Past Events

Speaker: Dr. Chas Jones, EPA Post-doctoral Fellow

This study examined flood events in the Yukon River with the goal of understanding how actual or perceived changes in driftwood availability are related to river hydrology and how future changes in hydrology may affect the driftwood harvest. We combined information gathered from informant interviews, USGS gauging stations, U.S. Census data, and numerical models of past driftwood harvest rates to estimate changes in future driftwood harvest rates. We determined that neither average date of spring break-up nor the June Rise floods had changed significantly between 1977 and 2012, but the date of the June Rise had become much more variable since 1993. Our model indicated that hydrologic factors alone were responsible for a small (3%) decrease in the annual wood harvest. However, the installation in the village of wood-fired boilers in 2007 increased the annual community demand by more than 80%. Thus, greater uncertainty of accessing driftwood has been accompanied by a higher demand for this important fuel source. We also identify a driftwood harvest threshold and suggest that when flows exceed 325,000 cfs at the USGS Gaging Station at Stevens Village on the Yukon River, driftwood can be predicted to flow past Tanana approximately 2 days later. Modeling various climate scenarios illustrate how the driftwood model estimates that increasing hydrologic variability would be expected to increase vulnerability of the driftwood harvest. Examination of the economics associated with using driftwood versus fuel alternatives shows that other wood sources require more time and money to harvest. Furthermore, the use of oil or electricity as alternative fuels cost substantially more, but save considerable amounts of time.

Please follow the link above to visit the website and register.

Welcome! Bienvenue! Tunngasugit!

The 2016 Students on Ice Arctic expedition will be a profound hands-on experience for youth to expand their knowledge of the changing circumpolar world, foster a new understanding and respect for the planet, and gain the inspiration and motivation needed to help lead us to a healthy and sustainable future.

Our ship-based expedition will bring together more than 100 youth from around the world with inspiring scientists, elders, educators, artists, musicians, CEO’s, dignitaries, journalists, authors and innovators. Immersed in nature and engaged in cross-disciplinary activity, students will be inspired, motivated, educated and challenged.

Each day will be filled with exploration, discovery, presentations, workshops, hands-on research, hikes, and lots of adventure! Activities will include wildlife encounters, visits to Arctic communities, as well as the opportunity to acquire first-hand knowledge and insight into the dynamics of climate change, traditional knowledge, scientific research, policy and other important Arctic and global topics.

Please explore this website for information about the 2016 Students on Ice Arctic Expedition and how you can apply as a student or staff and check back in the winter for updates and scholarship opportunities!

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION DEADLINE: APRIL 1, 2016 AT 5PM EST!

*Due to a new scholarship and internship opportunity for Arctic 2016 participants, the application deadline has been extended to April 1, 2016 at 5pm EST.

The tools and techniques for making monthly and season scale climate forecasts are rapidly changing, with the potential to provide useful forecasts at the month and longer range. Rick Thoman (Climate Science and Services Manager, Environmental and Scientific Services Division, National Weather Service Alaska Region) will review recent climate conditions around Alaska, review forecast tools and finish up with the Climate Prediction Center's forecast for the upcoming season.

Rick will also present a "Feature-of-the-Month" special addition in which each month he will highlight a topic relevant to the particular month.

Available in-person in IARC/Akasofu 407 on the UAF Campus or online:
http://accap.adobeconnect.com/july_2016/event/event_info.html

Feel free to bring your lunch and join the gathering in-person or join online to learn more about Alaska climate and weather.

This will be a monthly series generally taking place the third Friday of each month.

For questions, please contact:
Tina Buxbaum
Phone: 907-474-7812
Email: tmbuxbaum at alaska.edu

A number of studies indicate an apparent slowdown in the overall steady rise in global average surface temperature between roughly 1998 and 2014. Most models did not directly project such a slowdown—a fact that stimulated a lot of new research on variability of Earth’s climate system. At a September 2015 workshop, leading scientists gathered to share their research and current understanding of climate variability on decadal timescales (10 to 30 years). Improved understanding and prediction of decadal variability is important for decision making in sectors including infrastructure, water resources, agriculture, and energy.

Join NCAR’s Jerry Meehl, chair of the workshop organizing committee, for the release event for the Proceedings of a Workshop. Dr. Meehl will share highlights from the workshop and discuss more recent research. Register today!

Arctic-COLORS is a Field Campaign Scoping Study supported by NASA's Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry (OBB) Program that aims to quantify present and future impacts of changing land and ice on marine net ecosystem productivity in the fastest warming environment on the planet: the Arctic. A Science Plan is under development that describes and justifies the design of an integrative, interdisciplinary oceanographic field campaign and modeling program that addresses high priority science questions related to land-sea-ice interactions in the nearshore Arctic, and assesses the impacts of natural and anthropogenic changes on coastal ocean ecology and biogeochemistry.

The panel convened by NASA OBB to review a preliminary version of the Arctic-COLORS Science Plan wasvery supportive of Arctic-COLORS and recommended revisions and re-submission of the report for further consideration by NASA.

To view the science plan, go to:
http://arctic-colors.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ArcticCOLORS_Final.pdf

The one and a half day open community workshop at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute will engage interested scientists in a dialog about the proposed field campaign and obtain broad community input on these revisions. During this workshop participants will focus the top level science questions, discuss potential de-scoping scenarios, and narrow the study domain.

Registration Deadline: 15 June 2016.

To register please visit the link above.

For questions, please contact:
Antonio Mannino
Email: antonio.mannino-1 [at] nasa.gov

To conserve the world’s oceans we must go beyond science, and use it to inform policy and management, and ultimately to catalyze change. The Society for Conservation Biology's International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) brings together conservation professionals and students to develop new and powerful tools to further marine conservation science and policy.

IMCCs are organized by the Marine Section of the Society for Conservation Biology.

Organizers of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society session AS41, entitled "The linkages between the Arctic climate change and mid-latitude climate and weather,'" announce a call for abstracts. This session will be convened at the 2016 Annual Asia Oceania Geosciences Society Meeting, scheduled for 31 July thru 5 August 2016 in Beijing, China.

Session description: The Arctic temperature has increased faster than the rest of the world, and the sea ice has declined at the pace never seen before since the beginning of 21st century. These profound changes to the Arctic have coincided with a period of ostensibly more frequent extreme weather events across the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes. The possibility of a link between Arctic change and mid-latitude weather has spurred research activities that reveal potential linkages between the two parts of the world. The intent of the session is to further the understanding of the coupling between Arctic variability and mid-latitude climate and weather by synthesizing ongoing efforts and exploring our key gaps.

This session aims to highlight new and emerging efforts focused on linkage studies based on observations, reanalysis products, and model simulation results. Papers are welcome on all aspects, particularly those to assess and synthesize existing knowledge on the links between Arctic climate change and mid-latitude weather variability including weather extremes to identify key questions and knowledge gaps with a particular attention on physical processes and scale interactions considering the relatively short time period of record and multiple components included in the hypothesized linkages and to current modeling efforts on exploring the relationship between Arctic and mid-latitude weather and climate variability.

Abstract submission deadline: Friday, 4 March 2016.

Fulbright Opportunities in Arctic Affairs

I am writing to let you know that the 2017-2018 Core Fulbright U.S.Scholar Program competition is now open and accepting applications for awards in arctic affairs! Opportunities are available for teaching and/or research in nearly every discipline, from engineering to political science, anthropology, communications and more! I encourage you to share this announcement with your colleagues and network.

Applicants are encouraged to review our Eligibility criteria and Application Guidelines, which provide helpful tips to reference during the process. We also encourage you to explore and register for one or more of our webinars, which provide more detailed insight into various parts of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar program. A complete schedule of upcoming and archived presentations can be found here.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens and the deadline for complete applications is August 1, 2016.

Thank you for forwarding this announcement to your colleagues and we look forward to hearing from you.

With best regards,

Korin Hoffman
Program Officer, Fulbright Visiting Scholar Initiatives
Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES)
Institute of International Education (IIE)
http://www.cies.org/us-scholar-programs

The University of the Arctic Thematic Network on Permafrost and Natural Hazard announce a call for applications for an International Permafrost/Natural Hazard Summer Field School in Yakutia, Russia on 1-20 August 2016. Senior bachelor and graduate students who are interested in obtaining and overall knowledge about permafrost are encouraged to apply.

The course will offer insights into:

• Permafrost history and its distribution globally.
• Permafrost related natural hazards and hydrological problems.
• Permafrost temperatures in various parts of the World climatic and other controls.
• Methods of permafrost observations, focusing on drilling, coring and instrumentation.
• Permafrost databases and their use in permafrost analyses.
• How does permafrost affect local community infrastructure and cultural life?
• Interaction between carbon and water in permafrost landscapes.
• How sensitive are permafrost landforms towards climate change?

Interested students should send a Curriculum Vitae and short motivation letter (less than 1 page) to the field school organizers (uarcticpermafrost [at] gmail.com).

Application Deadline: 25 April 2016.

For questions, please contact:
Kenji Yoshikawa
kyoshikawa [at] alaska.edu

Abstract submission for the 14th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography, held as part of the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is now open. Submissions on all aspects of polar weather, climate, and oceanography are being solicited. The conference will include invited and contributed oral and poster presentations, joint sessions between other relevant AMS conferences, and activities for early career polar scientists on behalf of the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). Participation from students is especially encouraged, as we will be awarding first and second place prizes for both oral and poster presentations given by students, as well as four student travel awards to partially offset registration and travel expenses.

The abstract deadline is August 1 2016.

For further information and a link to submit an abstract, see the Call for Papers at:
https://annual.ametsoc.org/2017/index.cfm/programs/conferences-and-symp…

Or feel free to contact the Program Chair:
Dr. Ryan Fogt
fogtr at ohio.edu

All abstract submissions for American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting must be received by 3 August 2016 at 23:59ET/3:59+1 GMT (11:59 P.M. EST). Abstracts will not be accepted for review after this date.

Please consider submitting an abstract to session #GC061 of the 2016 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (Dec. 12-16, San Francisco). Abstracts are due August 3, 2016.

Session ID#: 13059:
GC061: Scenario Approaches to Understand Arctic Futures

Session Description:
Consideration of alternative scenarios for the medium-long term future of the Arctic region can be a powerful approach to synthesis of disparate trends in support of enhanced understanding of the possibilities. Scenario approaches use a variety of scales of analysis to understand the social-ecological systems of a region (or sub-regions), bringing together geoscience, biological science, and interactions of these natural systems with regional and global populations. This session will feature presentations from pioneering research groups involved in Arctic scenario analysis. The audience will learn how these different approaches were developed and structured, and what insights they have produced about possible and likely Arctic futures. Arctic scenarios development is often informed by inputs from global and regional models of climate, atmosphere, marine, and terrestrial change. As a focus, session participants will also be asked to consider how such physical models might be improved to better inform and support more robust scenarios.

Conveners: Robert H. Rich (ARCUS), Helen V. Wiggins (ARCUS), Brit Myers (ARCUS), Caspar M. Ammann (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research)

Abstract submission deadline: Wednesday, 3 August 2016.

Follow the link above to submit your abstract.

The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) will host an Informational Webinar on the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee's Draft Arctic Research Plan 2017-2021.

IARPC requests public comment on the draft Arctic Research Plan 2017-2021 (Five-Year Plan). The Five Year Plan describes research priorities that are expected to benefit from interagency collaboration. It will be published by the Office of Science and Technology Policy in late 2016.

The Five-Year Plan and additional information is available at:

https://review.globalchange.gov

Comments may be submitted between July 26 and August 21.

Chapter authors will be available to answer questions during the webinar.

For questions, contact:
Sandy Starkweather
Email: sandy [at] usgcrp.gov

Organizers announces a call for applications for a field course entitled, "Advanced Climate Dynamics Course on the Role of High Latitudes in Centennial to Millennial Scale Climate Variability."

The goal of the course is to provide students with empirical, proxy, and dynamical training within climate science and an understanding the basic principles and dynamics behind centennial to millennial scale climate variability and their link to past, present and future changes to high latitude climate.

The course is taught by several invited guest lecturers coordinated by the Bjerknes Centre in Bergen, Norway; University of Washington; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Application deadline: 10 March 2016.

Join PolarTREC for a PolarConnect event with teacher Sanda Thornton and the Chukchi Sea Borderland Research Team:

https://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/chukchi-sea-borderland

This event will be broadcast live from the US Coast Guard Cutter/Icebreaker Healy. This is a real-time event with Virginia teacher Sandra Thornton and the researchers exploring marine communities from microbes to mammals and from sea ice to seafloor in this complex Arctic region. They will be sharing experiences and observations of their work aboard the Healy.

This event is hosted through the PolarTREC PolarConnect program, and participants will have a chance the learn from the scientists, ask questions, and chat with others during the presentation.

The conference will address the "dynamic Arctic," including identifying emerging issues influencing Arctic policy discourse and framing them for consideration by policymakers. A common thread running through previous conferences has been the importance of sustaining the Arctic as a zone of peace and prosperity in a rapidly changing and often turbulent and unpredictable world.

Open to invited participants only.

The conference is co-sponsored by the East-West Center and the Korea Maritime Institute.

Primary Contact Info:
Name: June Kuramoto
Email: kuramotj [at] eastwestcenter.org

With:
Natalie Monacci (UAF Ocean Acidification Research Center)
&
Bob Foy (NOAA Kodiak Fishery Research Center)

To register for the webinar, please fill out the form at the link above.

Jointly sponsored by the Alaska Ocean Acidification Network:
http://www.aoos.org/alaska-ocean-acidification-network

Scientists estimate that the ocean is 30% more acidic today than it was 300 years ago, traceable to increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil-fuel combustion and land-use change. Lowering the pH of seawater affects the ability of shell-building organisms to build and maintain their shells, which puts stress on the entire marine food chain. Alaska is expected to experience the effects of ocean acidification sooner and more seriously than lower latitudes due to its temperature and circulation patterns.

This presentation will cover what we know about OA in Alaska, statewide monitoring efforts to track changes in seawater, and results of lab work to test the impacts of higher-acidity waters on commercially important species. It will also highlight resources available through the new Alaska Ocean Acidification Network, which was recently launched to help connect scientists and stakeholder communities, identify knowledge gaps, share data, and determine best practices for monitoring in Alaska.

The International Glacier and Mountain Ecosystems Forum is an event that seeks to exchange experiences and knowledge about glaciers and mountain ecosystems, promoting opportunities for cooperation between public institutions, civil society organizations, business and academia, for the implementation of research on sustainable development of mountain populations.

The forum will be held from the 10th to 13th August, 2016, in the city of Huaraz, Ancash region, Peru.

See the website for more information.

PolarConnect Event with Karen Temple-Beamish and the team studying Carbon Balance in a Warming and Drying Tundra.

This is a real-time event with New Mexico teacher Karen Temple-Beamish and the researchers looking at the changes in carbon and how they effect the tundra. They will be sharing experiences and observations of their work in the Healy area near Denali National Park, Alaska. Read more about the research and what Karen is learning here: https://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/carbon-balance-in-warming-and-dry…

This event is hosted through the PolarTREC PolarConnect program, and participants will have a chance the learn from the scientists, ask questions, and chat with others during the presentation.

Registration: To register for this FREE event and to receive instructions on how to join.

1 hour event with Q&A at the end for teachers, students, friends, and family.

Questions? Contact us at info [at] polartrec.com or 907-474-1600

As a central part of its educational and research mission, SCRiM hosts an annual summer school to foster opportunities for collaboration and to provide a solid foundation in the broad, multidisciplinary knowledge, tools, and methods of the diverse fields participating in the network.

A key focus of the workshop is developing a common vocabulary to help foster enhanced cross-disciplinary communication, enabling the possibility for future collaborative research. Participants will also gain hands-on experience with key methods and tools including robust decision-making, use of simple models, and analysis of relevant datasets.

This program is targeted at advanced graduate students and postdocs. In special circumstances, we may be willing to consider applications from other early-career professionals who have recently completed their master’s or doctoral degrees and are working in SCRiM-relevant fields. Lodging, meals, and tuition costs are covered for all participants. In most cases, we are also able to provide full travel support.

Proposed Sessions:

• Tribal Perspectives on Climate Change
• Earth System Modeling
• Uncertainty Quantification
• Risk Analysis
• Policy Analysis and Robust Decision-making
• Climate Data Analysis
• Geoengineering
• Integrated Assessment
• Coupled Epistemic-Ethical Analysis