Kluane Lake Research Station
Address
Kluane Lake Research StationMile 1054 Alaska Highway
Yukon Y0B 1H0
Canada
Station manager
Maribeth MurrayE-mail: murraym@ucalgary.ca
Station name and owner
The Kluane Lake Research Station (KLRS) is owned and managed by the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA).
Location
KLRS is located at the shore of Kluane Lake in the southwest corner of the Yukon Territory, Canada. The study area traverses First Nations Traditional Territories, public land, and the Kluane National Park and Reserve. The National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Climate data
Grey colours are WMO Climate Normals including maximum and minimum values. Blue colours are individual years.
Climate data for the stations where extracted via Copernicus Climate Data Store, from the global gridded reanalysis product: ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present. Description and source code: Roemer J.K. 2023. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10214922 Data Source: Hersbach et al. 2023. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS), https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7
Biodiversity and natural environment
The location for KLRS was chosen for its easy access to a variety of ecosystems. Within a 30 km radius of the station there are boreal forest, alpine, and ice-cap eco-regions. The ice cap, composed of the St. Elias Mountains, including Mt. Logan, Canada’s highest mountain, has a very high density of surge type glaciers. There is extensive alpine, unfragmented boreal forest and grasslands around the KLRS.
History and facilities
KLRS was established in 1961 by Walter Wood and the Arctic Institute of North America. Wood had been mapping, photographing, and collecting climate data in the area since 1935. The station has evolved from a few tents beside a military airstrip to a comfortable base camp providing support for several satellite field camps. Up to 30 researchers can use the facility at a time (from April to September).
General research and databases
KLRS has hosted a wide variety of disciplines over the last 50 years. The main projects have been related to geology, glaciology and geophysics in the ice-field region, high-altitude physiology on Mt. Logan, a massive collaborative project investigating interactions within the boreal forest over several decades, climate modelling, and remote sensing throughout the region. The KLRS Bibliography can be accessed via www.arctic.ucalgary.ca/research/kluane-lake-research-station. The Arctic Institute of North America also maintains a major data base called ASTIS and publishes the quarterly journal “Arctic”.
Link to data: https://dataportal.eu-interact.org/stations
Station Monitoring
Human dimension
The study area at Kluane is within the traditional territory of Champagn Aishihik (CAFN), Kluane (KFN), or White River First Nations (WRFN). KFN citizens were very instrumental in the early years of the research station. We now work together sharing information and developing programs that will interest young people in research.
Access
The Station can be accessed by the Alaska Highway via Whitehorse, a community of 25000, with an international airport receiving at least five flights from major Canadian cities each day. Vehicle rental is available in Whitehorse. The drive to the research station takes two hours on a paved highway.
