Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Colorado
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Problem statement: Massive data sets have been collected over the past several decades on plant communities throughout Alaskan National Parks. We will develop and apply new spatially-explicit statistical models to assimilate these data and improve our understanding the ecology and wildlife habitat in the region.

Why this research matters: This project leverages a huge field plot dataset collected over the past decade to learn the maximum amount that we can about the status and possible future trends in woody plant communities of northern Alaska that govern the distribution, character and quality of wildlife habitat across the eight very large national park units that comprise the Central Alaska and Arctic Networks of parks.

Partners: We collaborate on this project with the National Park Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Research that informs decisions: Our work will provide statistically valid knowledge about the quality and quantity of wildlife habitat over these large naturally regulated landscapes to improve management and wildlife conservation efforts now and in the future.