Toolik Lake NEON - United States of America

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Basic Information
Site Name
Toolik Lake NEON
Short name
TOOK
Country
United States of America
Web Address
https://www.neonscience.org/field-sites/took
Site Manager
Chris Baird
Site Description
Toolik Lake (TOOK) is an aquatic NEON field site located in the northern foothills of Alaska’s Brooks Range in a 63.7 km2 (15,700 acre) watershed. The lake is one of the largest in the area and is part of a lake district consisting of numerous kettle lakes formed by glaciers. These lakes and their outflows, along with runoff from snowmelt and rain, provide Toolik Lake with its water supply. Next to the lake is the Toolik Field Station, operated and managed by the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with cooperative agreement support from the Division of Polar Programs, Directorate for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation. TOOK is part of the NEON Tundra Domain (D18), which includes the northern and western parts of Alaska. D18 hosts three other NEON field sites in Alaska: one aquatic and two terrestrial. TOOK is colocated with the TOOL terrestrial site and near the Oksrukuyik Creek (OKSR) aquatic site.
Relationships to other sites
This site groups with:
Last modified
2025-09-18 14:55:07

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
2016
Observed properties
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
Toolik Lake Buoy
Toolik Lake Buoy
Geographic
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
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Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml] [.geojson]
GEO-BON Biome
Fresh water rivers
Biome
Fresh Water Rivers
Ecosystem Type
Rivers
Fresh Water Rivers
Tundra
Air Temperature: Average Annual
-9.00°C
Precipitation Annual
316.00mm
Geology
Toolik Lake is situated on glacial and alluvial deposits aged 120-150 thousand years ago (Itkillik 1, late Pleistocene) and 25-11.5 thousand years ago (Itkillik II, late Pleistocene). Glacial outwash extends into the lake, creating multiple shoals and bays. The substrate within the lake is made up of cobble and silt.
Vegetation
The Arctic tundra is composed of hundreds of meters of permafrost - 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 willows (Salix spp.), blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), and dwarf birch (Betula nana). There is little to no overhanging vegetation around the lake as the shrubs are typically less than 1 m (3.3 ft.) tall.
Hydrology
Toolik Lake is part of a lake district consisting of numerous kettle lakes formed by glaciers. 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 is thermally stratified through much of July and August. It extremely oligotrophic, has a surface area of 1.48 km2 (366 acres), volume of 12,602,474 m3 (445 million ft3), and a maximum depth of 26.2 m (86 ft.). 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