Images

Exit Creek flooding across the road

Neal Pastick – lead author of the study – investigating erosion along Alaska’s Arctic coastline near the village of Kaktovik. Permafrost-dominated coasts of Alaska have drastically changed as the result of coastal transgression and storm-surge flooding which can result in the loss of cultural sites and damage to infrastructure.  Photo by M.

Aerial view toward the southwest of the actively erupting cone within Veniaminof caldera. The white steam plume is produced where a lava flow is descending the side of the cone and melting snow and ice. The darker colored, ashy plume is rising in bursts from the active vent.

Glaucous-winged Gull flying near the Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Scenic sunrise over a lake at the Chipp South research camp on the north slope of Alaska.

Yellow-billed Loon on a lake in the northern area of Alaska.

A handful of adult ninespine stickleback ready to be measured for total body length. These fish are ubiquitous in freshwater habitats of the Arctic Coastal Plain, outnumbering other fish species by as many as 800 individuals to one.

Degrading ice wedges on the Ikpikpuk River Delta on the North Slope of Alaska.

Along the northwestern shoreline of Driftwood Bay, Umnak Island, Alaska, the Cabin Flat study site (left) occupies a coastal lowland that backs a vegetated, emergent beach. Much of Driftwood Bay’s shoreline is flanked by sea cliffs over 50 m high and an extensive bedrock platform (right) in the intertidal zone.

A geologist stands on a drift log stranded 23 m above mean tide level, overlooking the Cabin Flat study site and Driftwood Bay, Umnak Island, Alaska.

Geologists camped near an upland lake about 0.5 km from the shore of Driftwood Bay, Umnak Island, Alaska. Vsevidof Volcano in the background.

Sarah Schoen, Mayumi Arimitsu, and Brielle Heflin pulling in a modified herring trawl on the R/V Alaskan Gyre in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Northern pike captured from an Arctic Coastal Plain lake. Predatory fish, like this northern pike, occupied only lakes with strong, permanent channel connections. Permanent channel connections provide movement corridors that fish use to swim between summer feeding areas and winter refuges.

Coastal shorelines, Cape Espenberg, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Seward Peninsula

Coastal brackish marsh, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Seward Peninsula

Partially drained thermokarst lake with residual pool and patterned ground , Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Seward Peninsula.

Tundra lakes, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge

Hardwood patch on high ground, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge.  Dominant ecotypes include Upland Moist Dwarf Birch-Ericaceous-Willow Low Shrub, upland Organic-rich Moist Acidic Dwarf Birch-Tussock Shrub, and Upland Rocky-Loamy Moist Circumacidic Alder-Willow Tall Shrub.

“Drunken forest” of white spruce from permafrost melt along thermokarst lake shoreline, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge. 

Coastal erosion, Baldwin Peninsula.

Patterned ground along the Noatak River, Noatak National Preserve.  Dominant ecotypes include Riverine Loamy Wet Circumacidic Wet Sedge Meadow, Riverine Loamy Moist Circumacidic Birch-Willow Low Shrub, Riverine Gravelly Moist Circumalkaline Barrens, and Riverine Gravelly Dry Alkaline Dryas Dwarf Shrub.