• Title slide



    Alaska Alpines: from Sea Level to the Mountain Peaks
    Tony Reznicek, University of Michigan Herbarium
    Saturday, October 22, 2011


  • Where was I?


  • Where was I?


  • The Edge of the Bering Glacier


  • Far Inland: just below the Bagley Ice Field


  • Winding Rivers of Ice


  • Mount Steller in the Distance


  • Mount Steller in the Distance




  • Fissures in the Top


  • Up Close


  • Debris Train from Rubble falling off the Mountains onto the Ice


  • Rubble at the Melting Ice Front


  • The Glacier Fragmenting & Melting


  • ..... & Dropping Icebergs


  • Icebergs in Vitus Lake


  • ... & Floating Down the Seal River


  • Ice Melting to leave a Kettle Hole


  • A Water Filled Kettle


  • A Small, Young Esker


  • Old Tree Stumps Sheared off by a Glacial Advance




  • A Stump Sheared off by the Advancing Glacier Centuries Ago


  • Ancient Soil Horizons: One with a Tree Stump


  • Getting there was half the fun...








  • The Planes Get Smaller


  • Our Camp




  • At Home


  • A Few Mosquitoes


  • It gets Cold next to a Lake of Glacial Meltwater


  • Across the Lake to the Glacier & Mount Steller


  • But it is usually Cloudy...


  • Or Worse...




  • No Need to Hit the Store for a Bag of Ice


  • How We Got Around


  • Sedge Hunting from the Air




  • Carex lyngbyei


  • One of the Most Interesting Patterns


  • Time to have a Close Look




  • Eriophorum chamissonis


  • Plant Succession Beginning


  • Various Ages of Deglaciation


  • Lathyrus japonicus


  • Chamerion latifolium


  • Mimulus guttatus


  • Salix alaxensis


  • The Coast




  • The Lowlands have Vast Shows of Flower


  • Fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium


  • Fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium


  • Lupinus nootkatensis








  • Poa macrantha


  • Leymus mollis


  • Glehnia littoralis


  • Carex macrocephala


  • Carex macrocephala


  • Senecio pseudoarnica


  • Senecio pseudoarnica


  • Rocky Shore below the Beach at Low Tide


  • Achillea millefolium


  • Achillea millefolium in Pink


  • Castilleja


  • Gentianella amarella


  • Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia palustris)


  • Botrychium lunaria


  • Yellow Fireweed
    (Epilobium luteum)


  • Fresh Meadows & Marshes behind the Beach


  • Richer Meadows usually have Shorter Dominants


  • Bog Candles (Platanthera dilitata)


  • Bog Candles (Platanthera dilitata)


  • Coastal Cliffs




  • Campanula latisepala


  • Polypodium Fern


  • Potentilla villosa


  • The very rare
    Aleutian Adder s
    Mouth Orchid
    (Malaxis
    diphyllos    )


  • The very rare
    Aleutian Adder s
    Mouth Orchid
    (Malaxis
    diphyllos    )


  • The very rare
    Aleutian Adder s
    Mouth Orchid
    (Malaxis
    diphyllos    )


  • Mountain Hemlock
    (Tsuga mertensiana )
    Old Growth Lowland Forests


  • Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis)




  • Giant Sitka Spruce






  • Devil s Club
    (Oplopanax
    horridum    )


  • Devil s Club
    (Oplopanax
    horridum    )


  • Red Elderberry
    (Sambucus racemosa)


  • Red Elderberry
    (Sambucus racemosa)


  • Polystichum braunii


  • Fen Openings








  • Swertia perennis Malaxis paludosa


  • Drosera anglica in Carex livida Stand


  • Salmon Berry (Rubus spectabilis)






  • The Alpine Zone






  • Also Extensive Swards of Flowers, but more Diverse






  • Caltha
    leptosepala


  • Anemone narcissiflora


  • Mountain Heather (Cassiope mertensiana)


  • Jacob's Ladder
    (Polemonium
    acutiflorum)     and Primula eximia


  • Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium acutiflorum)


  • Campanula lasiocarpa


  • Oxyria digyna


  • Lutkea pectinata


  • Astragalus alpinus


  • Arnica (Arnica lessingii)


  • Aconite (Aconitum delphinifolium)


  • Moss Campion (Silene acaulis)


  • Gentiana platypetala


  • Alpine poppy (Papaver alaskense); Black Sarana(Fritillaria camschatcensis)


  • Riverbeauty (Chamerion latifolium)
    Found all the way from the Alpine to the Lowlands


  • Northern Holly Fern Polystichum lonchitis


  • Twinflower (Linnaea borealis)


  • Aquilegia formosa


  • The Weather is Very Changeable







  • Organisms too Big to Press
    Along the Coast...







  • ... & in the Mountains




  • Signs of even Fiercer Life