The Coastal Tundra at Barrow 



11 



-71° 20' 



156 50' 



I 56° 40' 



156 30' 



FIGURE 1-3. Physiographic and historical features of the Barrow penin- 

 sula. A) North Salt Lagoon, B) Middle Salt Lagoon, C) South Salt 

 Lagoon, D) Imikpuk Lake, 1) Drainage channel for Middle Salt Lagoon. 

 The shaded area around the lagoons and Imikpuk Lake is now tundra, 

 but was previously a large embayment. The box outlines the Biome area 

 shown in Figures 1-7, l-ll and 1-12. Point Barrow is 5.8 km northeast of 

 Birnirk. X-Y indicates the approximate location of the cross section 

 shown in Figure 1-6. 



several government-operated facilities, including the Naval Arctic Re- 

 search Laboratory (NARL), which has supported research on tundra 

 ecology since 1947 (Reed and Ronhovde 1971, Britton 1973, Gunn 1973). 

 In the 1940s and early 1950s Barrow was the main supply base for the ex- 

 ploration of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4, redesignated National Pe- 

 troleum Reserve, Alaska, in 1976. It also was a supply station during the 

 construction of distant early warning sites (the DEW line) in the 1950s. 

 The coastal tundra at Barrow has low relief and is dominated by a 

 pattern of ice-wedge polygons, shallow oriented lakes, drained lake 

 basins and small ponds. Elevations range from sea level to 5 m along the 

 northern shores of Elson Lagoon and rise to greater than 10 m south- 

 westward across the peninsula. North of 71°15 ', approximately 65% of 

 the surface is covered by polygonal ground (Sellmann et al. 1972), and 

 half of this consists of high-centered or low, flat-centered polygons. The 



