A new scientific review article led by WCS captures the unique and dynamic characteristics of coastal lagoon ecosystems in the Arctic Beringia Region, and discusses how climate change effects and human development could alter these habitats.
A new scientific review article led by WCS captures the unique and dynamic characteristics of coastal lagoon ecosystems in the Arctic Beringia Region, and discusses how climate change effects and human development could alter these habitats.
Lagoons make up 40 percent of the Chukchi Sea coastline of Alaska, and are integral components of ecological protected areas such as Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, and Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Additionally, they are important wild food harvesting locations for the Iñupiat People, who rely on subsistence hunting and gathering to maintain their food security.
Fish species commonly encountered in the lagoons include important subsistence harvest species such as sheefish, Dolly Varden char, and saffron cod, commercially important chum salmon, and Beringia-endemic taxa like Bering cisco and Alaska blackfish. Birds that are found nesting and feeding around the lagoons include tundra swans, Caspian terns, Arctic terns, Sandhill cranes, long-tailed jaeger, and glaucous gulls. Mammal species we commonly encounter along or nearby lagoons include musk oxen, grizzly bears, bearded seals, beluga, caribou, and beaver.
Read more at Wildlife Conservation Society
Image: WCS technician Thomas House holds a sheefish - Aukulak Lagoon (Photo CREDIT Kevin Fraley)
