Weather and Climate Inventory, National Park Service, Central Alaska Network
Redmond KT and Simeral DB. 2006. Weather and Climate Inventory, National Park Service, Central Alaska Network. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/CAKN/NRTR—2006/004. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Climate is a dominant factor driving the physical and ecologic processes affecting the Central Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network (CAKN). Climate behavior also has numerous practical and management consequences and implications. Extreme weather and climate phenomena are near or beyond survival limits for many forms of life. Evidence and projections in the CAKN region point to potentially significant long-term climate change, affecting temperature and type of precipitation. These would have importance consequences for ice masses, permafrost, vegetation, chemical exchanges between the atmosphere and soil, and microbial, floral and faunal biology. For these reasons, climate was identified as a high-priority vital sign for CAKN and climate is one of the 12 basic inventories to be completed for all Inventory and Monitoring Parks. Because of the importance of climate to almost every aspect of both ecology and park management, this project was initiated to inventory past and present climate monitoring efforts. The primary objective of climate and weather monitoring for the CAKN is to provide monthly and annual summaries of climate data, including precipitation and temperature, and determine long-term trends in seasonal and annual patterns of climate parameters and soil moisture.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Redmond, Kelly; Simeral, David
- Date of Issue
- 2006
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CLI , DENA , WRST , YUCH
- Keywords
- Climate Change, Precipitation, Temperature, Weather/climate stations, WRCC-Report