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

Abstract

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.