Pnidhoe Bay Ecosystem 



Climate 

 Jerry Brown* 



Primary Production 



Larry Tieszen* 

 Ken Olson 

 Marilyn Caldwell 



Consumers 



Steve MacLean* 

 Paul Whitney 

 George West 

 Ray Ken del 

 Herb Melchior 



USA CRREL 



Augustana College 

 Augustana College 

 Utah State University 



University of Illinois 

 University of Alaska 

 University of Alaska 

 University of Alaska 

 San Diego State College 



Soils and Nutrient Cycling 



Keith VanCleve* 

 Staff, Northern Forest 

 Soils Lab 



Microbiology 



Pat Flanagan* 

 Urla Scarborough 

 Bob Benoit 



Liaison and Coordination 



Jerry Brown 

 George West 



University of Alaska 

 University of Alaska 



University of Alaska 

 University of Alaska 

 Virginia Polytechnic 

 Institute 



USA CRREL 

 University of Alaska 



For purposes of this report the Prudhoe Bay region is defined as the land area between the 

 Sagavanirktok and Kuparuk Rivers (Fig. 34). As such, it constitutes a representative portion of the 

 eastern arctic coastal plain. The region is more diversified geomorphically and biologically than 

 the Barrow region. Major landforms include stabilized and active sand dunes, numerous shallow 

 and occasional deep lakes, polygonized and nonpolygonized drained lake basins and interfluves, 

 small entrenched and meandering streams, broad floodplains and terraces of the larger rivers, and 

 numerous small pingos. The variety of landscapes offers many more biological habitats than occur 

 at Barrow. In addition, the summer climate is somewhat warmer than that at Barrow. 



The region under examination contains the Prudhoe Bay oil field which is currently under 

 development. This development involves the construction of permanent camps, an industry-operated 

 airfield, road networks and pipeline systems to connect the wells and gathering plants located on 

 large gravel pads, storage and docking facilities, and a variety of related processing and support 

 facilities. Figure 35 is a view of a gravel pad and road in characteristic terrain. The Environ- 

 mental Subcommittee of the Prudhoe Bay Unit is responsible for developing and implementing pro- 

 grams concerning the ecology of the region. During the summer of 1970, the Tundra Biome Program 

 worked directly through the Environmental Subcommittee and two of its member companies: British 

 Petroleum and Atlantic Richfield - Humble. These cooperative activities prompted the subcommittee 

 to sponsor a general ecosystem modeling effort for the arctic coastal tundra under the supervision 

 of the Tundra Biome Program. Various state and federal agencies are also conducting regulatory 

 and research activities within the Prudhoe Bay region. 



The Tundra Biome Program's objectives in the Prudhoe Bay ecosystem were twofold: 



1. To obtain initial biological and environmental information so that early comparisons could 

 be made with other arctic coastal plain sites. (The following report emphasizes this aspect.) 



2. To identify short- and long-term bioenvironmental research problems through on-the-ground 

 acquaintance with the natural and man-modified ecosystems. 



These involved numerous visits by Barrow- and University of Alaska-based scientists for vary- 

 ing amounts of time. The excellent road network and the availability of industry ground vehicles 

 made it possible to cover the entire area repeatedly in a matter of hours. The following section 



♦Principal authors. 



87 



