Jeremy Jones Institute of Arctic Biology University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks, Alaska 99775 907-474-7972 ffjbj@uaf.edu
John Yarie Address: Department of Forest Sciences School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences (SNRAS) University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks, Alaska 99775 907-474-5650 j.yarie@uaf.edu
Taiga Domain
Geographic Coordinates: Latitude: 61.15 N Longitude: -147.47 W Size: 104 km2 (10,400 ha)
Unique Site Characteristics:
Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed (CPCRW) is representative of upland headwater basins in subarctic Alaska and unique within the United States due to its location in the zone of discontinuous permafrost. The permafrost mosaic of the taiga forest uplands exerts a powerful influence over hydrological patterns and ecosystem processes within the watershed. Streamflow is a mixture of highly variable shallow subsurface storm runoff events from permafrost-dominated areas and consistent groundwater base flows from permafrost free areas. Within CPCRW there are first order stream basins with a range of 4% to 55% of the catchments underlain by permafrost. The three primary watershed soils are part of the Entisol and Inceptisol soil orders which occur in 90% of the Taiga Domain.
The vegetation structure within the watershed is typical of interior Alaska. The major vegetation groups are closed and open coniferous forest, coniferous woodland, open and closed deciduous forest, closed mixed forest, closed tall shrub, shrub tundra and tussock tundra. The largest percentage of coniferous forest is composed of black spruce, but white spruce is present on south facing slopes. The primary hardwood species are trembling aspen and Alaska birch, and the dominant shrub is green alder.
Climate of CPCRW is representative of the Taiga Domain. Average annual precipitation for the watershed is 340 mm with a mean annual temperature of -4° C. The broad averages for the Upper Yukon Tayga - Meadow Province (Baily et al. 1994) are average annual precipitation from 155 to 355 mm and an average air temperature between -10° C to -4° C.