IARC Summer School 2006

Arctic Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecosystems

A two-week workshop on Arctic Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecosystems was held August 7-19, 2006. The workshop emphasized ecosystem interactions with hydrology and climate.

This workshop on Arctic Climate and Terrestrial Ecosystems was offered by the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/ ) and the Ecosystems Center, a research section of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA (http://ecosystems.mbl.edu ). It was designed to take advantage of resources offered by IARC, a collaboration of international Arctic researchers, as well as those of a team of scientists undertaking a research project on BioComplexity (Land-water Interaction at the Catchment Scale: Linking Biogeochemistry and Hydrology), funded by the National Science Foundation, at the Toolik Field Station of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (http://www.uaf.edu/toolik/).

The workshop provided advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and early-career scientists with an overview of the controls of ecosystem variability in northern Alaska, from the Alaskan interior to the Arctic, and an illustration of the interplay between data collection and modeling. As the primary control, climate combines with hydrology, topography, and disturbance to produce a wide variety of ecosystems in this area, ranging from the boreal forest to coastal tundra. The ecosystems are changing, and these changes can, in turn, affect climate through feedbacks involving changes in albedo, permafrost, hydrology, trace gas exchanges with the atmosphere, and other processes. The workshop gave students an understanding of the scientific underpinnings of the controls and feedbacks of climate-related changes in Arctic ecosystems, and included firsthand exposure to ongoing research.

The first week of the workshop was spent in the Fairbanks area. It consisted of lectures and discussions at the International Arctic Research Center (IARC), University of Alaska Fairbanks, together with visits to various research sites in and near Fairbanks. During the second week, the group traveled to the North Slope to stay at the Toolik Field Station in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range. Research scientists at Toolik demonstrated the techniques and models used to study Arctic terrestrial ecosystems in the context of a changing climate.

Lectures and demonstrations were given by Larry Hinzman, John Wash, Vladimir Romanovsky, and Doney Brette-Harte from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and John Hobbie and Gus Shaver from the Marine Biological Laboratory. Demonstration of the planning, implementation, data collection, and modeling of the NSF-supported BioComplexity project took place at the Toolik Field Station under the direction of Marc Stieglltz from Georgia Tech. The station has a computing network and Internet connections (fiber optic cable). Dr. Stieglitz demonstrated the completed hydrology model of the site as well as the “under construction” soil chemistry and terrestrial ecosystem model. Students gained an appreciation of how field data can be converted to process description and rates and, further, how process studies and environmental information can be linked to a simulation model.

The two-week experience enabled students to bridge classroom material and cutting-edge research in the field.

The first week of the summer school was coordinated by the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

International Arctic Research Center (IARC):

IARC’s mission is to serve as a focal point of excellence of international collaboration and to provide the Arctic research community with an unprecedented opportunity to share knowledge about science in the Arctic. In addition to research conducted at IARC in collaboration with scientists worldwide, education and outreach are major components of IARC’s activities. Visiting scientists, workshops, and short courses (such as this summer school) are vehicles for education and outreach at IARC.

Research at IARC is carried out under four major themes:

1. Arctic Ocean Models and Observation,
2. Arctic Atmosphere: Feedbacks, Radiation, Weather Analysis,
3. Permafrost/Frozen Soil Models and Observations,
4. Arctic Biota/Vegetation (Ecosystem Models).

At a higher level of integration, research under these themes contributes to an improved understanding of the Arctic hydrologic and carbon cycles, which in many respects are the keys to the future evolution of Arctic climate. At the highest level, IARC’s research is targeted at the ultimate objective of “Reducing Uncertainty in Arctic Climate Change Prediction.”

The 2006 summer course drew upon IARC’s expertise in Arctic climate, hydrology and ecosystems embodied by the research themes listed above. It entrained related expertise from the University of Alaska and other organizations with interests in the workshop’s subject matter.

The major sources of IARC’s funding are the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Funding for the summer workshop was provided by the National Science Foundation.

Additional information about IARC, including its history and personnel, can be found at http://www.iarc.uaf.edu

The second week of the workshop was coordinated by the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, as part of its BioComplexity Project supported by the National Science Foundation.