9509348 Hershey RUI: Landscape Control of Trophic Status in Arctic Alaskan Lakes This project tests the importance of geomorphology in determining food web structure for lakes on the North Slope of Alaska. Lake outflow gradient, lake depth, and lake area are postulated to be important controls on the fish species composition of lakes in this region. The structure of the fish community is then predicted to play a major role in the structure of the entire food web of these lakes. The hypotheses will be tested with remote sensing data, synthetic aperature radar (SAR) for determining lake thawing rates, and field surveys. These remote lakes, unimpacted by fish species introductions by humans, allow a rigorous test of the interactions between geomorphology and food webs of lake ecosystems.
