In this latest edition of the Long Term Ecological Research Network series, John Hobbie and George Kling synthesize the findings from the NSF-funded Arctic LTER project based in Toolik Lake, Alaska, a site that has been active since the mid 1970's. Alaska's Changing Arctic presents research concerning the core issues of climate-change science, and addresses the treeless regions of arctic Alaska, as well as the adjoining boreal forests. As a whole, Alaska's Changing Arctic examines both terrestrial and freshwater-aquatic ecosystems, and their three typical habitats: tundra, streams and lakes.
Alaska's Changing Arctic provides a history of the Toolik Lake LTER site, and discusses its present condition and future outlook. It features contributions from top ecologists, biologists, and environmental scientists, creating a multidisciplinary survey of the Alaskan arctic ecosystem. Chapter topics include glacial history, climatology, land-water interactions, mercury found in the Alaskan arctic, and the response of lakes to environmental change. The final chapter brings together these findings in order to make predictions regarding the consequences that arctic Alaska faces due to global warming and climate change, and discusses the future of the LTER site in the region.
Alaska's Changing Arctic is the definitive scientific survey of the past, present, and future of the ecology of the Alaskan arctic, and the comprehensive source for the findings from the LTER site in the region.
Table of Contents
Preface
Contributors
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Climate and Hydrometeorology of the Toolik Lake Region and the Kuparuk River Basin: Past,
Chapter 3: Glacial History and Long-Term Ecology in the Toolik Lake Region
Chapter 4: Late-Quaternary Environmental and Ecological History of the Arctic Foothills, Northern Alaska
Chapter 5: Terrestrial Ecosystems at Toolik Lake, Alaska
Chapter 6: Land-Water Interactions
Chapter 7: Ecology of the Streams of the Toolik Region
Chapter 8: The Response of Lakes near the Arctic-LTER to Environmental Change
Chapter 9: Mercury in the Alaskan Arctic
Chapter 10: Ecological Consequences of Present and Future Change in Arctic Alaska
John Hobbie is the Director of The Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory. He is the former Lead Principal Investigator of the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Arctic Site.
George W. Kling is the Robert G. Wetzel Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan.