There now exists abundant evidence that pervasive changes are underway in the patterns of seasonality in the Arctic. Shifts in the timing, length, and pattern of individual seasonal events are occurring throughout the arctic system, including physical events (e.g., ocean and atmospheric circulation and fluxes, precipitation, sudden thaws, presence of ice and snow), biological events (e.g., plant phenology, animal life history events) and human activities (e.g., resource use, industrial activities).
The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Arctic System Science Program (ARCSS) released an announcement of opportunity for Changing Seasonality in the Arctic System (CSAS; See Witness the Arctic, Volume 13, Number 3) in June 2008. The solicitation for research focused on interdisciplinary work, including field studies, retrospective investigation, modeling, or synthesis to explore the changing arctic system.
NSF ARCSS received 71 individual proposals in response to the solicitation, representing approximately $30 million in requested funding—40 awards totaling $14.3 million were made. More than 85% of the funding was provided through funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The ARCSS Program funded 17 projects; two additional relevant projects were funded through other programs in the NSF Arctic Sciences Division OPP-ARC and so are included on this website.
The following schematic diagram provided by Breck Bowden, University of Vermont, displays an overview of the funded projects, principal investigators, and subject foci:
CSAS Overview (PDF - 31.4 KB)
Detailed information about the projects can be found through the links at the top of the page.
Information about other groups of ARCSS projects can be found on ARCUS' ARCSS site: http://www.arcus.org/arcss/index.html