Copper River Delta: an Integrated Expansion of Freshwater Ecological Evaluations

The Copper River Delta in the southeast Alaskan Chugash National Forest offers unique opportunities for investigations of pond and stream ecosystem structure and function and the implications of climate change on plant and animal communities of these aquatic habitats. The economic, recreational, and social impact of these investigations is large and carries very significant management implications. Emphasis on spawning and rearing of salmonid fishes in the Delta streams and on water fowl and terrestrial birds that nest in or around the ponds of the Delta are of particular concern. Backed up by mountains and glaciers, the out wash wetlands are crossed by many clear tributaries of the turbid glacial Copper River and dotted with hundreds of ponds. Ground water influence results in cold temperatures and heavy iron flocks at seeps along the streams and in thick layers of the benthos of the ponds. Toward the sea, lie the wet lands uplifted in the 1964 earth quake, again crossed by streams and covered with hundreds of ponds (ppt Slide 1, map of west Delta). The uplifted ponds, altered from saline to freshwater by the quake, remain wet primarily from surface accumulation of precipitation. The outer band of coastal wetland ponds are saline.