A Floristic Inventory and Spatial Database for Fort Wainwright, Interior Alaska

• Main Authors: Racine, Charles, Lichvar, Robert, Murray, Barbara, Tande, Gerald, Lipkin, Robert
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1997
• Subjects: Biology; Ecology; *ALASKA; *COLD REGIONS; *INVENTORY; *PLANTS(BOTANY); SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; MILITARY FACILITIES; ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT; MOUNTAINS; MILITARY TRAINING; WETLANDS; VALLEYS; FLOOD PLAINS; TUNDRA; GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS; *FORT WAINWRIGHT(ALASKA); FAIRBANKS COUNTY(ALASKA); FLORA; CRYPTOGAMS; LAND MANAGEMENT; Blair; Fairbanks; Yukon; Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA333255; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA333255

An inventory of the vascular and ground-inhabiting cryptogam flora of Fort Wainwright, in interior Alaska, was conducted during the summer of 1995 to support land management needs related to the impact of training. Primary plant collecting, identification and verification were conducted by the Alaska Natural Heritage Program and the University of Alaska Museum. The work was supervised and the data compiled into a geographic information system by the USA Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory and the USA Waterways Experiment Station. Fort Wainwright covers 370,450 hectares (915,000 acres); it was divided into five areas: 1) the valleys of a cantonment area of base facilities, 2) the slopes and alpine areas of the Yukon-Tanana Uplands, 3) Tanana Flats and associated wetlands, 4) the upland buttes and Blair Lakes area in Tanana Flats, and 5) the floodplains of the Tanana and Chena Rivers. Over 100 sites were visited, with habitats ranging from very dry south-facing slopes to forest, floodplains, wetlands, and alpine tundra. Vascular collections represented 491 species (including subspecies and varieties), included about 26% of Alaska's vascular flora, and are considered to be relatively complete. The cryptogam collections included 219 species, representing 92 mosses, 117 lichens, and lO liverworts. The flora is characteristic of the circumpolarboreal forest and wetlands of both North America and Eurasia, but it also contains alpine and dry-grassland and steppe species.