Northern ecohydrology of interior Alaska subarctic

Ecohydrology-as an interdisciplinary field-developed in and explores processes in warm semi-arid and arid ecosystems. This field is in its infancy with respect to arctic and subarctic systems in Alaska. However, similar to warm and dry regions, soil moisture storage is a driver of ecohydrological processes in these northern regions. The presence or absence of permafrost impacts soil moisture storage and determines whether ecological or hydrological processes drive water cycling. The arctic is in the zone of continuous permafrost distribution, and the subarctic is in the zone of discontinuous permafrost distribution. In the subarctic, hydrological processes are dominated by soil moisture storage in areas with permafrost and by ecological processes in areas without permafrost. Given the infancy of the ecohydrology discipline in arctic and subarctic systems, there are a number of knowledge gaps outlined at the end of this chapter.