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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 will include making optical measurements beneath sea ice and documenting the deposition of chlorophyll to the shallow seafloor. Field work was initiated in June 2010 using the USCGC Healy and a second cruise is now underway in June-July 2011. Check the Icescapes blog for information on current sampling.

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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 cruise was in September 2009 in the Chukchi Sea aboard the M/V Professor Khromov, with University of Maryland participants Jackie Grebmeier and Betty Carvellas. Public reports on the cruise and scientific activities are available at http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/09arctic/welcome.html. The Reuters News Agency reported/blogged from the ship and Betty Carvellas also provided a blog of research activities, including images of the research effort.

Current Data Inventory (xls.; as of November 2010) and project investigators and associates electronic addresses (.doc)

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Distributed Biological Observatory Initiative and Bering Strait Environmental Observation Workshops

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/

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, recently 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 are planned for the near future.

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).

A related effort specifically meant to provide scientific and local community recommendations for design of appropriate environmental observation networks in the Bering Strait region has also been completed with support from the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Alaska Ocean Observing System. Two workshops were held, one in Eatonville, Washington, USA in May 2009, and a second in Nome Alaska in January 2010 to gather input and suggestions from an international suite of physical, chemical and biological observation experts with interests in the Bering Strait region, as well as representatives of several local, subsistence-based communities, specifically Shishmaref, Brevig Mission, Gambell, Savoonga, Diomede and Wales. Lee Cooper is the key contact for this effort (email address and other contact coordinates at top of page).

The findings from these two Bering Strait Observations workshops have been compiled into a workshop report that was finalized on November 22, 2010. The final report is available for download below. A limited number of paper copies are available and can be requested from Lee Cooper.

Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)

Cover for Report (.pdf)

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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)