Alec Bennett, Ph.D.

219C Bunnell Building
(907) 474-6938
apbennett@alaska.edu

• Member - Center for Arctic Security and Resilience
• Instructor - UAF Homeland Security and Emergency Management Program
• Research Associate, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks

 

Dr. Alec Bennett started with UAF in 2006, at the time working with the Department of Defense's supercomputing facility. More recently his efforts have focused on developing climate and hazard related computational models with the International Arctic Research Center (IARC). He has been a faculty member in the Homeland Security and Emergency Management program at UAF since 2019, and is the developer and lead instructor for the Climate Security graduate concentration, Climate Risk & Security undergraduate concentration, and the new standalone Climate Security graduate certificate program. Courses taught include Models & Scenarios, Environmental Security, Climate Catastrophes, Cybersecurity Management, and Disaster Risk Reduction & Climate Change.

Dr. Bennett continues to engage in ecosystem research through the InteRFACE project, studying coastal near-shore environments in the Arctic with the Department of Energy. In other areas, he is working to improve the understanding of Arctic climate-related extreme events, and their connection to policy, decision-making efforts, long-term planning, and the effects of long term climate shifts on local, national, and international security concerns. His research focuses on intersections between cybersecurity, climate security, and civil protection efforts, as well as historical organizational components and their influence on modern systems.

Education

• PhD, Climate Security. Interdisciplinary Program, UAF
• MSDM, 2018, Security and Disaster Management, University of Alaska Fairbanks
• BS, 2005, Information Systems, University of Alaska Southeast

Publications (peer-reviewed)

Bennett, Alec P, Vladimir A Alexeev, and Peter A Bieniek. 2024. “Modeling of Future Streamflow Hazards in Interior Alaska River Systems and Implications for Applied Planning.” Water 16 (14): 1949.

Nanni, Ugo, Patricia DeRepentigny, Aapo Lundén, et al. 2024. “Redefining Arctic Boundaries in a Changing Climate: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Governance Strategies.” Polar Geography 47 (2): 127–55.

Bennett, Alec P., Troy J. Bouffard, and Uma S. Bhatt. 2022. "Arctic Sea Ice Decline and Geoengineering Solutions: Cascading Security and Ethical Considerations" Challenges 13, no. 1: 22. https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/13/1/22

Fresco, N.; Bennett, A., Bieniek P. Rosner, C. "Climate Change, Farming, and Gardening in Alaska: Cultivating Opportunities". Sustainability 2021, 13, x. Research Gate website (in print)

Bouffard, Troy J., Ekaterina Uryupova, Klaus Dodds, Vladimir E. Romanovsky, Alec P. Bennett, and Dmitry Streletskiy. "Scientific Cooperation: Supporting Circumpolar Permafrost Monitoring and Data Sharing ". Land 10, no. 6 (03 June 2021). https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/6/590.

Euskirchen, E. S., Timm, K., Breen, A. L., Gray, S., Rupp, T. S., Martin, P., Reynolds, J., Sesser, A., Murphy, K., Littell, J., Bennett, A., Bolton, R., Carman, T., Genet, H, Griffith, B., Kurkowski, T., Lara, M., Marchenko, S., Nicolsky, D., Panda, S., Romanovsky, V., Rutter, R., Tucker, C., &McGuire, A.D. (2020). Co-producing knowledge: the Integrated Ecosystem Model for resource
management in Arctic Alaska. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 18(8), 447-455.

Fresco, N., Marchenko, S., Bieniek, P., Lindgren, M., Bennett, A., Leonawicz, M., Schroder, J., Floyd, A., Wehmas, M., & Kurkowski, T. (2018). Climate change baseline analysis for the UnitedStates Army Garrison, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

Genet, H., He, Y., Lyu, Z., McGuire, A.D., Zhuang, Q., Clein, J., D'Amore, D., Bennett, A., Breen, A., Biles, F., Euskirchen, E.S., Johnson, K., Kurkowski, T., Kushch Schroder, S., Pastick, N., Rupp, T. S., Wylie, B., Zhang, Y., Zhou, X., & Zhu, Z. (2018). The role of driving factors in historical and projected carbon dynamics of upland ecosystems in Alaska. Ecological Applications, 28(1).

Rupp, T. S., Duffy, P., Leonawicz, M., Lindgren, M., Breen, A., Kurkowski, T., Floyd, A., Bennett, A., & Krutikov, L. (2016). Baseline and projected future carbon storage and greenhouse-gas fluxes in ecosystems of Alaska. In Zhu, Z. & McGuire, A. D. (Eds.), Climate Simulations, Land Cover, and Wildfire (pp. 17–52). U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 1826.

Euskirchen, E. S., Bennett, A. P., Breen, A. L., Genet, H., Lindgren, M. A., Kurkowski, A., McGuire, A. D., &Rupp, T. S. (2016). Consequences of changes in vegetation and snow cover for climate feedbacks in Alaska and northwest Canada. Environmental Research Letters, 11(10).

Hewitt, R. E., Bennett, A. P., Breen, A. L., Hollingsworth, T. N., Taylor, D. L., Chapin, F. S., & Rupp, T. S. (2016). Getting to the root of the matter: landscape implications of plant-fungal interactions for tree migration in Alaska. Landscape Ecology, 31(4).

Gray, S. T., Bennett, A., Bolton, W. R., Breen, A. L., Carman, T., Euskirchen, E., Genet, H., Jafarov, E.J., Jennifer Kurkowski, T., Lindgren, M., Martin, P., McAfee, S., McGuire, A.D., Marchenko, S., Muskett, R., Panda, S., Reynolds, J., Robertson, A., Romanovsky, V., Rupp, T.S., Timm, K., & Zhang, Y. (2013). Using integrated ecosystem modeling to understand climate change. Alaska Park Science, 12(2), 13–17.

Genet, H., McGuire, A. D., Barrett, K., Breen, A. Euskirchen, E. S., Johnstone, J.F., Kasischke, E. S., Melvin, A. M., Bennett, A., Mack, M. C., Rupp, T. S., Schuur, A. E. G., Turetsky, M. R., Yuan, F. (2013). Modeling the effects of fire severity and climate warming on active layer thickness and soil carbon storage of black spruce forests across the landscape in interior Alaska. Environmental Research Letters, 8(4).

In Progress / Pre-Publication:

Bennett, A. (In Progress, Expected 2025). Security Tipping Points: Measures of Securitization. Status: In Progress.

Schaffer, D., Bennett, A. (Accepted, Expected 2025). Beyond Rural: A Time-Based Measure for Urban, Rural, Remote, and Geographically Isolated Response. 

Publications (Presentations, Posters, Other)

Bennett, Alec P, Vladimir A Alexeev, and Diana L Bull. “Developing a Parameterization for Coastal Erosion Based on Offshore and Nearshore Ocean Typologies: North Slope of Alaska.” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 2024, no. 1248 (2024): EP21E-1248.

Brix, Kaja, Uma S Bhatt, Daniel Mann, David Newman, Alec Bennett, and Amy Hendricks. “On Developing the Missing Element in Interdisciplinary Research:’the Space Between.” 104th Annual AMS Meeting 2024 104 (2024): 439663.

Littell, Jeremy S, Spencer Vieira, Alec P Bennett, Amy Lynn Breen, and Scott T Rupp. “Projected Climate-Driven Changes in Fire Regimes in Alaska Mountain Protected Areas.” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 2024, no. 123 (2024): GC21T-0123.

Lundén, Aapo, Patricia DeRepentigny, Ugo Nanni, et al. “Reframing the Arctic: An Interdisciplinary and Multi-Scalar Perspective on the Divergence of Boundaries and Risk Change in the Anthropocene.” EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, 2024, 15591.

Jeremy S Littell, Scott T Rupp, Adam M Young, Amy Lynn Breen, Alec P Bennett. (2022). Landscape fire projections for boreal and Arctic Alaska: regional variation in climate-fire futures and implications for adaptation [B55C-02] presented at 2022 Fall Meeting, AGU, 12-16 Dec.

Alec P. Bennett, Vladimir A. Alexeev (2022), Exploring Complicating Factors in Long Term Risk Modeling and Planning in Alaska River Systems [H54F-08] presented at 2022 Fall Meeting, AGU, 12-16 Dec.

Jeremy S. Littell, Scott T. Rupp, Adam M. Young, Amy L. Breen, Alec P. Bennett (2022), Landscape fire projections for boreal and Arctic Alaska: regional variation in climate-fire futures and implications for adaptation [B55C-02] presented at 2022 Fall Meeting, AGU, 12-16 Dec.

Alec P. Bennett, Uma S. Bhatt, Troy J. Bouffard (2021), Cascading security and ethical considerations of Arctic geoengineering solutions [SY25B-0603] presented at 2021 Fall Meeting, AGU, 13-17 Dec.

Alec P. Bennett, Vladimir A. Alexeev, Aubrey L. Dugger, Katrina E. Bennett, Jeffrey A. Falke (2021), Using Future streamflow to inform Decision-making efforts in Arctic River systems [NH15F-0519] presented at 2021 Fall Meeting, AGU, 13-17 Dec.

Anastasia Piliouras, Benjamin M. Jones, Tabatha Clevenger, Diana L. Bull, William Karl Eymold, Vladimir A. Alexeev, Alec P. Bennett and Joel C. Rowland (2021) Fusing geospatial datasets to identify patterns and controls on Arctic coastal erosion (Invited) [EP33A-03] presented at 2021 Fall Meeting, AGU, 13-17 Dec.

Kaja Brix, Uma S. Bhatt, Daniel H. Mann, David Newman, Alec P. Bennett and Amy Hendricks (2021), Activating the Space Between Disciplines to Address Complex Environmental Problems [ED45E-0765] presented at 2021 Fall Meeting, AGU, 13-17 Dec.

Alec Bennett, Troy J. Bouffard, Uma Bhatt. (2020) Sea Ice Decline and Arctic Geoengineering Solutions: Cascading Security and Ethical Considerations. CERL/APPC Conference: Circling the Arctic: Security and the Rule of Law in a Changing North, October 1-3, 2020.

Hayden, N.K., Hardesty, J., Amadei, B., Bull, D., Eicken, H., Bennett, A., Passell, H., Backus, G. (2020). Peace Engineering in the Arctic: Accommodating diverse interests in a changing environment. WIP140. Presentation at 38th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society.

Vladimir A. Alexeev, Alec P. Bennett, Aubrey L. Dugger, Katrina E. Bennett, Carl Dierking, Jessica E. Cherry, David P. Streubel, Emily Niebuhr, Kevin Michael Sampson, David Gochis and Yongxin Zhang (2020), Testing an Implementation of WRF-Hydro for the Chena River (AK) watershed [H111-0016] presented at 2020 Fall Meeting, AGU, 1-17 Dec.

Alec P. Bennett, Vladimir A. Alexeev and Jessica E. Cherry (2020), Modeling Future Flooding Extremes to Explore Unidentified Risks in the Arctic [NH039-0004] presented at 2020 Fall Meeting, AGU, 1-17 Dec.

Katrina E. Bennett, Joel C. Rowland, Aubrey L. Dugger, Vladimir A. Alexeev, Alec P. Bennett, Bob Bolton, Diana L. Bull, Jessica E. Cherry, Ethan Coon, Carl Dierking, Hajo Eicken, Meredydd Evans, Forrest M. Hoffman, Benjamin M. Jones, Nicole Jeffery, Jitendra Kumar, Olivia Astillero Lee, Emily Niebuhr, Anastasia Piliouras, Jon Schwenk, Kurt Solander and David P. Streubel (2020), Collaboration to better understand Arctic change [SY023-0020] presented at 2020 Fall Meeting, AGU, 1-17 Dec.

Aubrey L. Dugger, Katrina E. Bennett, Vladimir A. Alexeev, Alec P. Bennett, Matthew Casali, Jessica E. Cherry, Brian A. Cosgrove, Carl Dierking, Trude Eidhammer, Thomas Enzminger, David J Gochis, Joe Grim, Benjamin Crane Johnson, Scott Lindsey, Emily Niebuhr, Kevin Michael Sampson, David P. Streubel, Wanru Wu and Yongxin Zhang. (2020), A Multivariate Hydrologic Benchmark for the WRF-Hydro-Based NOAA National Water Model over Experimental Alaskan Watersheds
[H119-04] presented at 2020 Fall Meeting, AGU, 1-17 Dec.

Alec P. Bennett, Vladimir A. Alexeev (2019), Importance of High Quality Bathymetry for Prediction of Storm Surge [C13D-1348] presented at 2019 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, CA, 9-13 Dec.

Alec Bennett, Hajo Eicken, Jasper O. Hardesty, Lori Kay Parrott, Mark Ivey, Vladimir A. Alexeev, Nancy L. Fresco, John C. Eichelberger (2018), Integrated, Multiscale, Multidisciplinary Research of Arctic Change and Impacts on Security and Infrastructure Resilience in Alaska [GC41I-1562] presented at 2018 Fall Meeting, AGU, Washington, D.C., 10-14 Dec.

Erin Trochim, Edward Schuur, Scott T Rupp, Alec Bennett (2018), Connecting People, Infrastructure and Permafrost Information in Alaska [GC31B-02] presented at 2018 Fall Meeting, AGU, Washington, D.C., 10-14 Dec.

Zhou Lyu, Helene Genet, Yujie He, Qianlai Zhuang, Anthony David McGuire, Alec P. Bennett, Amy Lynn Breen, Joy Clein, Eugenie Susanne Euskirchen, Kristofer D. Johnson, Thomas A. Kurkowski, Neal J. Pastick, Scott T. Rupp, Bruce K. Wylie, Zhiliang Zhu, (2017), The Role of Driving Factors in Historical and Projected Carbon Dynamics in Wetland Ecosystems of Alaska [B41G-0299] presented at 2017 Fall Meeting, AGU, New Orleans, LA, 11-15 Dec.

Eugenie Susanne Euskirchen, Amy Lynn Breen, Alec P. Bennett, Helene Genet, Michael Lindgren, Thomas A. Kurkowski, Anthony David McGuire, Scott T. Rupp (2016), Consequences of Changes in Vegetation and Snow Cover for Climate Feedbacks in Alaska and Northwest Canada [B54F-04] presented at 2016 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, CA, 12-16 Dec.

Rebecca E. Hewitt, Alec Bennett, Amy Lynn Breen, Teresa N. Hollingsworth, Donald Lee Taylor, Terry Chapin (2015), Getting to the root of the matter: Landscape implications of plant-fungal interactions for tree migration in Alaska [GC13K-03] presented at 2015 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, CA, 14-18 Dec.

Eugenie Susanne Euskirchen, Helene Genet, Anthony David McGuire, Scott T. Rupp, Amy Lynn Breen, Thomas A. Kurkowski, Alec P. Bennett, Gary Kofinas (2014), Modeled changes in terrestrial C storage on the Arctic coastal plain of Alaska suggest a mid-century 21st shift from C sink to source [B43J-07] presented at 2014 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, CA, 15-19 Dec.

Helene Genet, Yujin Zhang, Anthony David McGuire, Yujie He, Kristofer D. Johnson, David V D'Amore, Xiaoping Zhou, Alec P. Bennett, Amy Lynn Breen, Frances E. Biles, Norman B Bliss, Eugenie Susanne Euskirchen, Thomas A. Kurkowski, Neal J. Pastick, Scott T. Rupp, Bruce K. Wylie, Zhiliang Zhu, Qianlai Zhuang (2014), The Importance of Permafrost Thaw, Fire and Logging Disturbances as Driving Factors of Historical and Projected Carbon Dynamics in Alaskan Ecosystems
[B53H-05] presented at 2014 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, CA, 15-19 Dec.

Amy L. Breen, Alec Bennett, Rebecca Hewiitt, Theresa Hollingsworth, Helene Genet, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Scott T. Rupp, Anthony D. McGuire (2013), Tundra fire and vegetation dynamics: simulating the effect of climate change on fire regimes in Arctic ecosystems [B33I-0592] presented at 2013 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, CA, 9-13 Dec.

Alec Bennett, Tobey B. Carman (2012), Dynamic Coupling of Alaska Based Ecosystem and Geophysical Models into an Integrated Model [B33E-0555] presented at 2012 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, CA, 3-7 Dec.

Anthony D. McGuire, Scott T. Rupp, Alec Bennett, William R. Bolton, Amy Breen, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Tom Kurkowski, Sergey S. Marchenko, Vladimir E. Romanovsky, Mark P. Waldrop, Fengming Yuan (2012), The Alaska Integrated Ecosystem Model: An Interdisciplinary Tool to Assess the Responses of Natural Resources in Alaska to Climate Change [B33E-0562] presented at 2012 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, CA, 3-7 Dec.

Invited Talks

Alec P. Bennett (2023). “Arctic Research Seminar Series with Alec Bennett” (June 28, 2023), https://www.arcus.org/events/arctic-calendar/34054.

Alec Bennett, Vladimir Alexeev. (2022). Impacts of Changing Sea Ice on Wave Climate and Shoreline Erosion. 98th Board on Coastal Engineering Research Meeting (September 13-15, 2022). Anchorage, AK.

Alec Bennett. 2021. Climate Security: Shifts in climate are a matter of Human, National, and International Security in February 22, 2021 IARC Salon: New Dimensions of Arctic Security.