4D Structure of the Atlas

Introduction

The Atlas has a four-dimensional framework that allows users to select the maps according to any of the following criteria:

1. Region of Interest (Horizontal Dimension)
2. Scale of Interest (Vertical Dimension)
3. Theme or Topic of Interest (Depth Dimension)
4. Year of Interest (Time Dimension)

Maps and information in the Atlas can be accessed through clickable index maps or through menus containing a complete list of maps by region, scale, theme, or year.

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Region

The AGA covers the circumpolar Arctic with a focus on Arctic Alaska. The majority of the information in the AGA is from the Toolik Lake/Kuparuk River region with a focus on the Toolik Lake and Imnavait Creek research sites in the upper Kuparuk River basin. The regions covered are:

1. Circumpolar Arctic (1:7,500,000-scale base map)
2. Alaska (1:4,000,000-scale base map)
   1. Kuparuk River basin and region (1:250,000-scale base map)
      1. Upper Kuparuk River region (1:25,000-scale base map)
      2. Toolik Lake region (1:5000-scale base map)
      3. Imnavait Creek region (1:6,000-scale base map)
      4. Toolik Lake grid (1:500-scale base map)
      5. Imnavait Creek grid (1:500-scale base map)
   2. Seward Peninsula (1:1,000,000?-scale base map)
   3. Ivotuk grids (1:200?-scale base maps)
3. Canada (1:4,000,000-scale base map)
4. Greenland (1:4,000,000-scale base map)
5. Iceland (1:4,000,000-scale base map)
6. Norway (1:4,000,000-scale base map)
7. Russia (1:4,000,000-scale base map)
   1. Eastern Arctic Russia
   2. Western Arctic Russia
   3. Yamal Peninsula Region
8. Svalbard (1:4,000,000-scale base map)

 

 

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Scale

Processes of change in the Arctic operate across spatial scales that differ by 15 orders of magnitude. Monitoring and predicting change across this vast range of spatial domains requires maps at many scales. The current map scales in AGA include:

1. 1:10 scale — plot level maps of plant species at 1x1 m ITEX plots at Toolik Lake and Imnavait Creek
2. 1:50 scale — plot level maps of 10x10 m Biocomplexity grids
3. 1:200 scale — plot level maps of 100x100 m FLUX study grids at Ivotuk
4. 1:500 scale — landscape level maps of Toolik Lake and Imnavait Creek 1x1 km grids
5. 1:5000 scale — landscape level maps of the Imnavait Creek and Toolik Lake regions (about 22 km² each)
6. 1:25,000 scale — landscape level maps of the Upper Kuparuk River region (about 850 km²)
7. 1:250,000 scale — regional maps of the Kuparuk River basin (about 9,200 km²)
8. 1:4,000,000 scale — regional maps of the Artic Slope (196,000 km²) and Arctic Alaska (485,000 km²), Canada (2,553,000 km²), and the other circumpolar countries
9. 1:7,500,000 scale — the circumpolar Arctic (7,110,000 km²)

The heart of the database is a hierarchy of maps centered on 1 km research grids at Toolik Lake and Imnavait Creek. The maps were originally developed for scaling plot-level measurements of trace-gas fluxes and the active layer to larger regions. They also have potential for a wide variety of other studies including scaling of hydrological processes, biodiversity, and modeling processes of landscape evolution.

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Theme

A wide variety of map themes are available and vary according to locality and scale. The themes available for northern Alaska at 1:4 million scale are shown in Figure 7. The following themes occur on at least one of the maps in the AGA:

1. Vegetation Units
2. Bioclimate Subzones
3. Floristic Sectors
4. Landscapes
5. Substrate Chemistry
6. Elevation
7. Lake Cover
8. NDVI
9. Above Ground Biomass
10. AVHRR Base map

The geobotanical mapping codes at most landscape scales (1:500 to 1:25,000) typically include vegetation (primary, secondary, tertiary), landforms, surficial geomorphology (primary and secondary), and lake cover. Legends and map colors for these variables are, for the most part, compatible between map scales so that users can move between scales and regions using the same legend systems. This compatibility will be improved as the Atlas is developed further.

 

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Time

Some of the databases have multi-temporal coverage. Examples include maps of the oilfield infrastructure and related impacts at Prudhoe Bay and the 1 m plots at Imnavait Creek and Toolik Lake. We are planning to expand the multi-temporal coverage by including satellite-derived AVHRR multi-spectral images of the Arctic Slope for the past 20+ years.

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