Healy NEON - United States of America

DEIMS.iD

https://deims.org/f530cc5c-712c-4439-9822-c391a513d792

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Basic Information
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Site Name
Healy NEON
Short name
HEAL
Country
United States of America
Web Address
https://www.neonscience.org/field-sites/heal
Site Manager
Chris Baird
Site Description
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’s interior and the Alaska Peninsula.
Last modified
2025-09-17 14:09:45

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
2014
Observed properties
Affiliation and Network Specific Information
Affiliation
GERI✔This site is a verified "GERI" member.
NEON✔ (HEAL)This site is a verified "NEON" member.
Photos
Caribou by the HEAL tower
Caribou by the HEAL tower
Mt. Healy to south
Mt. Healy to south
Geographic
View in site map
Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 63.87569 Longitude: -149.21334

Size
ca. 4517.00ha
Elevation (average)
677.00msl
Elevation (min)
588.00msl
Elevation (max)
717.00msl
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Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml] [.geojson]
Bounding Box [.shp] [.kml] [.geojson]
GEO-BON Biome
Terrestrial
Biome
Evergreen Forest
Ecosystem Type
Forest
Evergreen Forest
Taiga
Air Temperature: Average Annual
-1.30°C
Precipitation Annual
320.00mm
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.
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’s 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.
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 (>20 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.
Site Type
Platform
Design of Experimentation
mainly experimentation
Scale of Experimentation
beyond catchment scale
Design of Observation
mainly observation
Scale of Observation
beyond catchment
Permanent Power Supply
No
Accessible All Year
Yes
Permanent Operation
No