Call number:
ZSP-201-83/24
In:
CRREL Report, 83-24
Description / Table of Contents:
Secondary recovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, will involve transporting large quantities of seawater in elevated pipelines across tundra for injection into oil-bearing rock strata. The possibility of a pipeline rupture raises questions concerning the effects of seawater on tundra vegetation and soils. To evaluate the relative sensitivities of different plant communities to seawater, eight sites representing the range of vegetation types along the pipeline route were treated with single, saturating applications of seawater during the summer of 1980. Within a month of the treatment 30 of 37 taxa of shrubs and forbs in the experimental plots developed clear symptoms of stress, while none of the 14 graminoid taxa showed apparent adverse affects. Live vascular plant cover was thus reduced by 89 and 91% in the two dry sites and by 54, 74 and 83% in the three moist sites, respectively. Live(green) bryophyte cover was markedly reduced in the moist experimental sites in 1981. Bryophytes in all but one of the wet-site experimental plots were apparently unaffected by the seawater treatment. Two species of foliose lichens treated with seawater showed marked deterioration in 1981. All other lichen taxa were apparently unaffected by the seawater treatment. The absorption and retention of salts by the soil is inversely related to the soil moisture regime. In the wet sites, conductivities approached prespill levels within about 30 days. In such sites, spills at the experimental volumes are quickly diluted and the salts flushed from the soil. In the dry sites, on the other hand, salts are retained in the soil, apparently concentrating at or near the seasonal thaw line.
Type of Medium:
Series available for loan
Pages:
43 Seiten
,
Illustrationen
Series Statement:
CRREL Report 83-24
URL:
https://apps.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA136619
URL:
https://hdl.handle.net/11681/9299
Language:
English
Note:
CONTENTS
Abstract
Preface
Introduction
Methods
Site selection and preparation
Prespill assessment
Seawater application
Postspill assessment
Enzyme assay and analysis of soil flora
Results and discussion
Soil-solution conductivities
Vascular plant response
Cryptogam response
Site factors and plant response
Soil flora and extracellular soil enzymes
Limitations of this study
Summary and conclusions
Literature cited
Appendix: Plant taxa included in this study
Location:
AWI Archive
Branch Library:
AWI Library
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