Environmental planning for an Alaskan water-oriented recreational area

Completion Report OWRT Agreement No. 14-31-0001-4056 Project No. B-026-ALASThis research focused initially on delineation of the proper procedures to be applied when the state of Alaska, through the appropriate agencies, selects and develops water-based recreation areas. The Nancy Lakes recreational area was selected as a case study for testing these procedures. This area is located approximately 106 km (66 road miles) northwest of Anchorage along the Parks Highway (61°N,150°W). When the research was begun in July of 1973, this area was determined to be important to the future recreational needs of the residents of the growing municipality of Anchorage as well as to travelers between Fairbanks and Anchorage along the newly opened highway. Today, this area is even more important as the new capital of the state of Alaska will be located approximately 6 km (4 miles) east of Nancy Lakes. In the summer of 1974, difficulties arose concerning the objectives of the project and the reports to be generated. Therefore, a decision was made to terminate the research at Nancy Lakes. A partial completion report was compiled concerning the work completed to September 1, 1974. This report was distributed to cooperators at the State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks; the Sport Fish Division of Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Palmer; and to the Office of Water Resources Research, the predecessor of the Office of Water Research and Technology. The research has continued, focusing on the Tanana Lakes near Fairbanks, Alaska, (64°N,146°N) with the cooperation of the Sport Fish Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fairbanks. These lakes, located within 160 km (100 miles) of Fairbanks, are important to the residents of Fairbanks, as well as to tourists driving to Fairbanks from the 48 continguous states. Many Fairbanks residents have cottages at one of the three largest of these, Harding, Birch, and Quartz Lakes. Several youth groups have summer camps on these lakes; the U. S. Army and the U. S. Air Force are currently sharing an extensive recreation facility at Birch Lake; and the state park at Harding Lake is one of the state's most utilized campgrounds. The research on this lake group has focused on the variation in productivity between these lakes due to differences in lake morphometry and watershed characteristics, with some attempt to assess recreational impacts on their water quality.The work upon which this completion report is based was supported by funds provided by the U. S. Department of Interior, Office of Water Research and Technology as authorized under the Water Resources Research Act of 1964, Public Law 88-379, as amended. Matching funds were provided by the State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks; and Department of Fish and Game, Sport Fish Division

Biogeochemistry of deep lakes in the central Alaskan Range: Completion report

Casper, one of the investigators, was a guest of the National Park Service as a weekend camper at the Wonder Lake Campground within Mount McKinley National Park. On the next visit to this campground for the same purpose, Mr. Casper took along several pieces of equipment for making simple limnological measurements. On this trip, he was accompanied by Frederick Payne, a graduate student from Michigan State University, who was in Alaska working with aquatic plant community structure. Following this visit to the lake, a research project proposal was drawn up for the purpose of obtaining funds in order to study several limnological aspects of this lake and others related to it. The relative high importance of vascular aquatic plant production in the Arctic had been noticed by John Hobbie (1973). In an intensive study of a deep subarctic lake, Harding Lake, being conducted by the Institute of Water Resources, University of Alaska, the relative high importance of rooted aquatic plants had also been noted. Thus, a question arose as to whether or not the primary production of vascular aquatic plants is higher than that of phytoplankton in subarctic lakes as is the case in arctic lakes which usually have higher biomass concentrations of algae than subarctic lakes (Hobbie, 1973). The stated objectives of this project were: 1) To conduct a biogeochemical reconnaissance of selected deep subarctic lakes in the central Alaska Range. 2) To develop hypotheses concerning the regional limnology. 3) To collect biological specimens to extend knowledge of taxonomic distributions, especially of aquatic plants and phytoplankton. 4) To estimate the seasonal nutrient budget for these lakes.The work upon which this completion report is based was supported by funds provided by the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Water Research and Technology (Grant No. A-051-ALAS), as authorized under the Water Resources Research Act of 1964, Public Law 88-379, as amended

The Limnology of Two Dissimilar Subarctic Streams and Implications of Resource Development

Because of the relatively undeveloped condition of arctic and subarctic Alaska, an opportunity is presented to draw up water quality management plans before extensive perturbation. These plans cannot, unfortunately , be based upon those drawn up for more temperate regions where much is known about natural stream conditions, for in these Alaskan areas, little is known about the natural physical, chemical, and biological cycles of streams or about their ability to handle the stresses that will be exerted on them should development take place. The Chena River, in subarctic, interior Alaska, near the city of Fairbanks, has been studied to evaluate the impact of pending construction and operation of flood control structures (Frey, Mueller and Berry, 1970). This river however has already been developed, especially along its lower reaches where the city of Fairbanks is situated. The watersheds of the two streams chosen for this study roughly parallel each other, although the Chatanika River watershed is about twice as long as that of Goldstream Creek. In addition to the dissimilarity in size, these two streams also differ in regard to terrain, at least along the respective stretches that were studied. The Goldstream Creek study area runs through a bog and extensive muskeg. The Chatanika River, however, was for the most part sampled in the area of mountainous terrain. The intent of this study was to obtain comprehensive physical and chemical data, to survey the resident invertebrates, and to evaluate the assimilative capabilities of both streams.This project was supported in part by funds (Proj. B-017-ALAS) provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research, as authorized under the Water Resources Act of 1964, as amended. Equal support was provided by the State of Alaska as research funds (University of Alaska 234-2503)

Thermal Tolerances of Interior Alaskan Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus)

The work upon which this report is based was supported in part by funds (Project A-041-ALAS) provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research, as authorized under the Water Resources Act of 1964, as amended

Evaluation of the trophic types of several Alaskan lakes by assessment of the benthic fauna

Public Law 92-500 (1972) which amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act contains Section No. 314 entitled Clean Lakes which gives each state a mandate to "... prepare or establish ... an identification and classification according to eutrophic condition of all publicly owned fresh water lakes in such state . . . ." This mandate presents an awesome task to the State of Alaska which contains millions of lakes which must be evaluated according to the interpretation of this law. It was the intent of this project to examine the application of a biological index of eutrophy to several Alaskan lakes by comparing benthic macroinvertebrate faunal distribution to selected chemical and physical indices of trophic state. The investigator chose to consider "indicator organisms" as the focus of the study and found this concept to be interestingly difficult to apply.The work upon which this report is based was supported in part by funds (A-046-ALAS) provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Research and Technology, as authorized under the Water Resources Act of 1964, as amended

Laboratory Rearing Experiments on Artificially Propagated Inconnu (Stenodus leucichthys)

The work upon which this report is based was supported by the State of Alaska through the University of Alaska in cooperation with a project supported in part by funds (Proj. A-041-ALAS) provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research, as authorized under the Water Resources act of 1964, as amended

A Survey of Lentic Waters with Respect to Dissolved and Particulate Lead

Some of the strongest temperature inversions in the world occur at Fairbanks, Alaska. Benson (1970) has reported that a temperature gradient of 10 to 30C/1OO m is common in the winter inversions that form at Fairbanks. Air pollution is especially severe during these inversions when it is accompanied by the formation of ice crystals in the air, a condition known as ice fog. This phenomenon occurs when the temperature drops below -20F (-35C) (Benson, 1970), and it intensifies with time if the inversion is not broken. The ice crystals in this fog have been found to adsorb dust and gasses, including the lead halides which are present in the air as a result of the combustion of tetraethyl lead and/or other lead-hydrocarbon compounds used as anti-knock additives in automotive gasoline. Lazrus et al. (1970) have found lead concentrations in precipitation to be highly significantly correlated with the amount of gasoline used in the area sampled. There are two factors that bring the concentration of lead to high levels in ice fogs. Evaporation of the ice crystals tends to concentrate pollutants in the air mass, especially over the core area of the city where precipitation is retarded by the heating effect of the city. Also, during the extreme cold weather accompanying this phenomenon, many people allow their cars to idle when they are parked to increase performance and for reasons of personal comfort. Eventually, much of the pollutants suspended in the ice fog is precipitated and causes unnaturally high levels of lead in the snow. (Winchester et al., 1967). It is suspected that some of this particulate lead collected in the snow may be carried along with the associated surface runoff into 1entic (standing) surface waters during thawing. The objectives of this project were: 1. to measure the amount of dissolved and particulate lead in a number of selected 1entic waters in the Fairbanks area, and 2. to measure the amount of lead that has been incorporated into net plankton organisms located in the selected lentic waters.The work upon which this report is based was supported by funds (Project A-035-ALAS) provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research, as authorized under the Water Resources Act of 1964, as amended

Development of an Operational Northern Aquatic Ecosystem Model: Completion Report

OWRR Contract No. 14-31-0001-5217 Grant No. C-6169The work upon which this completion report is based was supported by funds provided by the U. S. Department of the Interior, Office of Water Research and Technology as authorized under the Water Resources Research Act of 1964, Public Law 88-379, as amended

Chemical and physical influences on invertebrate drift in subarctic Alaskan streams

Invertebrate drift was sampled monthly from May through September of 1979 in thirteen subarctic, Alaskan streams. Samples were netted continuously for twenty-four hours to eliminate the time-of-day variation. Station mean values of drift concentration and export were regressed stepwise with chemical and physical parameters expected to be predictive. Alkalinity and average velocity together explained over 90% of the variation in drift export rates, expressed either as weight or numbers per day. These two factors plus discharge explained over 90% of the variation of drift concentrations as numbers per cubic meter;The importance of stream alkalinity in the prediction of drift has been shown previously in a study of seven Minnesota streams. Alkalinity is assumed to be an index to stream productivity, since carbonate and bicarbonate usually predominate in alkalinity and carbon is an essential algal nutrient. More productive streams are considered likely to yield more drift. In my study, however, a significant relationship between alkalinity and algae was not found among all the streams. Instead, a significant relationship was found between total phosphorus and stream algae, that explained nearly 60% of the variation in the chlorophyll a content of the suspended algae from stream-to-stream;When the streams were grouped into two types, clearwater (boreal) and brownwater (muskeg), the relationships between alkalinity and algae was positive and significant, as expected, for clearwater streams, but negative and non-significant for brownwater streams. Additionally, no significant relationships were found between algae and invertebrate drift for either stream type. It was concluded that allochthonous materials may be additional or substitute foods (besides algae) for invertebrates in those streams;Leaf litter imputs to clearwater streams in subarctic Alaska are small relative to those to temperate streams. However, utilization of leaf litter by aquatic organisms is known in these systems. Leaf litter imputs to brownwater streams are even less than to clearwater streams because trees are rare in muskeg. In brownwater streams the salts of organic acids such as tannins and lignins, which titrate as "false" (non-carbonate) alkalinity, may provide food to the invertebrates either directly as particulates or by providing a substrate for edible bacteria. This may help to explain the significant relationship between alkalinity and invertebrate drift among all the study streams;Previous studies that have noted the effects of stream flow on drift have each only considered a single stream. Those findings explain the effects of storm spates on drift. My study identified stream-to-stream effects of flow variation. I found that in two streams with the same discharge but with different average velocities the greater amount of drift would be produced in the stream with the greater average velocity. As such, drift transport seems analogous to sediment transport in streams. Therefore, the hypothesis that invertebrate drift is primarily the result of hydromechanical dislodgement was found acceptable.</p