Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2002AK2B

Hydrological and Geomorphological Controls on Sediment Transport Processes in the Alaskan Arctic

Institute: Alaska
Year Established: 2002 Start Date: 2002-03-01 End Date: 2003-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $15,474 Total Non-Federal Funds: $16,891

Principal Investigators: Larry Hinzman

Project Summary: It has been acknowledged that arctic regions of the world are critical components of earth's climate and that hydrology plays a very important role in the transfer of energy. From the discovery of oil in the late 1960s until the recent past, hydrologic studies in the Alaskan Arctic were primarily dictated by resource development, rather than scientific interest. A nested watershed study in the Kuparuk River basin was the first truly scientific study conducted in the United States Arctic at a large scale where all the major hydrologic elements were examined. Our previous research has been directed at characterizing hydrologic and thermal processes occurring in North Slope watersheds and developing the tools to accurately simulate these processes and their interactions with other components of the ecosystem. In this phase of the research program we intend to focus upon the hydrologic controls on the riparian system (including channel network) and how this system will respond to changing climate. Most research tasks in this project will be associated with determining how the drainage network will evolve with a changing climate or with determining how the hydrologic regime will respond with a different channel network. Understanding how these riparian areas, specifically channel networks evolve is a critical component of understanding the arctic system. The central theme of this proposal is that climatic warming is occurring in the Alaskan Arctic, that this will result in a thicker active layer (the layer of soil near the surface which proceeds through freeze and thaw each year) with more shrubs and that the present hydrology will undergo changes in the future. These changes may be most pronounced in riparian zones, which are dominant regions of physical and biological activity in watersheds. We hypothesize that the present drainage network of water tracks and incised channels represents an immature system restricted from further development by the shallow active layer over permafrost; as the thickness of the active layer changes in response to climate change, the drainage patterns will also change. Complementary funding has been secured under an existing grant from the National Science Foundation to cover PI salary and equipment. This proposal requests support to cover salary and tuition for one M.S. graduate student to assist in the research activities.