Ecology of streams of the Toolik region

This chapter examines the basic ecology of streams in the Toolik Region. It provides information gathered from monitoring year-to-year variability and to identify long-term changes in the ecology of streams. It looks into the importance of understanding the role nutrients have in limiting and structuring stream ecosystems. It describes the ecological characteristics of the five types of arctic streams in the Toolik region, including biogeochemistry, primary producers, microheterotrophs, and secondary producers. It enumerates details of three stream-fertilization experiments that provide the basis of past and current research. It combines the research results under six themes: resource limitation; recovery from nutrient enrichment; trophic cascades; hyporheic processes; disturbance as a driver; and how warming leads to changes in permafrost and thermokarst.