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Arctic Lake Physical Processes and Regimes with Implications for Winter Water Availability and Management in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska

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Abstract

Lakes are dominant landforms in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPRA) as well as important social and ecological resources. Of recent importance is the management of these freshwater ecosystems because lakes deeper than maximum ice thickness provide an important and often sole source of liquid water for aquatic biota, villages, and industry during winter. To better understand seasonal and annual hydrodynamics in the context of lake morphometry, we analyzed lakes in two adjacent areas where winter water use is expected to increase in the near future because of industrial expansion. Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery acquired between 1985 and 2007 were analyzed and compared with climate data to understand interannual variability. Measured changes in lake area extent varied by 0.6% and were significantly correlated to total precipitation in the preceding 12 months (p < 0.05). Using this relation, the modeled lake area extent from 1985 to 2007 showed no long-term trends. In addition, high-resolution aerial photography, bathymetric surveys, water-level monitoring, and lake-ice thickness measurements and growth models were used to better understand seasonal hydrodynamics, surface area-to-volume relations, winter water availability, and more permanent changes related to geomorphic change. Together, these results describe how lakes vary seasonally and annually in two critical areas of the NPRA and provide simple models to help better predict variation in lake-water supply. Our findings suggest that both overestimation and underestimation of actual available winter water volume may occur regularly, and this understanding may help better inform management strategies as future resource use expands in the NPRA.

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Acknowledgments

We kindly thank Edwin Pfiefer, Dan Sorenson, Matthew Whitman, and Dave Yokel, as well as three anonymous reviewers, for reviewing the manuscript. Funding was provided by the United States Geological Survey, Geographic Analysis and Monitoring and Land Remote Sensing programs, and National Science Foundation Grants No. 0713813 to K. M. Hinkel and 0548846 to W. R. Eisner. Use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Goverment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alaska Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 4210 University Drive, Anchorage, AK, 99508-4664, USA

    Benjamin M. Jones, Christopher D. Arp & Joel A. Schmutz

  2. Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, USA

    Kenneth M. Hinkel, Richard A. Beck & Barry Winston

Authors
  1. Benjamin M. Jones
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  2. Christopher D. Arp
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  3. Kenneth M. Hinkel
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  4. Richard A. Beck
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  5. Joel A. Schmutz
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  6. Barry Winston
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Correspondence to Benjamin M. Jones.

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Jones, B.M., Arp, C.D., Hinkel, K.M. et al. Arctic Lake Physical Processes and Regimes with Implications for Winter Water Availability and Management in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. Environmental Management 43, 1071–1084 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9241-0

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