Alaska’s freshwater resources, vitally important for salmon and other species, are vulnerable to changes resulting from climate change. Though temperature is a critical element in the suitability of aquatic habitats, Alaska’s stream and lake temperature monitoring is occurring through independent agencies/partners without a means to link and share data. Because a coordinated network of monitoring data can help scientists and managers understand how aquatic systems are responding to climate change, conducting an inventory of past and present stream and lake temperature monitoring efforts has been identified as a priority science need for Alaska. This project consolidated existing monitoring site locations and attributes into a statewide, spatially referenced dataset and will result in the development of an online interface that will enable partners to add additional information. This is not a database for storing temperature data, rather the first step in creating a network which should ultimately link data.
