ASRA :: Glacier Dynamics and Biological Succession in Glacier Bay AK

Glacier Bay is a remote module with additional cost. Total cost is $1500.
Preference will be given in this module to mature students in higher grades.
Students entering junior and senior years are encouraged to apply.
Students will travel TO Glacier BaY NATIONAL PARK as part of this module.

What does Glacier Bay teach us about climate change and the succession of ocean and forest? With a tidal range of 24 feet, and fossil forests emerging from the sea, take a journey through time. Learn how orcas, sea lions, sea otters, oyster catchers and puffins use this landscape and bay that was filled with ice a mere 250 years ago. Witness ice cliffs falling into the sea as calving tidewater glaciers retreat, leaving barren bedrock. Lichens, mosses, and grasses quickly carpet the emerging landscape. These early plants form the soils that will support lush spruce and pine forests providing habitat for moose, bears, and mountain goats. Students will travel by kayak and boats and camp in various wilderness settings in Glacier Bay National Park.

Outline of Possible Module Study Themes:

• Glacier Processes
• Fjord Dynamics
• Tidal Processes
• Climate
• Physical Oceanography
• Earthquakes and plate tectonics
• Plant Succession
• Intertidal Communities
• Cultural History of the Bay (HUNA Tlingit)
• European Exploration (George Vancouver, John Muir)
• Resource Use-Tourism
• The Value of Wilderness
• Writing in the field for Science and Pleasure

• Cathy Connor is a professor of geology in the Environmental Science Program at the University Alaska Southeast in Juneau. She has worked on the glacial geology of lower Glacier Bay linking the geologic record in the sediments with the oral histories passed down through generations of Huna Tlingit, the indigenous people of northern Southeast AK. www.uas.alaska.edu/envs (Click on Faculty).. She has also worked for many years with the Juneau Icefield Research Program http://www.juneauicefield.com/ and http://crevassezone.org/ and with Alaska's high school students and their teachers to develop earth science and GIS-based science fair projects www.edge.alaska.edu
• Clay Good grew up in Juneau where he taught oceanography and other sciences at the same high school from which he graduated 1978. He has been active in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl as a coach and volunteer since 1998. ( see http://seagrant.uaf.edu/nosb/ ) Clay retired from teaching at Juneau-Douglas High School 2007, and is delighted to participate in this amazing ASRA learning opportunity. Clay also enjoys family-time, playing drums in various bands, snowboarding, landscaping, gardening, boating, kayaking, fishing and hunting is SE Alaska.
• Riley Woodford is a writer for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Wildlife Conservation. He watches wildlife, catches fish and hunts, and also produces Sounds Wild, an educational radio program for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Sounds Wild is broadcast on over 25 radio stations around Alaska. You can listen to podcasts at http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/pubs/soundswild/sw_home.cfm He and Clay annually produce excellent music at the Alaska Folk festival. http://akfolkfest.org/