itsdiet (Rubega et al. 2000). Red-necked Phalaropes spend winter at sea in tropical waters in largenumbers off the west coast of South America (Rubega et al. 2000). Current North Americanpopulation estimate is 2.5 million with a declining trend (Morrison et al. 2006).
thumbnail
More than 35,000 lakes larger than 0.01 sq. km. were extracted from an airborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IfSAR) derived digital surface model acquired between 2002 and 2006 for the Western Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska. The IfSAR derived lake data layer provides an improvement over previously available datasets for the study area since it is more comprehensive and contemporary. Attributes assigned to the IfSAR-derived lake dataset include: area, lake elevation, elevation in 10, 25, 50, and 100 m buffers around a lake perimeter, the difference in elevation between the lake and these various buffers, whether a particular lake had a detectable drainage gradient exceeding 1.2 m, whether a...
Development and Application of an Integrated Ecosystem Model for Alaska
The Integrated Ecosystem Model (IEM) for Alaska and Northwest Canada Project integrated existing models of vegetation, disturbance, and permafrost into one complete ecosystem model for the state of Alaska and Northwest Canada.The final synchronized model will integrate existing climate, vegetation, disturbance, hydrology, and permafrost models to improve understanding of potential landscape, habitat and ecosystem change. The project’s (September 1, 2011 through August 31, 2016) primary goal was to develop the IEM modeling framework to integrate the driving components for and the interactions among disturbance regimes, permafrost dynamics, hydrology, and vegetation succession/migration for Alaska and Northwest Canada....
View more...
ScienceBase brings together the best information it can find about USGS researchers and offices to show connections to publications, projects, and data. We are still working to improve this process and information is by no means complete. If you don't see everything you know is associated with you, a colleague, or your office, please be patient while we work to connect the dots. Feel free to contact sciencebase@usgs.gov.