Above Summit Lake, Gates of the Arctic, Alaska
Lichens of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
Lichens constitute the primary vegetation in many areas of the far north and caribou depend on them as their primary winter food. This project seeks to systematically sample lichen communities in different vegetation types throughout Gates to provide the National Park Service with baseline vegetation information as well as quantify lichen forage quantity and composition. I designed this study to capture a variety of lichen communities accessible from lakes where a float plane could land and led the field work component in 2012, where along with a technician and several volunteers, we sampled 79 plots over 2 months resulting in the collection over 2000 lichens specimens. Analysis of these specimens is ongoing but a publication in 2015 in the Bryologist titled "Lichen traits and species as indicators of vegetation and
environment" summarizes some of our work.
Below are some photos from our field work.
Lichens constitute the primary vegetation in many areas of the far north and caribou depend on them as their primary winter food. This project seeks to systematically sample lichen communities in different vegetation types throughout Gates to provide the National Park Service with baseline vegetation information as well as quantify lichen forage quantity and composition. I designed this study to capture a variety of lichen communities accessible from lakes where a float plane could land and led the field work component in 2012, where along with a technician and several volunteers, we sampled 79 plots over 2 months resulting in the collection over 2000 lichens specimens. Analysis of these specimens is ongoing but a publication in 2015 in the Bryologist titled "Lichen traits and species as indicators of vegetation and
environment" summarizes some of our work.
Below are some photos from our field work.
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