The map encloses a 20 km^2 area surrounding Toolik Lake that stretches from the Dalton Highway on the east to Jade Mountain on the west. It includes the Toolik Field Station, the old Toolik Lake pipeline construction camp gravel pad and airstrip on the northeast side of the lake, and the primary terrestrial research areas on the south, west and east sides of the lake, as well as several smaller research lakes in the immediate vicinity of Toollik Lake. The area contains surfaces with irregular topography that were glaciated during the Late Pleistocene.
The glacial geology of the region affects a wide variety of landscape and ecosystem properties including topography, abundance of lakes, plant production, soil carbon, spectral reflectance, biodiversity, trace-gas fluxes and heat flux of the landscape. Glacial deposits within the Toolik Lake area are assigned to Itkillik I (late Pleistocene, about 120-150 kya) and Itkillik II (late Pleistocene, about 25-11.5 kya) glaciations of the central Brooks Range glacial succession.
Back to: Toolik Lake Area Geobotanical
Go to Website Link :: Toolik Arctic Geobotanical Atlas below for details on legend units, photos of map units and plant species, glossary, bibliography and links to ground data.
Map Themes: Glacial geology, Percent Water, Soil carbon, Surficial geology, Surficial Geomorphology, Vegetation
References
Walker, D. A. and H. A. Maier 2008. Vegetation in the vicinity of the Toolik Field Station, Alaska. Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Biological Papers of the University of Alaska #28.
