{"title":"Healy NEON - United States of America","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/","suffix":"f530cc5c-712c-4439-9822-c391a513d792"},"type":"site","created":"2020-05-25T09:36:50+02:00","changed":"2025-09-17T14:45:45+02:00","attributes":{"affiliation":{"networks":[{"network":{"name":"GERI","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/networks\/","suffix":"c3abdc60-49f1-49db-81fe-863b7dbb21d3"}},"siteCode":null,"verified":true},{"network":{"name":"NEON","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/networks\/","suffix":"fd9fbc88-0baa-4d02-b824-dc29f721782c"}},"siteCode":"HEAL","verified":true}],"projects":null},"contact":{"siteManager":[{"type":"person","name":"Chris Baird","email":"cbaird@battelleecology.org","orcid":null}],"operatingOrganisation":null,"metadataProvider":[{"type":"person","name":"Melissa Marquez","email":"marquez@battelleecology.org","orcid":null}],"fundingAgency":null,"siteUrl":[{"title":null,"value":"https:\/\/www.neonscience.org\/field-sites\/heal"}]},"general":{"abstract":"Healy (HEAL) is a terrestrial NEON field site located in central Alaska, 120 km (75 mi.) southwest of Fairbanks and at the northern border of Denali National Park. The 45.6 km2 (11,300 acre) site is managed by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. It sits at an average of 678 m (2224 ft.) in elevation and is situated in a high-elevation, glaciated valley where the dominant vegetation consists of dwarf shrubs and sedge meadows. This valley experiences widespread permafrost thawing, making it a valuable resource to understand how other permafrost systems in Alaska may experience and react to thawing in the future. The site is open to the public for recreation including hunting, berry picking, snowmobiling, and dog sledding. HEAL is one of the four sites (three terrestrial and one aquatic) located in the NEON Taiga Domain (D19), which comprises Alaska\u2019s interior and the Alaska Peninsula.","citation":null,"relatedIdentifiers":null,"status":{"label":"Operational","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/elter_cl\/10772"},"yearEstablished":2014,"yearClosed":null,"relatedSites":null,"siteName":"Healy NEON","shortName":"HEAL","siteType":"Platform","protectionLevel":null,"landUse":null,"images":[{"url":"https:\/\/deims.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-06\/48789998076_db9b9c83c5_b.jpg","alt":"Caribou by the HEAL tower"},{"url":"https:\/\/deims.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-06\/48789985341_b133a979a9_b.jpg","alt":"Mt. Healy to south"}]},"environmentalCharacteristics":{"airTemperature":{"yearlyAverage":-1.3,"monthlyAverage":null,"unit":"\u00b0C","referencePeriod":null},"precipitation":{"yearlyAverage":320,"monthlyAverage":null,"unit":"mm","referencePeriod":null},"biogeographicalRegion":null,"biome":"evergreen_forest","ecosystemType":[{"label":"Evergreen Forest","uri":null},{"label":"Forest","uri":null},{"label":"Taiga","uri":null}],"eunisHabitat":null,"landforms":null,"geoBonBiome":["Terrestrial"],"geology":"The bedrock at HEAL is Doxey Shale, and the soil parent material is dominantly quaternary loess over gravelly glacial till and outwash. Geomorphology includes alluvial fans and stream terraces.","hydrology":null,"soils":"The dominant soil at HEAL is a silty loess overlying glacial till and outwash which has been heavily reworked by environmental agents, including water, gravity, and cryoturbation. A thick (\u003E20 cm) organic horizon is present, and organic accumulations are even heavier in areas that have undergone subsidence as a result of permafrost thawing. The majority of the site has continuous permafrost.","vegetation":"Healy is located in a wet tundra biome, a landscape dominated by ericaceous shrubs, willow scrub, tussock grasses and (in drainages) spruce forests. The vegetation is broadly comparable to that found at the nearby Denali National Park. Common plants at the site include American dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa \/ Betula nana), white spruce (Picea glauca), marsh Labrador tea (Ledum palustre), bog blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), tealeaf willow (Salix pulchra), black spruce (Picea mariana), crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), Bigelow\u2019s sedge (Carex bigelowii), and grayleaf willow (Salix glauca). The area around Healy has undergone dramatic changes in vegetation in association with the thawing of permafrost and development of thermokarst landscape, which falls into a wider pattern of vegetation changes in response to climate. As a NEON site, Healy offers the opportunity to study changes in vegetation structure and species diversity as the site undergoes permafrost degradation."},"geographic":{"boundaries":"POLYGON ((-149.194474873 63.843484265, -149.194726328 63.843011238, -149.194870491 63.841939721, -149.195149871 63.841129074, -149.195163665 63.840652034, -149.195322948 63.840222317, -149.20557465 63.839967186, -149.212657262 63.838745888, -149.221705677 63.837889365, -149.230498551 63.836721491, -149.243765582 63.83460121, -149.246884324 63.834228702, -149.255341072 63.832762937, -149.266525864 63.834765031, -149.273574772 63.83678517, -149.278903059 63.838869576, -149.286091185 63.841587169, -149.294802272 63.846054254, -149.305050886 63.85377893, -149.310977006 63.860999804, -149.313453078 63.865256876, -149.314582261 63.869184746, -149.314983919 63.872015253, -149.314732842 63.876315318, -149.313339762 63.88088009, -149.310923908 63.885511346, -149.30680835 63.890264279, -149.302555609 63.894033031, 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