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Speaker:
Dr. Nancy Fresco, Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning

Our world is changing – but it can be hard to predict the exact timing and extent of the impacts. One way to deal with the uncertainty associated with shifting climate and varied human responses is to explore a range of possible futures via scenarios planning, based on input and participation from a diverse group comprised of the people most affected. How and when can this method be used as a tool for long-term planning? A case study from the National Park Service and the Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning offers some insights into what works, how we can improve communication, and how we can move forward.

Dr. Nancy Fresco is a research professor at UAF and SNAP's Network Coordinator. As such, she either leads or contributes to many of SNAP's projects. Her work focuses on forging effective collaborations, linking SNAP data to the needs of stakeholders, and interpreting the results of complex modeling efforts. Her background is in biology, forest ecology, and environmental education.

Nancy has been an Alaska resident since 1999. She completed her undergrad work at Harvard in 1994, and earned a Masters from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 1999. She earned a PhD in Biology from UAF in 2006, as part of an interdisciplinary program in Regional Resilience and Adaptation. Her research focused on the carbon balance in Alaska’s boreal forest.

She spends as much time as possible outside, cross-country skiing, hiking, running, and bike-commuting to work in every variety of Fairbanks weather. Nancy and her husband Jay Cable have twin daughters.

ACCAP Climate Webinars promote dialogue and a forum for discussion and information exchange between all stakeholders in Alaska. Accessible statewide, the webinars identify existing information gaps and how best to fill them. Each webinar starts with 20–30 minutes of presentation followed by discussion and questions from participants.

This webinar is open to all educators around the world. In a special partnership, Polar Educators International will host two webinars:

Tuesday, 23 February 2016 at 1700 GMT [6pm Italy, 8am AKST, 9am PST, 10am MST, 11am CST, 12pm EST] This webinar will be in presented in Italian.

Thursday, 25 February 2016 at 2300 GMT [2pm AKST, 3pm PST, 4pm MST, 5pm CST, 6pm EST] This webinar will be presented in English.

Topic:

Climatic change is one of the main topics of present-day scientific research but it is also one of the most debatable one in the media with a “not scientific” approach. How can scientists state that climate is changing? And which “time machines” enable them to reconstruct the climate of the past?

In this webinar we are going to explain the use of Ice cores in Paleoclimatology and how the issue of the climatic change communication is dealt in one of the most important research institute in that field, the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State University (http://bprc.osu.edu)

Certificate of Participation: To receive certificate of participation in this Master Class International program: Teachers must attend (or listen to archive) one of the two webinars. Those interested in receiving a certificate of participation will indicate this in their event registration. Teachers seeking a certificate will be paired with another teacher. Within 10 days of the webinars, teacher teams must work together to:

a.) schedule a virtual conversation about the webinar content (using technologies such as Skype or What’s Up)

b.) submit a one-page summary of the discussion to Master Class International organizers

All individuals seeking certificate of participation must complete registration before webinars and complete post-survey evaluation after summary is submitted.

All teachers and researchers from any country are welcome to attend the webinar. At this time, certificate of participation is only open to US and Italian teachers, but we intend to offer Master Class International (MCI) certificates to more countries in the future. Please contact organizers if you are interested in setting up a Master Class International for your country.

Presenters:

Paolo Gabrielli, Research Scientist, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio University (USA). Dr. Gabrielli will present in both English and Italian.

Jason Cervenec, Education & Outreach Director, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio University (USA)

Alessia Cicconi, PhD. Candidate at University of Camerino (Italy) and Visiting Scholar, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio University (USA)

Please contact Master Class International organizers for questions:

English – Sarah Bartholow sbartholow [at] arcus.org

Italian – Alessia Cicconi alessia.cicconi [at] unicam.it

The Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) was initiated in the Pacific Arctic in 2012 to track marine biological responses to changing physical conditions. The observatory consists of internationally-coordinated, multi-trophic level sampling, including physical, biogeochemical and biological measurements. These observations are made annually along transects that have been identified as biologically significant in the Chukchi Sea and more recently in the Beaufort Sea. The approaches being used include hydrographic surveys, satellite observations, pelagic and benthic sampling and biophysical moorings. We will highlight initial results from DBO activities in relation to retrospective and ongoing process-oriented studies in the region.

Please consider submitting an abstract for the Marginal Ice Zone Processes Session at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 21-26. More information and the Session description follows.

Session ID: 9503
Session Title: Marginal Ice Zone Processes
Session Topic: High Latitude Environments
Conveners: Craig M. Lee, James M. Thomson, Jeremy Wilkinson and Martin O. Jeffries

Description:
Rapid decline in Arctic summertime sea This session focuses on the processes that control evolution of the marginal ice zone and the potential changes that may accompany increased seasonality of sea ice. The complex interplay between ice, ocean and atmospheric processes, and the potentially strong feedbacks among them, modulate sea ice melt and the transfer of momentum and buoyancy into the upper ocean. For example the influence of wind, waves and passing storms drives highly variable floe size distributions, which impact melt or formation rates of sea ice, momentum and heat transfer, light fields and phytoplankton productivity. In particular, the relative importance of wave attenuation and scattering in an increasing wave climate remains unknown. Similarly, increased areas of open water may lead to stronger coupling between atmosphere and ocean, internal wave generation and elevated upper-ocean mixing. This session invites presentations that describe observational, experimental, theoretical and numerical investigations of MIZ processes in both the Arctic and Antarctic.

Abstract Deadline: 23 September 2015
Abstracts can be submitted online at http://osm.agu.org/2016/abstract-submissions/

Questions about the session or abstracts can be sent to:
Craig Lee
Washington State University
email: craig [at] apl.washington.edu
phone: (206) 685-7656

Polar ICE Science Communication Workshop Series for Polar Scientists
AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting
New Orleans, LA
Sunday, February 21 2016
8am – 4:30pm

REGISTRATION DEADLINE:
Application deadline is Monday, December 21, 2015

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Scientists studying the Polar Regions who want to:
* Learn strategies to communicate more effectively to diverse audiences
* Develop and engage in strong scientist-educator partnerships and professional networks
* Learn and practice communication skills

PURPOSE — WHY SHOULD I ATTEND?
Scientists are increasingly being asked to communicate the “broader impacts” of their work. Polar Interdisciplinary Coordinated Education (ICE) is an interdisciplinary group of educators and scientists working together to share scientific research from the Arctic and Antarctic with educators and students. Our objective is to help scientists communicate their research from the poles beyond their academic peers to the broader community. Please join us for a hands on workshop featuring demonstrations and discussions to address skills that include:
* Connecting with diverse audiences
* Deconstructing/decoding science for non-expert audiences
* The art of telling science stories
* Networking with the education and outreach community

INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING?
Fill out our application form to apply for this free program TODAY.

Application deadline is Monday, December 21, 2015

Stipends are available

Contact:
Dr. Carrie Ferraro: ferraro [at] marine.rutgers.edu, 848.932.3282
Janice McDonnell: mcdonnel [at] marine.rutgers.edu, 848.932.3285

This workshop series is sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s Polar Integrated Coordinated Education (ICE) and Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS).

Abstract:

A great deal is known, and even more is posited, about the environmental effects of climate change in the northern latitudes. However, very little is known about the adverse effects of climate change on the health of residents of the circumpolar north. In this talk, I will describe some of the reasons why this is so, including some of the challenges to conducting epidemiological assessments of health outcomes associated with environmental exposures. I will describe the method by which my study team met those challenges through the application of a participatory, community-based surveillance system to collect repeated observations of environmental conditions and syndromic health outcomes in sentinel communities across three ecologically distinct regions of Alaska. I describe those adverse health outcomes we found to be significantly associated with unseasonable environmental conditions likely associated with climate change. Finally, I discuss some recommendations for adaptation strategies to mitigate these adverse health outcomes in circumpolar northern populations.

About the Speaker:

David Driscoll is the director of the Institute for Health Studies and an associate professor in the College of Health and Social Welfare. His research combines epidemiological and anthropological methods to link population-level health data and sociocultural context in order to assess and create effective public health programs. He has more than 10 years of experience working for a host of federal agencies and research foundations and associations. When not in the office, Driscoll enjoys running, biking, canoe camping, and fishing.

ARCUS DC Office - 1201 New York Avenue, NW. Fourth Floor. Washington, DC 20005 or online for live webinar

Does it seem as though the weather gods have gone crazy lately? It is not your imagination. The question on everyone’s minds is why? And is it related to climate change? In this presentation, I will explain new research that links increasing extreme weather events with the rapidly warming and melting Arctic during recent decades. Evidence suggests that Arctic warming is causing weather patterns to become more persistent, which can lead to extremes such as droughts, cold spells, heat waves, and some flooding events.

Jennifer Francis earned a B.S. in Meteorology from San Jose State University in 1988 and a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 1994. As a professor at Rutgers University since 1994, she has taught courses in satellite remote sensing and climate-change issues, and also co-founded and co-directed the Rutgers Climate and Environmental Change Initiative. Presently she is a Research Professor with the Rutgers Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences whjere she studies Arctic climate change and Arctic-global climate linkages. She and her husband circumnavigated the world in a sailboat from 1980-1985, including Cape Horn and the Arctic, during which her interest in weather and the Arctic began.

Details

This event is a brown-bag lunch. Cookies and beverages will be provided. A live webinar is also available to those unable to attend in person. Instructions for accessing the webinar will be sent to 'Webinar Only' registrants prior to the event.

Morgan Sparks, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

A powerful example of local adaptation in salmonid fishes results from the relationship between spawn timing and the temperature regime experienced by incubating embryos, wherein populations generally spawn earlier in colder systems in part because duration of development is largely driven by temperature. As incubation temperature regimes are expected to change in the future, the ability to predict changes in early life history development will be an important tool for understanding the potential for adaptation under a warming climate. Temperature is the primary factor driving development in juvenile salmonids, and experienced temperature has been incorporated into statistical models to predict hatch and emergence timing with a high degree of certainty. However, existing models have traditionally been based on constant (i.e., average) temperatures in the laboratory and thus may not be representative of the variable temperature regimes actually experienced by incubating embryos under natural conditions. Because temperature regimes are relatively easy to measure in the field and hatch timing is an important life history component often unknown for wild populations, there is a need for precise predictions of hatch timing under observed temperature regimes and altered regimes owing to climate effects. Here we present work that extends an existing model to incorporate more realistic daily average temperature in place of average temperature ​over the course of incubation. We apply the extended model to 18 Bristol Bay sockeye salmon populations spawning in different habitat types (e.g. beaches, lake outlets, ponds, streams) to estimate hatch timing for early, peak, and late spawning portions of the populations. Additionally, we investigated hatch timing as it relates to changing climate conditions for a beach spawning population in Iliamna Lake based on predicted and observed past and future lake temperatures. Furthermore, we are conducting an experiment in which embryos from two Iliamna Lake sockeye salmon populations are reared in a suite of variable and constant temperature scenarios (representing experienced and predicted thermal regimes) in order to measure local adaptation and potential adaptive capacity to temperature changes. The populations spawn at the same time (mid-August) but in habitats that are representative of ends of the thermal continuum of Iliamna Lake, one being the warm and variable shores of an island and the other, cool and non-variable spring-fed ponds. Early results from this experiment suggest that population-level responses in hatch timing may be similar, but family-level differences in timing are likely sources for selection and therefore adaptive capacity. The culmination of this research will provide a multi-scale look into the adaptive capacity and potential resilience of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon to the changing environment.​

Join us:
In Anchorage: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Regional Office, 1011 E. Tudor Rd, Office of Subsistence Management Conference Room (2nd floor)​

Online:
Join WebEx meeting
Meeting number: 749 405 005
Meeting password: !WALcc2016
Call-in toll-free: 1-866-730-5871; access code 111 111 (US)

Speaker: Jonathan Day, University of Reading

Abstract: Unprecedented climate change in the Arctic, particularly the reduction in summer sea ice has opened up opportunities for business in diverse sectors such as fossil fuel & mineral extraction, shipping and tourism. Recent studies have indicated that sea ice is a major source of climate predictability on seasonal and longer timescales, but this potential is yet to be realized in actual prediction systems. In this talk I will discuss where we are in terms of predicting Arctic sea ice on seasonal and longer timescales, what the major sources of predictability are, and what I see as the road ahead to achieve this potential.

NCAR, 1850 Table Mesa Drive - Mesa Lab, Main Seminar Room

Or join online:

Live webcast: http://www.fin.ucar.edu/it/mms/ml-live.htm
Live chat: http://www.fin.ucar.edu/it/mms/ml-live-chat1.htm