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The Yukon River, located in northwestern Canada and central Alaska, drains an area of more than 330,000 square miles, making it the fourth largest drainage basin in North America. Approximately 126,000 people live in this basin and 10 percent of these people maintain a subsistence lifestyle, depending on the basin’s fish and game resources. Twenty ecoregions compose the Yukon River Basin, which indicates the large diversity of natural features of the watershed, such as climate, soils, permafrost, and geology.
Although the annual mean discharge of the Yukon River near its mouth is more than 200,000 cubic feet per second, most of the flow occurs in the summer months from snowmelt, rainfall, and glacial melt. Eight major rivers flow into the Yukon River. Two of these rivers, the Tanana River and the White River, are glacier-fed rivers and together account for 29 percent of the total water flow of the Yukon. Two others, the Porcupine River and the Koyukuk River, are underlain by continuous permafrost and drain larger areas than the Tanana and the White, but together contribute only 22 percent of the total water flow in the Yukon.
At its mouth, the Yukon River transports about 60 million tons of suspended sediment annually into the Bering Sea. However, an estimated 20 million tons annually is deposited on flood plains and in braided reaches of the river. The waters of the main stem of the Yukon River and its tributaries are predominantly calcium magnesium bicarbonate waters with specific conductances generally less than 400 microsiemens per centimeter. Water quality of the Yukon River Basin varies temporally between summer and winter. Water quality also varies spatially among ecoregions.
Abstract
Introduction
Purpose and Scope
Acknowledgments
Description and History of the Yukon River Basin
The Yukon River and its Major Tributaries
Exploration of the Yukon River Basin
People and Land
Economic Activity
Environmental Characteristics of the Yukon River Basin
Physiography
Climate
Geology
Land Cover
Soils
Permafrost
Ecoregions
Hydrologic Characteristics of the Yukon River Basin
Surface Water
Snow and Ice
Streamflow
Floods
Droughts
Sediment
Sources of Sediment
Suspended-Sediment Concentrations
Relation Between Suspended-Sediment Concentration and Water Discharge
Suspended-Sediment Discharge
Storage of Sediment
Bedload
Water Quality
Yukon River Main Stem
Temporal Variations in Water Quality
Spatial Variations in Water Quality
Anthropogenic Effects on Water Quality
Summary
References Cited
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For more information about water resources in Alaska is available on the World Wide Web at http://ak.water.usgs.gov.
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