Toolik Lake NEON - United States of America

Basic Information
Site Name
Toolik Lake NEON
Short name
TOOK
Country
United States of America
Web Address
https://www.neonscience.org/field-sites/field-sites-map/TOOK
Site Manager
Chris Baird
Site Description
Toolik Lake (TOOK) is a relocatable aquatic site within NEON's Domain 18: Tundra. Toolik Lake stretches from the Dalton Highway on the east to Jade Mountain on the west. The closest city, Fairbanks, Alaska is 400 miles away. The Dalton Highway (also known as the Haul Road or Pipeline Road), which traverses the middle of the state from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, provides access to the area. Remote sensing surveys of this site collect lidar, spectrometer and high resolution RGB camera data. This site has one meteorological station located in the riparian area and one meteorological station above water on a buoy. The met stations are outfitted with the a subset of the same sensors used at terrestrial sites. Measurements include wind ...
Show more ...
Last modified
2021-03-03 11:03:49

CC-BY-NC Logo

General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
2016
Observed properties
genetic parameterlandscape parameterwater parameterDNAsequencelandcoverwaterquality
Affiliation and Network Specific Information
Affiliation
GERI✔This site is a verified "GERI" member.
NEON✔ (TOOK)This site is a verified "NEON" member.
Photos
TOOK sensor station
TOOK sensor station
Geographic
Marker
100 km
100 mi
View in site map
Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 68.630692 Longitude: -149.610636

Size
ca. 6370.00ha
Elevation (average)
745.00msl
Elevation (min)
704.00msl
Elevation (max)
980.00msl
Download

Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml]
GEO-BON Biome
Fresh water rivers
Biome
Fresh Water Rivers
Ecosystem Type
Rivers
Fresh Water Rivers
Tundra
Air Temperature: Average Annual
-4.00°C
Precipitation Annual
331.00mm
Geology
Toolik Lake is situated on glacial and alluvial deposits. Glacial outwash extends into the lake, creating multiple shoals and bays. The substrate within the lake is made up of cobble and sit.
Vegetation
The Arctic tundra is composed of hundreds of meters of permafrost, which is soil that remains consistently frozen for two or more years and leads to low plant diversity. Vegetation cover in the Toolik Lake area is mainly tundra shrubs and herbaceous flowering plants. The dominant shrubs include Salix spp. (willows), Vaccinium uliginosum (blueberry), and Betula nana (dwarf birch). The main herbaceous species is Eriophorum vaginatum (cotton grass). There is little to no overhanging vegetation around the lake as the shrubs are typically less than 1 m tall.
Hydrology
Toolik Lake is 798 m above sea level and is a part of a lake district consisting of numerous kettle lakes. Kettles are formed during glacial retreats when a large chunk of ice breaks off, forming a depression and eventually melting. The lake is fed by snowmelt, rain, and a system of streams and smaller kettle lakes with headwaters in the Brooks Range, located to the south. Ice forms on the lake in early October and completely disappears by late June. It has a surface area of 11.3 ha, volume of 703,376 cubic m, and a maximum depth of 12.7 m. Its outlet is a tributary of the Kuparuk River.
Site Type
Non-stationary land-based site
Design of Experimentation
mainly experimentation
Scale of Experimentation
catchment scale
Design of Observation
mainly observation
Scale of Observation
entire catchment
Permanent Power Supply
No
Accessible All Year
Yes
Permanent Operation
No