Infrastructure-Thermokarst-Soil-Vegetation Interactions at Lake Colleen, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, August 2014

• Main Author: Donald A. Walker
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2018
• Subjects: FIELD SURVEY; TRANSECT; POINT; GRID; Arctic; Colleen; Lake Colleen; Climate change; Cumulative Effects of Arctic Oil Development - planning and designing for sustainability; Ice; permafrost; Prudhoe Bay; Thermokarst; wedge*; Alaska
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/urn:uuid:6e90e9fe-e9b8-4c93-bb9f-32039e970994

This data report contains methods and data from transects, permanent vegetation plots, and permafrost boreholes sampled during 2-13 August 2014, at Colleen Site A, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska for the Arctic Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (ArcSEES). The project 'Cumulative effects of Arctic oil development-planning and designing for sustainability' was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant Nr. 1233854). The Colleen site is located along the Spine Road, the oldest, most heavily traveled road in the Prudhoe Bay region. It is situated in a previously relatively homogeneous low-center ice-wedge polygon landscape that has undergone thermokarst and other disturbances due to climate change and the presence of the road. The main objectives of the 2014 field program were to document the extent and effects of these disturbances to the topography, landforms, permafrost, soils and vegetation. We were particularly interested in changes to the permafrost and ice-wedges. The area of the study site is defined as a 60-m wide swath centered on two 200-m transects. Transect (T1) is on the relatively well-drained northeast side of the road and Transect (T2) is on the flooded southwest side. The report contains measurements of surveyed ground elevations, thaw depths, water depths, dust-layer thickness, vegetation height, and leaf area index (LAI) at one-meter intervals along each transect. Permanent vegetation plots were established at intervals along the transects in polygon centers and troughs and cover of plant species was measured using both point intercept and Braun-Blanquet methods. A soil pit was dug adjacent to each vegetation plot. Included in the report is a record of the installation locations of iButton® temperature loggers to measure above- and below-ground temperatures along the transects and in the vegetation plots through the next year. A full description of the project goals, methods, data, and conclusions from the 2014 field season are in Alaska Geobotany Center Data Report AGC 15-01 (Walker et al. 2015). Description and maps of the vegetation, landscapes, and permafrost and recent changes in the Prudhoe Bay Oilfield are in Walker et al. 1980, Walker 1985, Walker et al. 2014, and Raynolds et al. 2014. References cited here are included in AGC 15-01.