Area of lakes and ponds continues to decline in Alaska’s Arctic national parks
Swanson DK . 2025. Area of lakes and ponds continues to decline in Alaska’s Arctic national parks. Science Report. NPS/SR—2025/323. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2313920
The area of lakes and ponds in the five National Park Service (NPS) units in northern Alaska from the 1980s to 2024 was summarized using data from Landsat satellite images. During the period for which annual Landsat data are available (2000–2024), most of the study area showed declining surface water area. The areas with rapidly declining water area had lakes of thermokarst origin in ice-rich permafrost, and sudden lake drainage events were common. The years 2017–2019 and 2021 had the most lake drainage events during the study time interval, and the majority of lake drainages occurred in the lowlands of northern Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. Analysis of water surface area, with the effect of drainage events removed, showed multi-year fluctuations in water levels, with highs centered around 2005 and 2010, and an extended low period from 2013 through 2017.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Swanson, David
- Date of Issue
- 2025-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2313920
- Units
- ARCN , BELA , CAKR , GAAR , KOVA , NOAT , NRSS
- Keywords
- Arctic, Lakes, Permafrost
Series
See also
- Area of Lakes and Ponds Continues to Decline in Alaska's Arctic National Parks
- Monitoring of water surface area in Alaska’s Arctic National Parks: Update with 2019 data
- Thermokarst and precipitation drive changes in the area of lakes and ponds in the National Parks of northwestern Alaska, 1984–2018
- Landscape patterns and dynamics monitoring protocol for the Arctic Network: Standard operating procedures
- Monitoring Terrestrial Landscape Patterns and Dynamics in the NPS Arctic Network of National Parklands