A lake-centric geospatial database to guide research and inform management decisions in an Arctic watershed in northern Alaska experiencing climate and land-use changes

Abstract

Lakes are dominant and diverse landscape features in the Arctic, but conventional land cover classification schemes typically map them as a single uniform class. Here, we present a detailed lake-centric geospatial database for an Arctic watershed in northern Alaska. We developed a GIS dataset consisting of 4362 lakes that provides information on lake morphometry, hydrologic connectivity, surface area dynamics, surrounding terrestrial ecotypes, and other important conditions describing Arctic lakes. Analyzing the geospatial database relative to fish and bird survey data shows relations to lake depth and hydrologic connectivity, which are being used to guide research and aid in the management of aquatic resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Further development of similar geospatial databases is needed to better understand and plan for the impacts of ongoing climate and land-use changes occurring across lake-rich landscapes in the Arctic.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-017-0915-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Automated Characterization of Arctic Ice-Wedge Polygons in Very High Spatial Resolution Aerial Imagery

“…Our study encompasses two areas near the northern Alaska community of Nuiqsut, which is located within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and about 25 km inland from the Beaufort Sea [90] (Figure 1). The two study areas are referred to here as 'Nuiqsut' (42 km 2 ) and 'Crea Creek' (92 km 2 ).…”

Potential shifts in zooplankton community structure in response to changing ice regimes and hydrologic connectivity

“…Most streams in the drainage network of the ACP originate in lakes and about one third of the lakes are thought to have continuous stream connectivity during the open-water season (Arp et al 2012b). The remaining lakes may be connected ephemerally to varying degrees during snowmelt and periods of higher summer rainfall (Jones et al 2017). Ephemeral connectivity is essential for fish to colonize productive lakes with high bedfast ice lacking overwintering source populations.…”

The complementary role of lentic and lotic habitats for Arctic grayling in a complex stream‐lake network in Arctic Alaska

“…Shallow lakes with fluvial connectivity to river systems can serve as important foraging areas (Arp, Whitman et al, 2015;McFarland, Wipfli, & Whitman, 2017), although must be vacated before freeze-up in autumn. Many of these networks include mosaics of habitats including multiple flow-through lakes and complex permafrost thaw pools within the stream channel (Arp, Whitman et al, 2015;Jones et al, 2017), which may serve as complementary habitat during the summer. Previously, we described how fish move between a large overwintering habitat and a small streamlake network named Crea Creek and found extensive movements that corresponded with seasonal hydrology and individual size and body condition (Heim, Wipfli, Whitman, & Seitz, 2016;Heim, Wipfli, Whitman, Arp et al, 2016).…”