A group of International Arctic Research Center scientists returned to the Arctic Ocean in 2008 to continue work on the annual Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System expedition. The expedition offered the scientists an opportunity to witness the warming effects of increasing Atlantic water entering through Fram Strait, east of Greenland and flowing to the East Siberian Sea near Alaska’s west coast.

The researchers placed moorings at key locations along the pathway of Atlantic water entering the Arctic Ocean. The moorings measure temperature, salinity and velocity at various depths. Under normal conditions, the warm, salt-heavy Atlantic water is easy to identify, said IARC scientist Vladimir Alexeev, who recorded meteorological measurements on the expedition. It does not mix with the colder, fresher water of the Arctic Ocean, and stays at depths below the surface. But warm water that makes its way to the surface will melt sea ice at an alarming rate.

In the past 10 years, the mean annual temperature of Atlantic water entering the Arctic Ocean at Fram Strait has risen from 3 C to between 4 and 4.5 C. Further study is needed to quantify the effects of this warmer water, but it is certain that the trend is unprecedented and will have a significant impact on the
arctic ecosystem.

Photo caption: Crew retrieving a mooring in the Laptev Sea during the 2008 Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System (NABOS) expedition aboard the Russian icebreaker, Kapitan Dranitsyn. The NABOS project engages multi-disciplinary researchers internationally in observations crucial to our understanding of the arctic system.  Heavy ice presents extreme challenges to successfully deploying and retrieving scientific instruments in the Arctic Ocean. Photo by R. Mugford

The Bering Sea is one of the richest and most productive marine ecosystems in the world. The region provides more than half of the U.S. total seafood catch and is home to dozens of marine mammal species, from endangered Steller sea lions to northern fur seals, sea otters and walruses. The Bering Sea is also the source of more than  25 million pounds of subsistence foods that are used by 55,000 village residents across Alaska.

But this region is also experiencing rapid changes. Seasonal sea ice extents are diminishing, and fish and other marine creatures may be moving north in search of cooler waters. To address these rapid changes and the questions that arise from them, the Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Project and the Bering Ecosystem Study are jointly supporting more than $52 million in research on the eastern Bering Sea from 2007 to 2012.

UAF scientists from the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences are playing a major role in this groundbreaking initiative. For example, UAF researchers will investigate how changes in sea ice cover might affect the algae that live in sea ice. These algae live in tiny pockets of seawater within the sea ice, and when the sea ice melts in the spring, the algae drop and drift slowly to the seafloor. Fish, plankton,
seafloor invertebrates and even whales eat the algae as it sinks towards the bottom. The scientists want to find out how changes in sea ice cover will affect this important source of food for marine animals in the region.

The Bering Sea projects are funded by the National Science Foundation and the North Pacific Research Board.

Photo caption: Intern Rebecca Neumann and UAF sea ice ecologist Rolf Gradinger prepare to deploy sediment traps through a hole in the ice on the Bering Sea. The traps will sit on the seafloor and collect algae, other organisms and inorganic matter as they sift through the water column towards the bottom.  Photo by Katrin Iken

Since the turn of the century, satellite measurements indicate that annually the Greenland ice sheet has contributed an average of 80 to 110 cubic kilometers of ice to rising sea level, while the West Antarctic
ice sheet has contributed 130 to 170 cubic kilometers. That’s thought to  be a significant increase relative to ice-sheet losses during  the previous decade.

Ed Bueler, an associate professor with the University of Alaska Fairbanks mathematics and statistics department; Jed Brown, a former UAF student; and Craig Lingle, geophysics professor emeritus with UAF’s Geophysical Institute, are developing the Parallel Ice Sheet Model, or PISM.

The PISM group is working with computational scientists and HPC specialists at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at UAF. Together the team is discovering how to create a more reliable model which simulates, and helps scientists better understand, how ice moves across continents.

As they further develop the model, it will become a much more accurate tool for estimating how changing ice sheets are likely to affect future sea levels.  This kind of information is essential for decision-makers around the world for understanding the probable affects of increased coastal erosion on infrastructures and other sea level related economic challenges facing coastal communities.

Image caption: A still image from a 3D movie of the last 250,000 years of Greenland ice sheet evolution illustrates how faster flowing ice streams can rapidly draw down ice sheets and cause greater sea level rise. Visualization created by ARSC undergraduate research intern Ben Sperison and modified by ARSC Visualization Specialist Patrick Webb.

in Alaska middle schools and high schools. The grant is part of an estimated $17 million awarded by NIH to fund 16 Science Education Partnership Awards across the country.

Led by the National Center for Research Resources, a part of the NIH, partnership awards provide two to five years of financial support to research organizations to stimulate scientific curiosity and encourage hands-on science education activities.

UAF’s award will provide support for the Biomedical Partnership for Research Education Pipeline in Alaska, or Alaska BioPREP.

An immediate aim of the project will be to keep students in high school through graduation by ensuring that their high school science courses are focused, challenging and relevant. The BioPREP partnership group includes school districts, teachers, researchers, science education groups and Alaska Teacher Placement. Through the partnership, university researchers provide the technical expertise, teachers provide the instructional expertise and health care providers and community members supply practical applications and encouragement for the students.

Photo caption: Whitney Walker, a student at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, Alaska, grinds a leaf in preparation for extracting its DNA. Walker was a participant in the summer 2008 Rural Alaska Honors Student (RAHI) 2 Next Step program and hopes to return to RAHI 2 again in summer 2009 to continue her research with Mary Beth Leigh

Robbin Garber-Slaght won’t object at all if her research goes up in smoke.

In 2008, when Garber-Slaght, was a UAF senior majoring in mechanical engineering, she spent the summer studying the potential of various quick-growing Alaska plants to serve as replenishable fuels for a planned biomass power plant. The work, which was funded through a $5,000 research grant from Alaska Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) was done in partnership with Chena Hot Springs Resort, which has plans to follow up the construction of a geothermal power plant at the resort with a pilot biomass plant in the Fairbanks area.

“The concept is to demonstrate the same [geothermal plant] technology using biomass,” said Gwen Holdmann, director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. “The idea is that it should be a demonstration for potential rural Alaska applications.”

Garber-Slaght used a combination of library research and fieldwork to gauge the growth rates of fast-growing Interior Alaska trees and shrubs. A large amount of her time was spent surveying fallow farmland, mostly in the Delta area, which has sprouted fast-growing flora like willows and alders.

A story about biofuels in Alaska can be found in the spring 2009 issue of UAF’s Aurora magazine www.uaf.edu/aurora/.

Photo caption: Robin Garber- Slaght inspects a growth site near Delta Junction, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Garber- Slaght.