Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed NEON / BONA

Birch Creek Schist is the dominant bedrock type at BONA. Quartzite is also found here, and aeolian silts derived from the Tanana Flats overlay the area. [4] [11]

Soils within BONA are typically silty alluvium and colluvium materials, with layers of permafrost on the surface. Gilmore silt loam, Typic Cryochrepts and Histic Pergelic Cryaquepts are some of the major soil types within the site. The soils within BONA are affected by the cycle of ice thawing and freezing, resulting in cryoturbation (). [4]

The Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed is characterized as a typical upland headwater stream basin in subarctic Alaska. During peak melt times, the discharge in Caribou Creek can reach upwards of 1000 liters per second. Key hydro-biological research topics conducted in CPCRW include how permafrost thaws and how wildfires affect fresh water stream ecology. [2]

The BONA area contains areas of permafrost, hardwood forest, wetlands, and shrublands. Moss covers patches of permafrost throughout the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed area. The hydrology and drainage of the area influences dominant vegetation types, with areas of poor drainage dominated by moss, sedge, and shrub species. Evergreen forest constitutes the majority of land area within the site. Black spruce (Picea mariana), lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), and bog Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum) are some dominant species. [1]

The threatened wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) was historically present in the Taiga region; in recent years, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have worked toward reintroducing populations in Alaska. The endangered Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis) is possibly present in the CARI and BONA sites [Project 34 spreadsheet]. It is possibly extinct, given its lack of appearance in surveys over the past few decades. [6] [7]

The Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed was established in part to address the need to study Alaskan hydrological processes. The city of Fairbanks, Alaska flooded in 1967, leading to increased attention toward hydrology in the area. In 1969, the Inter-Agency Technical Committee for Alaska established the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed, an area representative of subarctic hydrological conditions. Eventually, the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed became managed as a part of the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research site, which was established in 1987.

Levels of human activity in the watershed have changed multiple times in the past century. The land around the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed is traditionally the territory of the Tanana people. Historically, Tanana people formed nomadic family groups that traveled along the Tanana River. The arrival of Euro-Americans in the region caused upheaval in their way of life; however, Tanana people today remain connected to the region around the Tanana River. From approximately 1905-1930, there was some resource-extractive economic activity by Euro-American settlers. By 1940-1970, mineral prospecting and logging was not prevalent in the area. There is evidence that the 1901 arrival of prospectors in the area of the Caribou-Poker Creeks Experimental Watershed affected the landscape. A study of historical fires in the Caribou-Poker Creeks Experimental Watershed revealed that the watershed experienced a series of fires between 1896 and 1925, which the study authors noted coincided with the historical period of prospecting and mining in the area, suggesting some of these fires may have originated in human activity. More recently, the watershed experienced a fire in 2004. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

The NEON BONA site lies within the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed (CPCRW), which is a watershed within Bonanza Creek LTER, an area managed for scientific study by the University of Alaska. Scientific research is the only human activity currently being conducted in the CPCRW. Scientific data has been collected in CPCRW from as far back as the 1970s. Encompassing 104 km² (25,700 acres), the CPCRW provides a valuable area for researchers to study how watersheds are influenced by wildfires, discontinuous permafrost, and climate change. In particular, climate change-driven risk of wildfires is a management concern that Bonanza Creek LTER that researchers have worked to better understand with the help of indigenous communities and fire managers. The Working Group on Rural Alaska Self-Reliance was formed with Bonanza Creek LTER researchers and Alaskan indigenous leaders to address management strategies to sustain ecological and social livelihoods in the face of climate change. [1] [2] [9] [10]

To establish the TOS distributed plots at BONA, National Land Cover Database data was used to fulfill a stratified-random plot design. Plots were also selected to be spatially balanced around the NEON tower. Sampling readiness review was completed in June 2017. Terrestrial sampling began in June 2017. Construction of the 19 m (30 ft.) tower at BONA was completed by 2017, and it came online in November 2017. [1] [2]