Synoptic stream discharge August 2016, Dalton Highway, Alaska

• Main Author: Liljedahl, Anna
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2017
• Subjects: discharge; Arctic; Talik; north slope; permafrost; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a2wd3q190; https://arcticdata.io/catalog/#view/doi:10.18739/A2WD3Q190

The climatic drivers and landscape-scale patterns of recent Arctic shrub expansion are well understood, while the biogeochemical and physical mechanisms controlling shrub recruitment and growth remain unclear. We tested whether the formation of a talik (permafrost-free ground) and a downward hydrologic gradient creates a biogeochemical subsurface environment that favors shrub recruitment and growth, which, in turn, results in patterns of tall shrub distribution coinciding along losing stream reaches. We analyzed streams and stream corridors with differing gradients, bed morphologies, and substrates to test the statistical significance of tall shrubs as indicators of losing streams (streams with decreasing discharge downstream). Furthermore, we expanded our measurements to include shrub height, cover, biomass, Leaf Area Index (LAI), permafrost, soil properties and soil microbial communities. Our measurements of differential runoff in Arctic tundra link tall shrubs along riparian corridors to losing stream sections, whereas gaining stream sections (increasing discharge downstream) lack tall shrubs. The purpose of this dataset was to assess stream sections as losing (discharge decreases downstream) or gaining (discharge increase downstream) by performing synoptic discharge measurements. Measurements were done along the Dalton Highway corridor, north of Toolik, North Slope of Alaska in August 2016. The study was part of a multi-disciplinary study of ecohydrological relationships between shrubs and stream discharge in continuous permafrost environments.