• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Subarctic; Tundra
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.512.3544; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic6-3-198.pdf

L IMNOLOGY, the physical and biological study of inland waters, is a com- paratively new field and perhaps for that reason it has lagged somewhat during the recent studies of arctic resources. It may be agreed that limnology began about 1870 with Forel's studies in Switzerland. The early work was mainly in temperate areas, first in Europe and later in America. Studies of alpine lakes have resulted in notable contributions to the science as have also several expeditions to tropical lakes, but as yet very little has been done in the Arctic. An examination of the scattered results from arctic work and a survey of the potential areas for study, suggest that freshwater research in the Arctic should prove fruitful in both practical and theoretical fields. Boundaries of the arctic and subarctic regions have been suggested and redefined by various geographers, climatologists, and plant ecologists. In general the search has been for a mathematical expression of climatic conditions which will produce a line following closely the boundary between forest and tundra. Koppen's (1908) line, joining points where the mean temperature during the warmest month is 10°C, has been improved on by Nordenskiold's