Ecology of Arctic Streams and Rivers

Huryn, Alexander D.

doi:10.1002/9781118846582.ch8

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The presence of expansive aquifers, containing a rich biotic community, that are interconnected with surface habitats, however, indicates that river ecosystems affected by aufeis fields are more complex than formerly perceived and are likely to be high‐latitude, ecological analogues of temperate gravel‐bed rivers with similar physical structure and highly bioreactive aquifers (Stanford et al 1994). At minimum, the potentially extensive interaction zone between river and aquifer and the flux of water and particulate and dissolved carbon and organisms between these compartments requires a more complex conceptual model of river‐floodplain ecosystem structure and function than is currently acknowledged for the Arctic (Huryn 2021). Finally, the role of aufeis in associated ecosystems within the next century, although poorly understood at present, is likely to be in a state of flux due to climate change, particularly in the Arctic where temperatures are rising rapidly due to polar amplification of greenhouse warming (Chapin et al 2006; Martin et al 2009; Overland et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aufeis fields as novel groundwater‐dependent ecosystems in the arctic cryosphere

Huryn

Gooseff

Hendrickson

et al. 2020

Limnology & Oceanography

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River aufeis (ow 0 fīse) are widespread features of the arctic cryosphere. They form when river channels become locally restricted by ice, resulting in cycles of water overflow and freezing and the accumulation of ice, with some aufeis attaining areas of $ 25 + km 2 and thicknesses of 6+ m. During winter, unfrozen sediments beneath the insulating ice layer provide perennial groundwater-habitat that is otherwise restricted in regions of continuous permafrost. Our goal was to assess whether aufeis facilitate the occurrence of groundwater invertebrate communities in the Arctic. We focused on a single aufeis ecosystem ($ 5 km 2 by late winter) along the Kuparuk River in arctic Alaska. Subsurface invertebrates were sampled during June and August 2017 from 50 3.5-cm diameter PVC wells arranged in a 5 × 10 array covering $ 40 ha. Surface invertebrates were sampled using a quadrat approach. We documented a rich assemblage of groundwater invertebrates (49 [43-54] taxa, X [95% confidence limits]) that was distributed below the sediment surface to a mean depth of $ 69 ± 2 cm (X ± 1 SE) throughout the entire well array. Although community structure differed significantly between groundwater and surface habitats, the taxa richness from wells and surface sediments (43 [35-48] taxa) did not differ significantly, which was surprising given lower richness in subsurface habitats of large, riverine gravel-aquifer systems shown elsewhere. This is the first demonstration of a rich and spatially extensive groundwater fauna in a region of continuous permafrost. Given the geographic extent of aufeis fields, localized groundwater-dependent ecosystems may be widespread in the Arctic.

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