Aquatic Moss Survey of Thermokarst Ponds of the Jago River Area, Arctic National Wildlife Area, Alaska. July 29 - August 6, 2025

The polygonal patterned ground of the Jago River. area has ice wedges that are degrading by melting. The degradation creates thermokarst pits that fill with water and become ponds. Many of these are in a hydrosere process or pond succession involving stages of plant species that eventually return it to a terrestrial state. The data were gathered to focus on the stage of succession when aquatic moss is established and, in some cases, entirely covers the surface of ponds. Our hypothesis is that the presence and ability of aquatic moss is pivotable by shading, insulating, and therefore cooling the water and pond bottoms thereby ultimately enabling the reformation of permafrost. Furthermore, aquatic moss is a key element in the transition from aquatic to terrestrial ecological states. To test this data were gathered at ponds with abundant aquatic moss and ponds with little to no aquatic moss.