JPMeyer 1977 Journal Meads River at Atkaook, W. Slope Borough, Alaska 12 August Arrived Meade River 11:00 on a NARL historic flight - the first twin otter landing at Meade. They came down to transport Bob White's recycler back to civilization. Discovered upon arrival that Lynn was sick, so I found out where she stood in transit cycle + sampled Flea host 5 that needed drying this period. There were transects 6-10. It was a good refueler for Meade, though perhaps a bit barren for birds. The tundra is dry, with many low center polygon centers, no longer even damp, even those covered by Carex aquilis - Carex chordorrhiza. Most shorebirds were encountered in the lowest areas, either extensiv Carex marshalli by lata margins (transect 6 which had 21 juvenile moults) or big on bare margins of receding ponds + lakes in more polygonized ground (transect 10). C. alpina appeared restricted to the latter, while eulanda was more generally distributed, even though heavily concentrated in unpolygonized marshes. Black-Bellied Plovers are the only bird conspicuously with juveniles now: their circumsant moulting and alarm calls are bothersome - piercing and continuous. 13 August Worked on vegetation today, sampling transect 1 as we have done the transect system at Barrow. Some alterations, the most fundamental of which is that we use Vera Komankova's list of associations worked out at Meade instead of Pat Webber's from Barrow. There are difficulties, not the least of which derive from the complexity of Meade vegetation. Vera recognizes 90 (minus) associations. Fortunately several are quite rare or restricted to areas where our transects do not occur. But that is still a shuffler. But the complexity is also manifest in unforbidden intergradations in type. For example: the dominant upland vegetation is what Vera calls Eriophorum vaginatum - Ledum. At o the classic tussock tundra, although occurring on well drained uplands of varying degrees of polygonization (from trough height 10-80 cm). Tussocks are variable in size but smaller here than in haul road sites, ranging only to ~15 cm high. Anyway - the E.v. - Ledum association is thick with fruticose lichens, especially Cetraria spp., and has a number of vascular associates: Rubus, Betula nana, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Carex bigelowii, etc. But the proportion of these associates in terms of % cover varies enormously, as does the % cover of Ledum + E.vag. They vary so, as such that