Index

P.K. Amos Tai: Personal Homepage
Team 7: Ecology of non-migratory species in ANWR

Updates:

12/01
I have not updated this personal website for so long since I have been busy updating the team website and the final Mission website. Yet, to finalize stuff in my personal website, it's still good to make some more changes. New personal comments added! Click here to check it out.

11/12
I have been frequently updating the Team website, and also found a lot of other information on plants in ANWR. Now I have added entries here on this page. The most encouraging advance is the essay on impacts of oil exploration and drilling on ANWR producers.

10/25
Several progresses:
Stuff about fireweed added to the website. Further elaboration on Bigelow Sedges. Information about an endangered species, Aleutian Shield Ferns, found but not yet added to the website. More personal comments added.

10/21
Getting some more information about "sedges" in Alaska. Renewing the website.
Not yet quoted the sources of information about mosses and lichens because the book is lent to somebody.
Personal comments added.

10/10
Map showing vegetation of ANWR added. Useful website:
http://www.absc.usgs.gov/1002/
This website contains many information about wildlife in ANWR.
And I was reminded that I should show my REFERENCE and SOURCE OF INFORMATION in all of my research.

10/08
Having received some comments from the team facilitators, my next step will be diverging from mosses and lichens and try to do more research on the other forms of plants in ANWR, with focus on those "shrubs". More importantly, I will start looking into phytoplankton which forms the basis of ecosystems in Arctic sea and coastal shores.

10/07
Further elaboration on the roles of mosses and lichens with my own analysis and thoughts. Concentrated on the details of their roles as basis of food chain, energy flow and nutrient cycles. Bolded are the key sentences in the paragraphs, which help readers to grasp the meaning quickly.
NOTE:
Many analysis on the mosses and lichens are based on data covering the whole Alaskan region and some covering even the whole Arctic region instead of specifically concerning the ANWR, but such analysis is definitely useful, and it provides information and promotes insights on how the ecosystem in ANWR work and how it is related to the whole Arctic region as a whole. Afterall, ANWR is not an isolated region but interacts with other regions as well.

09/28
Brief introduction to bryophytes and lichens in the context of "Producers in ANWR" was worked out with the help of Ecology of Arctic Environment.

09/25
Reference books borrowed:
1. Ecology of Arctic Environment (Edited by Sarah J. Woodin & Mick Marquiss)
2. Arctic Sea Ice Ecosystem (I.A. Melnikov)
3. Landscape Function and Disturbance in Arctic Tundra, Ecological Studies 120 (James F. Reynolds & John D. Tenhunen (Eds.))

Criteria for A
Team 7 Website

Producers in ANWR ecosystems

Distribution of different types of vegetation in ANWR 1002 area
(from: http://www.absc.usgs.gov/1002/images/Fig02-01-400dpi.jpg )

Introduction: Arctic Flora

The type of vegetation in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is mainly characterized as “tundra”, meaning barren land. Contradictory to its literal name, vegetation on the arctic tundra is highly diverse. The types of vegetation found depends on numerous factors such as the terrain, local climate, permafrost and active layer depths, precipitation and water availability and drainage, nutrient availability and cycling. The shrub tundras are dominated by deciduous vascular plants. Slightly warmer soil temperatures, deeper thaw, and more rapid nitrogen mineralization associated with the high water flow rate in water track and river bar localities cause denser canopies and higher total foliar nitrogen.

The differences in canopy structure between the graminoid-dominated wetland tundras and the mixed tussock tundra communities are probably related to drainage characteristics and their effects on nutrient availability. The highly heterogeneous nature of the heath sites is probably determined by their different degrees of exposure on ridge and hill tops. Microtopography affects the growth and structure of heath, with sheltered hollows causing denser vegetation and ridge tops causing sparse canopies. (Shaver et al., 1996)

The arctic coastal tundra consists of thaw lakes and wetlands near the Beaufort Sea coast and along river deltas. The foothills tundra, a transition between this and the Brooks Range, is dominated by sedge tussock (Eriophorum vaginatum), which provides the lush, new growth needed to feed caribou calves and energize staging snow geese. Riparian areas have willow shrubs that are important nesting habitat for migratory birds. (World Wide Fund for Nature, 2000)

The tundra plants are usually less than 1 foot high. Tall plants are restricted to the southern slopes of ANWR. The tundra plants belong to five main groups:
1.    Lichens, either on rocks or in mats on the ground
2.    Bryophytes (commonly known as mosses)
3.    Grasses and grass-like herbs, including mainly sedges and willows
4.    Cushion plants
5.    Dwarf shrubs
(Patrick D. Baird, 1964; Janet C. Jorgenson, Peter C. Joria, and David C. Douglas, 2002)

In ANWR, the following four types of plants are particularly important:
1.    Sedges, especially tussock cottongrass
2.    Willows, especially diamond-leaf willows
3.    Mosses, especially Sphagnum spp.
4.    Lichens, of various types
The first two is highly nutritious for herbivores to feed on as a food source, particularly during the growing seasons, while the latter two help maintain the ecosystems in other ways and provide food during winter. The details are further discussed on this website.

Parts of the Team 7 Final Report that are about producers: (which are done by me)
1.    Arctic vegetation
2.    Mosses and lichens (1)
3.    Mosses and lichens (2)
4.    Mosses and lichens (3)
5.    Impacts of oil exploration and drilling on plants (1)
6.    Impacts of oil exploration and drilling on plants (2)
7.    Impacts of oil exploration and drilling on permafrost
8.    Sedges for revegetation program

Impacts of oil exploration and drilling on plants in ANWR

Significance of bryophytes and lichens in arctic coastal plain

Significance of Bigelow sedge in revegetation program

Significance of Fireweed in arctic coastal plain

Personal comments:

I was quite at a loss when I first started the research; I was assigned to research about producers (plants) but I couldn't really find much stuff about plants! The information are mainly about animals like polar bears. But later on, I found more and more stuff, but still they were not particularly related to ANWR. Yet, I believe that the patterns of plants in Alaska would more or less represents the pictures of ANWR. Therefore, I go deep into the significance of mosses, lichens, etc and hopefully they would help people understand the roles of plants in ANWR!

The meeting last Wednestday (10/22) was really good. Everybody in our team had been making a lot of progress. Kip was there and he gave us some really useful and insightful views. I now feel that the work is really worth and I really enjoy doing stuff about Mission! It always deepen my interest in environmental biological sciences; the more I am exposed to these stuff, the more I know that I simply love Mission, love Terrascope, love ESI and most of all, Environmental Engineering!

It's not Dec 1, very early in the morning at nearly 6am. The Mission final website is on its way. I have been doing quite much on the team website and final website. It's time to finalize my personal website. I have been really enjoying the whole process. Researching, compiling stuff, and the most important thing I found is, if you want to enjoy and gain from it, you have to be responsible and involved in it. I am quite involved, I believe, so I enjoy it, and I really gain much from it. Yeah!

Reference:
1.    Williams, M.; Rastetter, E. (1999). Vegetation characteristics and primary productivity along an arctic transect: implication for scaling-up. Journal of Ecology 1999, 87: 885-898.
2.    World Wide Fund for Nature. (2000). Protection of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge: Key to Managing one of the World's Most Biologically Valuable Ecoregions, the Arctic Coastal Tundra, http://www.worldwildlife.org/arctic-refuge/anwr_position.pdf
3.    Janet C. Jorgenson, Peter C. Joria, and David C. Douglas. (2002). Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain Terrestrial Wildlife Research Summaries. http://www.absc.usgs.gov/1002/section2.htm
4.    Patrick D. Baird. (1964). The Polar World.