132 
Table 4 
Partial compilation of species diversity, population densities, and energy flux through 
northern avian communities. 
No. Lat Total 
Site (2) Habitat spp. 
Devon Island (Canada) 76 tundra = 
Barrow (USA) 71 tundra 9 
Prudhoe Bay (USA) 70 tundra 7 
Cape Thompson (USA) 68 tundra 5 
Fairbanks A (USA) 65 taiga 22 
Fairbanks B (USA) 65 bog-taiga 10 
Great Slave Lake (Canada) 62 taiga 12-15 
Vaksvik | (Norway) 62 subalpine [18] * 
Vaksvik Il (Norway) 62 subalpine [12] * 
[ ]* passerines only. 
gravel from winter traffic changes the reflec- 
tance of the snow cover, leading to altered rates 
of melting and sublimation of snow in the 
spring. We have not been able to quantify such 
effects, nor to identify alarming results on local 
avian ecology per se. The clear movements of 
individual birds from early- to late-emerging 
habitats (Fig. 4), however, suggest that spatio- 
temporal patterns of abundance and resource 
use will be altered by such structures on the 
arctic coastal plain. Furthermore, these may be 
only the first, few, short-term results of many 
subtle and longer-term changes in local biotic 
systems. 
Acknowledgments 
This study was largely supported by the 
National Science Foundation grant to the Uni- 
versity of Alaska under the Tundra Biome Pro- 
gram. Field logistics were provided through the 
Prudhoe Bay Environmental Subcommittee’s 
support through the Tundra Biome Center. 
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