JPLigers, 1977 Journal Atkasook, Ulead River, W. Slope Borough, Alaska 2 August (cont'd) Whether fire induced or not the lily hay is oppressive and made worse by the muggy heat. Oh for a cool ice breeze off the Beaufort! Shorebirds restricted almost exclusively to stringbogs and unpolyploidized Carex marshes. But there are few of them, with the 2 Pluvialis spp, and Calidris maculata j and juveniles being the only throngs encountered avidly. See daily list, transect summary. One Gallinago gallinago in a Carex marsh. Abundance of juvenile Calidris along ridges. Passive movement appears to be underway. The tundra is excessively dry— even many LCP centers with Carex aquatilis and Nostoc (analges) are bone dry. Vegetation → perhaps the problems arise in part from attempting to assign all sites to a set of discrete categories. But that is little consolation. There were many stands which we had tremendous difficulty in dealing with, i.e. in placing in one of Vera's units. Partly that is a result of insufficient information. We used a list of spp which accompany the defining species, because the latter are not always present. But Vera also relies upon land form, such that [from the linked info are here], the same plant species associating in 2 separate arctic microhabitats (i.e. physical microhabitats) may be split into different associations. (No augusta!) It is also disturbing to see the variation in physiology of vegetation which exists within a given one of her associations; that is if we are correctly assigning stands to her system. This holds true, for example, in the Carex aquatilis-Carex chordorrhiza unit which grows in the centers of LCPs—vegetation height + density vary a great deal. 3 Aug — returned to WARC after waiting all day for plane 4 Aug — work inside at Barrow 5 Aug — flew to Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska Worked w/ [illegible] language all afternoon. Did lone him for brief survey of NANA ponds, out behind the sewage lagoon tank here at NANA. 15+ juvenile Calidris hudsonica, 35+ mixed adult + juvenile C. alpina, 20 C. maculata juveniles, 30 C. pusilla j, 10 C. maritima j, plus at least 50 Ph. lobatus juveniles. The species composition has changed markedly since I left, and the ratio of adults to juveniles has also shifted.