This mapping includes six locations along the Dalton Highway and in the Prudhoe Bay Oilfield area, forming a north-south transect across the climate gradient on the North Slope of Alaska. From south to north, the locations are Happy Valley, Sagwon, Franklin Bluffs, Deadhorse, West Dock, and Howe Island. At each location, 10 x 10 m grids were mapped to characterize the heterogeneity of vegetation in the patterned ground ecosystems created by soils, climate and vegetation interactions. This work was funded by the US National Science Foundation Biocomplexity of Patterned Ground grant OPP-0120736.
The maps were hand-drawn in the field, and later digitized as shapefiles. Thaw depth, snow depth, and NDVI were sampled on the grids, usually every meter. The vegetation mapping legend is similar to that used for the Upper Kuparuk River.
Links to Biocomplexity of Patterned Ground Sites
Happy Valley, Sagwon, Franklin Bluffs, Deadhorse, West Dock, Howe Island
Go to Website :: Biocomplexity of Frost Boil Ecosystems below for more information.
Map Themes:
Vegetation, Ancillary data - snow depth, thaw depth, NDVI
References
Barreda, J. E., J. A. Knudson, D. A. Walker, M. K. Raynolds, A. N. Kade, and C. A. Munger. 2006. Biocomplexity of Patterned Ground Data Report. Alaska Geobotany Center, Fairbanks, AK.
Kade, A. N., D. A. Walker, and M. K. Raynolds. 2005. Plant communities and soils in cryoturbated tundra along a climate gradient in the Low Arctic, Alaska. Phytocoenologia 35:761–820.
Raynolds, M. K., D. A. Walker, and H. A. Maier. 2005. Plant community-level mapping of arctic Alaska based on the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map. Phytocoenologia 35:821-848. doi:10.1127/0340-269X/2005/0035-082
Walker, D. A., H. E. Epstein, V. E. Romanovsky, C.-L. Ping, G. J. Michaelsen, R. P. Daanen, Y. Shur, R. A. Peterson, W. B. Krantz, M. K. Raynolds, W. A. Gould, G. Gonzalez, D. J. Nicolsky, C. M. Vonlanthen, A. N. Kade, H. P. Kuss, A. M. Kelley, C. A. Munger, C. T. Tarnocai, N. V. Matveeva, and F. J. A. Daniels. 2008. Arctic patterned-ground ecosystems: A synthesis of studies along a North American Arctic Transect. Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences 113:G03S01. doi:10.1029/2007JG000504
