Relations among Vegetation, Permafrost, and Potential Insolation in Central Alaska

The distributions of vegetation types and closely related to the distributions of vegetadiscontinuous permafrost in a representative tion and permafrost. The boundary of perma1.8-km2 drainage basin in the Yukon-Tanana frost in this area appears to coincide approxiuplands were mapped in detail. A white spruce- mately with the isopleth of 265 * cal ? cm-2 day birch forest is confined to the permafrost-free average-annual insolation. The thickness of the areas of the basin; other vegetation types are seasonally thawed zone above the permafrost is apparently underlain by permafrost at shallow significantly correlated with the solar-radiation depths. A solar-radiation index, based on the index, although vegetation characteristics apconcept of equivalent latitude (a function of pear to be at least as important in controlling slope and aspect), was also mapped, and is this.