Northwestern Arctic Alaska surface water area vector files, Kotzebue study area, 2002-2019 ...

• Main Authors: Jones, Benjamin, Tape, Kenneth, Clark, Jason, Nitze, Ingmar, Grosse, Guido, Disbrow, Jeff
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2020
• Subjects: surface water; arctic lakes; beavers; thermokarst; Arctic; permafrost; Thermokarst; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a22v2c974; https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi:10.18739/A22V2C974

Arctic landscapes are in a state of transition due to changes in climate occurring during both the summer and winter seasons. Scattered observations indicate that beavers (Castor canadensis) have moved from the forest into tundra areas during the last 20 years, likely in response to broader physical and ecosystem changes occurring in Arctic and Boreal regions. The implications of beaver inhabitation in the Arctic and Boreal are unique relative to other ecosystems due to the presence of permafrost and its vulnerability associated with beaver dams and inundation. Our study specifically examines the role of beavers in controlling surface water dynamics and related thermokarst development in low Arctic tundra regions. We mapped the number of beaver dams visible in sub-meter resolution satellite images acquired between 2002 and 2019 for a 100 square kilometer study area (12 years of imagery) near Kotzebue, Alaska and a 430 square kilometer study area (3 years of imagery) encompassing the entire northern Baldwin ...