Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve Science

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is one of the three parks in the Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network and one of eight parks inherent to the Murie Science and Learning Center. Listed below are permitted research projects for 2007.

Listed below are some of the permitted research projects from 2007. A project listed in bold font indicates partial support through a Discover Denali or Murie Science and Learning Center Research Award.

To learn more about any specific project (including “Purpose” and “Findings” of specific scientific studies), visit the National Park Service Research Permit and Reporting System where you can “Search IARs” (Investigators Annual Reports) by multiple factors including park, year, or topic.

2007 Permitted Research Projects

• Accessing and Maintaining Existing Seismic Stations
• Assessing the geographic and temporal consistency of life history and demographic patterns: a long-term, multi-site comparison
• Coastal Alaska Annual Inventory
• Distribution patterns of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and trace elements in mosses, Hylocomium splendens and Pleurozium schreberi, collected from different forest communities in Alaska and Eastern Europe.
• Establishing Sediment Provenance from streams and rivers in Southern Central Alaska
• Evaluating the genetic structure of Dall’s sheep in Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve
• Glacial response to an outburst flood, Kennicott Glacier, Alaska
• Historical biogeography of alpine mammals in the Wrangell-St.Elias region
• Holocene Climatic Variation in Southern Alaska
• Quantitative Estimates of Temperature and Precipitation, Warm Intervals, and Possible Cyclicity
• Ice Pach Archeology
• Identifying nesting and foraging habitat of Kittlitz murrelets (Brachyramphus brevirostris) in Icy Bay, Alaska
• Impacts of Climatic Change on the Boreal-Forest Fire Regimes of Alaska: Lessons from the Past and Prospects for the Future
• Investigations of the 3 November 2002 Denali fault earthquake
• Monitoring Forest Health, Growth, and Change in the Copper River Drainage
• Post-glacial climate history of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska from buried soils in loess
• Removal and out-stocking of rainbow trout from Summit Lake, Alaska
• Taxonomic Controversies and Cryptic Speciation in Selected Rare Vascular Plant Taxa Found throughout Alaska
• The Decline of the Chisana Caribou Herd: Assessing Population Dynamics and Recovery Efforts