National Park Service U.S. Department of Interior Alaska Regional Office Alaska Park Science Anchorage, Alaska Connections to Natural and Cultural Resource Studies in Alaska’s National Parks Volume 4, Issue 1 Table of Contents Space-Based Burn Severity Noatak National Preserve Mapping in Alaska’s National Parks ________________ 4 Gates of the Arctic Cape Krusenstern Social Science in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve National Monument ______________________ National Park and Preserve 12 Kobuk Valley National Park Wood-Inhabiting Fungi in Alaska: Wales Their Diversity, Roles, and Uses __________________ 18 Bering Land Bridge National Preserve King Yukon-Charley Rivers Speaking Across Generations: Dena’ina Island A National Preserve Language Revitalization in Southcentral Alaska____ 26 S K Nome L A To Dance is to Be: Heritage Norton Sound Preservation in the 21st Century __________________ 32 A Denali National Park and Preserve Cape Krusenstern National Monument: Year-Round Sampling to Characterize Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Water Quality, Species Richness, and Food Web and Preserve Structure in Five Coastal Lagoons ________________ 38 Klondike Gold Rush Lake Clark Historical Park ISSN 1545- 4967 JUNE 2005 National Park and Preserve Glacier Bay Kenai Fjords National Park National Park Alaska Park Science and Preserve Katmai National http://www.nps.gov/akso/AKParkScience/index.htm Park and Preserve Sitka Historical Park Editor: Monica Shah Bristol Bay Aniakchak Project Lead: Robert Winfree, Regional Science Advisor, National Monument email: [email protected] and Preserve Alaska Park Science Journal Board: Gulf of Alaska Jane Ahern, Public Affairs Specialist Ted Birkedal, Team Leader for Cultural Resources Don Callaway, Cultural Anthropologist Terry DeBruyn, Regional Wildlife Biologist Joy Geiselman, Deputy Chief, Alaska National Parks Biological Science Office USGS Alaska Science Center Russ Kucinski, Team Leader for Natural Resources Rachel Mason, Cultural Anthropologist John Morris, Education Coordinator John Quinley, Assistant Regional Director for Communications This project is made possible through funding from the Alaska Park Science is published twice a year. Recent Ralph Tingey, Associate Regional Director for Resource Protection National Park Foundation. Additional funding is provided issues of Alaska Park Science are available for sale by the Sara Wesser, Inventory and Monitoring Coordinator, Alaska Region Robert Winfree, Chair of Journal Board by the National Park Service and other contributors. Alaska Natural History Association (www.alaskanha.org). Published by Alaska Natural History Association, a nonprofit partner Charitable donations to help support this journal of the Alaska Region of the National Park Service, supporting may be sent to: Alaska Natural History Association, educational programs through publishing and operation of visitor center bookstores. 750 West Second Avenue, Suite 100, Anchorage, AK 99501 Printed on recycled paper with soy based ink ATTN: Alaska Park Science. Cover: Tremella lutescens, a jelly fungi. See story page 18. Photograph courtesy of Gary A. Laursen 2 Gary Holton is an assistant professor of linguistics Melinda Reynolds is a Ph.D. candidate in Coastal About the Authors at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Resources Management at East Carolina University. Terry Reynolds is a Ph.D. candidate in Coastal Jennifer L. Allen is a fire ecologist for the Dr. Gary A. Laursen is a research professor Resources Management at East Carolina University. National Park Service. of mycology at the Institute of Arctic Biology and adjunct professor in the Department of Dr. Rodney D. Seppelt is a bryologist and Dr. Harold H. Burdsall is a mycologist retired from Biology and Wildlife, both at the University of Principal Research Scientist with the Australian the U.S. Forest Service and now does mycologial Alaska Fairbanks. Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia, consulting at Fungal and Decay Diagnostics, LLC. Charlie Lean is a fisheries management analyst and an affiliate professor with the Institute of Lisa Clough is a benthic ecologist and associate for Western Arctic National Parklands. Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks. professor at East Carolina University. Brian J. Sorbel is a Fire GIS Specialist for the Don Pendergrast is an outdoor recreation National Park Service. Karen K. Gaul is a cultural anthropologist for planner for Gates of the Arctic National the Lake Clark-Katmai Studies Center, Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers Maria Williams is an ethnomusicologist and National Park Service. National Preserve. professor at the University of New Mexico. 3 4 (Left) Moderate-high severity burn in tussock tundra on the Seward Peninsula with partial re-sprouting of cotton tussock grass. On the horizon, low severity burn reveals quick recovery of tussocks. (Milepost 85 fire; A526) Figure 1. (Below) Fire mosaic resulting from varied burn severity of the Witch (B242) fire of 1999 in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. National Park Service photographs Space-Based Burn Severity Mapping in Alaska’s National Parks By Brian Sorbel and Jennifer Allen varied. As fires burn under different weath- er conditions, across changing topography Introduction and vegetation types, their behavior and Wildland fire is a powerful force of effects also dramatically change. In any change across the landscape of Alaska. given fire, some areas of the landscape are During the 2004 summer, record high tem- radically changed due to intense scorching peratures and low precipitation resulted in or sustained burning, while other areas are the largest fire season in the state’s recorded completely untouched. This varying burn history, with more than six million acres severity results in a heterogeneous pattern burned. While the extent of the 2004 or fire mosaic on the landscape (Figure 1). season was impressive, fires are a yearly Burn severity is a measure of the ecolog- summer occurrence. Over the past 50 years, ical impacts of the fire, in terms of plant wildland fires have burned nearly two survivorship or mortality, depth of the burn million acres in 14 of the 16 National Park in organic layers, or amount of biomass Service units in the state. In their path, fires consumed (Figures 2-4). Information about dramatically alter the vegetation and land- burn severity helps fire and resource man- scape of the parks. Fire is a natural phe- agers understand the effects of wildland nomenon linked to the dynamics of many fires on the fuels, vegetation, and wildlife. plant communities and animal populations. The NPS Fire Management Program, in A common misconception of wildland conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey fires is that they affect all burned areas the (USGS) EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls, same. In reality, the effects of fires across South Dakota, have used remote sensing to the landscape are highly discontinuous and map burn severity for all large NPS fires in 5 Space-Based Burn Severity Mapping in Alaska’s National Parks National Park Service photographs In any given fire, some areas of the landscape are radically changed due to intense scorching or sustained burning, while other areas are completely untouched. Figure 2. Light severity burn on the Jessica (B260) fire of 1999 in Yukon-Charley National Preserve, minimal substrate removal, scorching of some black spruce. Alaska since 1999. In addition, fire manage- tens or hundreds of thousands of acres in ment staff have installed nearly 300 plots size and hundreds of miles from airstrips or to assess the accuracy of these remotely- park facilities. These characteristics favor sensed maps. This paper describes the the use of remotely sensed data for burn methods used to map burn severity and severity mapping. The NPS and USGS are to assess the accuracy of the maps, and using Landsat satellite imagery as a data discusses the ecological effects and applica- source for the mapping (Figure 5). Based on tions of burn severity mapping for NPS fire methods developed by Key and Benson Figure 3. Moderate severity burn on the 1999 Beverly (B248) fire in Yukon-Charley National Preserve, vigorous re-sprouting of fireweed and aspen in the understory. and resource management. (2004, in press), GIS burn severity layers are generated by applying the Normalized Satellite Measures of Severity: Burn Ratio (NBR) to pre- and post-fire calculated as follows: NBR = (TM Band 4 – from the pre-fire ratio: dNBR = NBRprefire Landsat Imagery and the Normalized Landsat imagery. The Normalized Burn TM Band 7) / (TM Band 4 + TM Band 7). – NBRpostfire. The dNBR generates a con- Burn Ratio Ratio uses data from Landsat bands 4 and The Normalized Burn Ratio is calculated tinuous index of burn severity, from On-site mapping of burn severity in 7, the two bandwidths that show the great- for both pre- and post-fire Landsat scenes. unburned to severely burned, with possible Alaska national parks is a challenging est response to burning (Figure 6), to gener- A final Differenced NBR (dNBR) dataset is values ranging between -2000 and +2000. endeavor due to the fact that fires may be ate an index of burn severity. The ratio is derived by subtracting the post-fire ratio Generally, a threshold exists between about 6 -100 and +150 dNBR units that marks an Management Program notifies the EROS 9). Additional fires on Bureau of Land Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, approximate breakpoint between burned Data Center (EDC) of burns that it would Management