Abstract
The North Slope of the Brooks Range in Alaska spans three physiographic provinces: the Coastal Plain, the Brooks Range Foothills, and the Brooks Range proper (Hultén 1968). The vegetation of the foothills province, which includes the Imnavait Creek watershed, is composed of a complex mosaic of communities that is tightly coupled to environmental gradients. This mosaic encompasses exposed upland ridges and mountain slopes, which have communities similar to those found in large areas of the High Arctic (Bliss and Matveya 1992), and, at the other extreme, the communities in valley basins resemble the sedge meadows of the Coastal Plain (Webber 1978). The distribution of these tundra communities is influenced by glacial history and topography, soil development, cryoturbation effects, and local erosion (Walker and Everett 1991; Chap. 4 this Vol.), as well as by summer thaw depth and soil water mobility (Giblin et al. 1992).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Berg A, Kjelvik S, Wielgolaski FE (1975) Measurement of leaf areas and leaf angles of plants at Hardangervidda, Norway. In: Wielgolaski FE (ed), Fennoscandian tundra ecosystems. Part 1. Plants and microorganisms. Ecological Studies 16. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 101–110
Bliss LC (1971) Arctic and alpine life cycles. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 2: 405–438
Bliss LC, Matveya NV (1992) Circumpolar arctic vegetation. In: Chapin FS III, Jeffries RL, Reynolds JF, Shaver GR, Svoboda J (eds) Arctic ecosystems in a changing climate. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 59–89
Bliss LC, Kerik J, Peterson W (1977) Primary production of dwarf shrub heath communities, Truelove Lowland. In: Bliss LC (ed) Truelove Lowland, Devon Island, Canada: a high arctic ecosystem. Univ Alberta Press, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, pp 217–224
Dennis JG, Tieszen LL, Vetter MA (1978) Seasonal dynamics of above-and belowground production of vascular plants at Barrow, Alaska. In: Tieszen LL (ed) Vegetation and production ecology of an Alaskan Arctic Tundra. Ecological Studies 2. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 113–140
Giblin AE, Nadelhoffer KJ, Shaver GR, Laundre JA, McKerrow AJ (1992) Biochemical diversity along a riverside toposequence in arctic Alaska. Ecol Monogr 61: 415–435
Grulke NE, Bliss LC (1985) Environmental control of the prostrate growth form in two high arctic grasses. Holarct Ecol 8: 204–210
Hastings SJ, Luchessa SA, Oechel WC, Tenhunen JT (1989) Standing biomass and production in water drainages of the foothills of the Philip Smith Mountains, Alaska. Holarct Ecol 12: 304311
Hultén E (1968) Flora of Alaska and neighboring territories. Stanford Univ Press, Stanford, 1008 pp
Kappen L (1988) Ecophysiological relationships in different climatic regions. In: Galun M (ed) CRC handbook of lichenology, vol 2. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 37–100
Miller PC (1982) Environmental and vegetational variation across a snow accumulation area in montane tundra in central Alaska. Holarct Ecol 5: 85–98
Murray KJ, Tenhunen JD, Kummerow J (1989) Limitations on Sphagnum growth and net primary production in the foothills of the Philip Smith Mountains, Alaska. Oecologia 80: 256–262
Oberbauer SF, Dawson TE (1992) Water relations of Arctic vascular plants. In: Chapin FS III, Jeffries RL, Reynolds JF, Shaver GR, Svoboda J (eds) Arctic ecosystems in a changing climate. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 259–279
Ostendorf B, Reynolds JF (1993) Relationships between a terrain-based hydrologic model and patch-scale vegetation pattern in an arctic tundra landscape. Landscape Ecol 8: 229–237
Sakai A, Larcher W (1987) Frost survival of plants. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 321 pp Schramel P (1988) ICP and DCP spectrometry for trace element analysis in biomedical and
environmental samples. Spectrochim Acta 43B: 881–896
Shaver GR, Chapin FS III (1991) Production: biomass relationships and element cycling in contrasting arctic vegetation types. Ecol Monogr 61: 1–31
Sonesson M, Wielgolaski FE, Kallio P (1975) Description of fennoscandian tundra ecosystems. In: Wielgolaski FE (ed) Fennoscandian tundra ecosystems. Part 1: Plants and microorganisms. Ecological Studies 16. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 3–28
Svoboda J (1972) Vascular plant productivity studies of raised beach ridges (semi-polar desert) in the Truelove Lowland. In: Bliss LC (ed) Devon Island IBP Project. High Arctic Ecosystem, Project Report 1970 and 1971. Univ Alberta Press, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, pp 146–184
Tenhunen JD, Lange OL, Hahn SC, Siegwolf R, Oberbauer SF (1992) The ecosystem role of poikilohydric tundra plants. In: Chapin FS III, Jeffries RL, Reynolds JF, Shaver GR, Svoboda J (eds) Arctic ecosystems in a changing climate. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 193–237
Thomson JW (1979) Lichens of the Alaskan Arctic Slope. Univ Toronto Press, Toronto, Canada, 314 pp
Thomson JW (1984) American arctic lichens. I. The macrolichens. Columbia Univ Press, New York, 504 pp
Vitt DH, Marsh JE, Bovey RB (1988) A photographic field guide to the mosses, lichens and ferns of northwest North America. Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, Alberta, 296 pp
Walker DA, Everett KR (1991) Loess ecosystems of northern Alaska: regional gradient and toposequence at Prudhoe Bay. Ecol Monogr 61: 437–464
Walker DA, Binnian E, Evans BM, Lederer ND, Nordstrand E, Webber PJ (1989) Terrain, vegetation, and landscape evolution of the R4D research site, Brooks Range Foothills, Alaska. Holarct Ecol 12: 238–261
Washburn AL (1956) Classification of patterned ground and review of suggested origins. Geol Soc Am Bull 67: 823–866
Webber PJ (1978) Spatial and temporal variation of the vegetation and its production, Barrow, Alaska. In: Tieszen LL (ed) Vegetation and production ecology of an Alaskan Arctic Tundra. Ecological Studies 2. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 37–112
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hahn, S.C., Oberbauer, S.F., Gebauer, R., Grulke, N.E., Lange, O.L., Tenhunen, J.D. (1996). Vegetation Structure and Aboveground Carbon and Nutrient Pools in the Imnavait Creek Watershed. In: Reynolds, J.F., Tenhunen, J.D. (eds) Landscape Function and Disturbance in Arctic Tundra. Ecological Studies, vol 120. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01145-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01145-4_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-01147-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-01145-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive