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NASA ICESCAPES

Impacts of Climate change on the Eco-Systems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment (ICESCAPE) is a NASA supported program we are participating in through a collaborative project with Dr. Karen Frey of Clark University. The title of our project is "The Potential Impacts of Sea Ice Decline and River Discharge Shifts on Biological Productivity in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas"

Some of our efforts include measuring dissolved organic carbon in seawater and sea ice samples and using isotopic tracers to follow runoff in the North American Arctic. Other efforts have included making optical measurements beneath sea ice, which has shown high transmission of light through melt ponds (see abstract of paper published in Geophysical Research Letters). Field work was initiated in June 2010 using the USCGC Healy and a second cruise was in June-July 2011. Check the Icescapes blog for information on the sampling in 2011.

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Pacific Marine Arctic Regional Synthesis (PacMARS)

PacMars is a new joint effort to synthesize existing data and knowledge in the Arctic from St. Lawrence Island in the northern Bering Sea north into the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. It is funded through the North Pacific Research Board's North Pacific Research Institute. The intent is to fast-track by 2013 a synthesis of existing knowledge and research gaps so that is will be available for federal agencies in designing appropriate future research programs. Serving stakeholder needs, including energy extraction and subsistence hunting are elements of this multi-investigator and multi-instiutional project that will also be guided by an advisory panel with representation from many government agencies. This is obviously an ambitious undertaking, but a talented team from many institutions and scientific backgrounds has been assembled to undertake this work. Lee Cooper and Jackie Grebmeier are jointly leading the overall effort. A separate PacMARS website has been constructed to provide information on the project.

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US-Russia Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA)

RUSALCA is a NOAA-sponsored program to document the long-term ecosystem health of the Pacific Arctic Ecosystem, particularly as changes are observed in climate forcing. A centerpoint of the work are periodic research cruises that visit both US and Russian waters to provide for comprehensive sampling irrespective of political or exclusive economic zone boundaries. Our work is particularly focused on benthic biological communities and associated sediment chemistry. Work by researchers at other US and Russian institutions is studying other components of the ecosystem. Some of our findings from the 2004 cruise that show decadal changes in organic carbon processing have recently been published in Deep-Sea Research II (see http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2008.10.025)

The most recent full-scale ecosystem cruises were in September 2009 and September 2012 in the Chukchi Sea aboard the M/V Professor Khromov, with University of Maryland participants Jackie Grebmeier, Monika Kedra and educator Betty Carvellas. Reports from the cruise on research activities and photos are available for both the 2009 and 2012 cruises through NOAA's Ocean Exploration program. The Reuters News Agency also reported/blogged from the ship in 2009. Betty Carvellas has provided a blog of research activities, including images of the research effort in both 2009 and in 2012, under the umbrella of the PolarTREC teacher program.

At the request of the RUSALCA program mangement, dowloadable files on expected data products and project investigator contact information is avaiable here: Current Data Inventory (xls.; as of November 2010) and project investigators and associates electronic addresses (.doc)

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Distributed Biological Observatory

One of the pressing needs for evaluating climate change impacts on biological systems in the Arctic (and globally) is the need for sustained observations of changes in biological systems. Biological observations cannot be automated to the same extent as many physical measurements can (e.g. salinity on moorings, etc.). As a result, there is much less scientific documentation of how biological systems are changing and/or adapting as a result of environmental change. We have been involved in a science planning process supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, the international Pacific Arctic Group, and the International Arctic Science Committee, to initiate more systematic biological observations in the Pacific Arctic sector as part of a Distributed Biological Observatory, DBO http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/dbo/, taking advantage of increased multi-national interest in the larger Bering Strait region. A workshop held in Seattle in May 2009, a town hall forum at the 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland Oregon, and the feature article published in EOS, (the Transactions of the American Geophysical Society) on May 4, 2010 are part of the larger initiative. In 2011 two DBO open science community workshops were held, one during Arctic Science Summit Week in Seoul, Korea (March) and prior to the fall Pacific Arctic Group meeting in Sidney, BC, Canada (November); see workshop reports at http://pag.arcticportal.org/. A DBO pilot field program was held during 2010 and 2011, with multiple cruises occupying two DBO stations and transect lines in the SE Chukchi Sea and Barrow Canyon (see preliminary results at the DBO website). Jackie Grebmeier is the key contact for this effort (email address and other contact coordinates at top of page) and further information on the DBO effort can be found at the DBO website, http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/dbo/. Available at this link is a Powerpoint file describing the status of the initiative. This presentation was made in March 2012 at science planning meeting for the US Arctic Observing Network program.

The DBO effort for improving observations of the changing Arctic ecosystem has grown in attention among several US federal agencies over the past year. The concept is being incorporated into the Strategic Action Plan for "Changing Conditions in the Arctic" that is an objective of the National Ocean Council's effort for formulation of a National Ocean Policy for the United States, as directed by President Obama. Dr. Jane Lubchenco, undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and administrator of NOAA, has also highlighted the DBO concept during prepared remarks at an arctic symposium in Washington DC. Development of a science planning office to promote international data sharing and coordination is also continuing with international partners.

Findings from the DBO effort were recently presented by Jackie Grebmeier, Lee Cooper and Sue Moore as part of the 2011 NOAA Arctic Report Card, pg. 84-87 ( in an essay entitled "Marine Ecology: Biological Responses to Changing Sea Ice and Hydrographic Conditions in the Pacific Arctic Region." Also, a 2012 paper on biological change observations in the Pacific sector by Jackie Grebmeier, entitled "Shifting Patterns of Life in the Pacific Arctic and Sub-Arctic Seas", is available as a free .pdf download from the Annual Review of Marine Science 4: 63-78, at:

http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/eprint/h5EEDPAXZTdyY6V5Tr9P/full/10.1146/annurev-marine-120710-100926

Coverage of the Distributed Biological Observatory concept also aired on the Alaska Public Radio Nework on April 14, 2011 (download the .mp3 file).

With support from the National Science Foundation, we are expecting to move forward in the near future with the DBO concept as a project incorporated into the Arctic Observing Network. Our work will use the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Sir Wilfrid Laurier to continue long-term water column and benthic sampling over the next five years, together with efforts to coordinate international sampling in areas of biological interest in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. A proposal to support this effort was funded by the National Science Foundation in September 2012, with collaborators Bob Pickart (Woods Hole) and Karen Frey (Clark University).

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SELECTED COMPLETED PROJECTS (with archived information saved as a public service; use caution with possibly outdated information, addresses, links)

Shelf-Basin Interactions---SBI    Russian American Initiative for Land-Shelf Environments (RAISE)