Images

A handful of adult ninespine stickleback ready to be measured for total body length. These fish are ubiquitous in freshwater habitats of the Arctic Coastal Plain, outnumbering other fish species by as many as 800 individuals to one.

Yellow-billed Loon on a lake in the northern area of Alaska.

Degrading ice wedges on the Ikpikpuk River Delta on the North Slope of Alaska.

Along the northwestern shoreline of Driftwood Bay, Umnak Island, Alaska, the Cabin Flat study site (left) occupies a coastal lowland that backs a vegetated, emergent beach. Much of Driftwood Bay’s shoreline is flanked by sea cliffs over 50 m high and an extensive bedrock platform (right) in the intertidal zone.

A geologist stands on a drift log stranded 23 m above mean tide level, overlooking the Cabin Flat study site and Driftwood Bay, Umnak Island, Alaska.

Geologists camped near an upland lake about 0.5 km from the shore of Driftwood Bay, Umnak Island, Alaska. Vsevidof Volcano in the background.

Kittlitz’s Murrelets are often found in higher numbers near glaciers like the Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound, Alaska

A Kittlitz’s Murrelet surfaces after a foraging dive in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Sarah Schoen, Mayumi Arimitsu, and Brielle Heflin pulling in a modified herring trawl on the R/V Alaskan Gyre in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Northern pike captured from an Arctic Coastal Plain lake. Predatory fish, like this northern pike, occupied only lakes with strong, permanent channel connections. Permanent channel connections provide movement corridors that fish use to swim between summer feeding areas and winter refuges.

Coastal river sand bar, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Seward Peninsula.  Dominant ecotypes include Coastal Barrens, Coastal Loamy Wet Brackish Sedge-Grass Meadow, and Lowland Moist Sedge-Dryas Meadow. 

Coastal erosion, Baldwin Peninsula.

Patterned ground along the Noatak River, Noatak National Preserve.  Dominant ecotypes include Riverine Loamy Wet Circumacidic Wet Sedge Meadow, Riverine Loamy Moist Circumacidic Birch-Willow Low Shrub, Riverine Gravelly Moist Circumalkaline Barrens, and Riverine Gravelly Dry Alkaline Dryas Dwarf Shrub. 

Recent tundra fire scar, Noatak National Preserve.

Ancient shorelines, Cape Krusenstern National Monument.

Thermokarst lake, Seward Peninsula.

Partially drained thermokarst lake with residual pool and patterned ground , Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Seward Peninsula.

South shore, Walker Lake, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.  Dominant ecotypes include Upland Moist Dwarf Birch-Ericaceous-Willow Low Shrub, Upland Rocky-loamy Moist Circumacidic Alder-Willow Tall Shrub, and Upland Loamy Moist Circumalkaline Willow Low Shrub. 

Thermokarst lake and river meanders, Seward Peninsula.  Dominant ecotypes include Lowland Lake, Lowland Organic-rich Wet Circumacidic Willow Low Shrub, Upland Organic-rich Moist Acidic Dwarf Birch-Tussock Shrub, and Upland Rocky-Loamy Moist Alkaline Sedge-Dryas Meadow. 

Coastal brackish marsh, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Seward Peninsula

Tundra lakes, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge