LTER: Beaufort Sea Lagoons: An Arctic Coastal Ecosystem in Transition 
(NSF-OPP 1656026) 

Project website: BLE-LTER
Project Leads: Kenneth H. Dunton, James W. McClelland, Byron C. Crump, Katrin Iken, Vanessa L. Lougheed, Michael A. Rawlins
Investigators: Amber K. Hardison, Jeremy L. Kasper, Bailey C. McMeans, Andrew R. Mahoney, Yvette H. Spitz, Craig E. Tweedie
Project Managers: Christina Bonsell, Mathan McTigue
Information Management: Tim Whiteaker, An Nguyen
Graduate Students: Kristina Baker, Tasha Griffin, Brian Kim, Emily Bristol, Sasha Peterson, Alina Spera, Jacob Pratt

Overview: Recent studies suggest that the ecological framework for understanding what controls food web structure needs to be expanded to include temporal forcing. More specifically, there is mounting evidence that differential availability of seasonally-distinct resources is critical for defining trophic linkages and maintaining stability and resilience of food webs. We propose to establish a new LTER focusing on Arctic lagoon ecosystems to test this concept, and broaden it to include temporal variations over longer timeframes. The Beaufort lagoons are ideal for testing this concept because they experience extreme variability in seasonal cycles, which are now subject to rapid directional shifts driven by climate change. Our overarching question is: How do variations in terrestrial inputs, local production, and exchange between lagoon and ocean waters over seasonal, inter-annual, inter-decadal, and longer timeframes interact to control food web structure through effects on carbon and nitrogen cycling, microbial and metazoan community composition, and trophic linkages? Arctic lagoons provide a unique opportunity to study these interactions in the absence of fringing wetlands that often modulate land-ocean interactions in other lagoon systems. In addition, barrier island geomorphology, which exerts a strong control on water exchange between lagoons and the open ocean, is highly dynamic in the Arctic because sea-ice effects are superimposed on the effects of currents, sea level and waves. Thus, connections between inputs from land and lagoon ecosystems are more direct, and water exchanges between lagoons and the open ocean are more variable than is typical of lower latitude systems. Specific study sites will be located in Elson Lagoon (western Beaufort), Simpson Lagoon and Stefansson Sound (central Beaufort), and Kaktovik and Jago lagoons (eastern Beaufort). We will operate this LTER in collaboration with local stakeholder groups and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The LTER will include seasonal field work during ice covered, ice break-up, and open water periods and also include sensor deployments for continuous measurements of key biogeochemical and hydrographic parameters.

Intellectual merit: This LTER will advance our fundamental understanding of how temporal forcing influences trophic structure, stability, and resilience of food webs. It will also provide a much needed mechanism for tracking and understanding 1) how modes of climate variability such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation influence lagoon ecosystems along the Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast, and 2) how climate change impacts such as permafrost thaw, shifting precipitation regimes, and losses of sea ice alter lagoon ecosystems thorough effects on input and exchange dynamics, as well as carbon and nitrogen cycling within the lagoons.

Broader Impacts: The Beaufort lagoons are refugia for numerous species, including migratory fish and waterfowl that are essential to the culture of Inupiat communities of northern Alaska. The LTER will create a framework for anticipating the impacts of future changes that are of great interest and concern to these communities. As potential hotspots for the transformation of land-derived carbon, including inputs from thawing permafrost, lagoon environments in the Arctic are also of interest to a broader audience that is concerned about climate feedbacks. Beyond these societal impacts, the proposed LTER will include a strong commitment to education through graduate and undergraduate student involvement, post-doctoral mentoring, continuation of a very successful Summer Science K-12 Program in Kaktovik, and establishment of a parallel K-12 program in Barrow. Particular attention will be paid to recruiting underrepresented minorities. In addition, with support from the USFWS Arctic Refuge, the North Slope Borough, and the City of Kaktovik, we plan to employ and mentor native high school seniors or recently graduated students as field research assistants. These local participants will work directly alongside the PIs during the field sampling efforts. High school or post graduate research assistants will be selected and supervised by the PIs at Barrow and Kaktovik. Finally, science products, photographs, video clips of field activities and other sources of information will be presented at public meetings in Inupiat communities and posted on an expanded K-12 website (https://utmsi.utexas.edu/visit/summer-science/kaktovik-alaska) to share with North Slope residents and the public at large.

Publications

Kellogg, C. T. E., J. W. McClelland, K. H. Dunton, and B. C. Crump. 2019. Strong Seasonality in Arctic Estuarine Microbial Food Webs. Frontiers in Microbiology 10. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.02628

Harris, C. M., J. W. McClelland, T. L. Connelly, B. C. Crump, and K. H. Dunton. 2017. Salinity and Temperature Regimes in Eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea Lagoons in Relation to Source Water Contributions. Estuaries and Coasts:1-13.

Connelly, T. L., McClelland, J. W., Crump, B. C., Kellogg, C. T. E., and K. H. Dunton. 2015. Seasonal changes in quantity and composition of suspended particulate organic matter in lagoons of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series 527: 31-45