Stability of Naturally- and Anthropogenically-Disturbed Upland Tundra Surfaces

阿拉斯加北坡的北极冻土带日益受到人类土地利用的影响。北极国家野生动物保护区周围和内部的地区已被指定为国家石油储备的一部分，可能会经历石油勘探和开发。这里将研究冻土带从建造和干扰中恢复的能力。将对在20世纪50年代至80年代受到干扰的地点进行重新采样，以了解冻土带植被重新殖民开放土壤表面的速度，并探索促进再殖民的机制。这些结果将提高我们对冻土带对人类影响的敏感性的理解。

The Arctic tundra on the Northslope of Alaska is increasingly impacted by human land use. Areas around and within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have been designated as part of the National Petroleum Reserve and may potentially experience oil exploration and development. The ability of the tundra to recover from construction and disturbance will be investigated here. Sites that were disturbed in the 1950s-1980s will be resampled to see how fast tundra vegetation recolonizes opened soil surfaces and to explore the mechanisms which promote recolonization. These results would improve our understanding of the sensitivity of the tundra to human impacts.