Fish Inventory Dataset for the Northernmost National Parklands in Alaska

Ayers, Scott; Miller, Scott

The National Park Service’s (NPS) Arctic Inventory and Monitoring Network (ARCN) is responsible for inventorying and monitoring natural resources within five National Park units in northwestern Alaska including Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Kobuk Valley National Park, and Noatak National Preserve (Lawler et al. 2009). This work supports the goal of providing scientifically sound information to guide park management and decision making. Fish were chosen for inventory due to several key ecological and cultural factors. Species such as salmon, charr, grayling, and whitefish serve as an important food source for communities living in and around the Arctic parklands. Ecologically, fish are central to food web dynamics and often act as top predators in lakes and streams. They are also especially vulnerable to global climate change—a significant and growing threat to Arctic ecosystems. Despite their importance, surprisingly little baseline information is available about fish populations within the Arctic Network Parks. This project aimed to compile all known fisheries-related research, acquire relevant data, and summarize findings. The resulting dataset reflects the outcome of an extensive literature review and data synthesis documenting fish presence across the northernmost units of the National Park System in Alaska. Study Area The study area for this project includes Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Kobuk Valley National Park, and Noatak National Preserve. Methods Methods are described in Ayers and Larsen (2009), and summarized here. The initial data mining effort for the Arctic Network parklands was conducted between 2000 and 2004 when two research firms, ABR Inc. and the Alaska Natural Heritage Program, were contracted separately to compile bibliographies of all literature relevant to the Arctic Network Parklands. These data served as the basis for our literature review. We categorized papers by quality of studies. To determine quality we distributed the list of fisheries references to biologists and managers from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, all of which had conducted research in this region. These individuals were asked to identify significant works from the lists, and also any relevant studies that were missing. Responses were used to generate the final list of references categorized by quality. After the sentinel works were identified, copies of each report and associated datasets (when available) were obtained. These data provided information including date, location, species, numbers captured, methods of capture, catch per unit effort, and ancillary data such as water quality and bathymetry. When species and location were available this information was entered into the NPS managed version of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s geospatial database, allowing for queries by species, age class, habitat, location and a variety of other attributes. The present dataset was exported from that database. Files In This Releas This data release consists of a single file: ARCN_Fish_Inventory_Dataset.csv Columns Descriptions ColumnName DataType Definition Units WaterType character Water type. Site character Site StreamName character Stream name. SiteDescription character Site description SurveyDate POSIXct Survey date SpeciesCode character Species code ScientificName character Scientific name CommonName character Common name Class character Class ClassCommonName character Class Common Name Order character Order OrderCommonName character Order Common Name SubOrder character SubOrder SubOrderCommonName logical SubOrder Common Name Family character Family FamilyCommonName character Family Common Name Genus character Genus Species character Species LifeStage character Life stage. LifeHistory character Life history. SpawningSuspected integer Spawning was suspected. Boolean. GeoComments character Location comments. Longitude numeric Longitude Decimal degrees, World Geodetic Survey, 1984. Latitude numeric Latitude Decimal degrees, World Geodetic Survey, 1984. ProjectCode character Project code. OriginAlaska character DefLifeCode character Life code. AhtnaSpeciesCode character Ahtna species code. ITISCode integer Integrated Taxonomic Information System Seq numeric Sequence NothingCollected integer No species were collected. WaterTemperature_C numeric Water temperature Degrees centigrade. pH numeric pH Elevation_m integer Elevation. Meters. AirTemperature_C numeric Air temperature. Degrees centigrade. DO numeric Dissolved oxygen NTU numeric Nephelometric Turbidity Unit. Secchi numeric Secchi depth Meters Salinity numeric Salinity ppt Conductivity numeric Conductivity Unknown RosgenClass logical Rosgen class. T92CHCODE logical CollectionComments character Collection comments. Report character Report.

Fish Inventory Dataset for the Northernmost National Parklands in Alaska

See also