ABoVE

Whitehorse, Canada

We flew from Inuvik to Whitehorse, Yukon, arriving in mid-afternoon. We were met by Rick Janowicz of the Yukon Government (Water Resources), who gave as a brief tour of the Wolf Creek Watershed (WCW). The WCW (approximately 180 square km) is the site of a long-term (going back to the early 1990s) study of processes controlling water discharge as a function of permafrost warming and changes in climate. It includes three vegetation types (alpine tundra, open taiga forest dominated by black spruce and closed forest dominated by white spruce). All three vegetation types are underlain by permafrost. A wide range of research has taken place as part of this long-term study. He noted that there has been shrub expansion in the alpine tundra regions of the watershed.