NGEE Arctic enjoys a little publicity

Before leaving for the airport this morning I stopped by the office of the ORNL Laboratory Director, Thom Mason. I don't make a habit of this, but it did, among other things, give me the opportunity to quickly brief him on the NGEE Arctic project.

As I walked into his office, I picked up what I thought was a new glossy brochure highlighting science and technology at ORNL. I was pleased to see that one of those highlights was of our work in the Arctic. The picture that accompanied the article shows Victoria harvesting above-ground plant biomass from one of her vegetation plots last year at our field research site on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO). Victoria is a post-doc working with Rich, Colleen, and others on the vegetation dynamics tasks and has a keen interest in plant community composition and processes like root growth and distribution of biomass throughout the soil profile.

 

 

I sent the picture to Victoria who is in Barrow again this summer. A quick response indicated that while Victoria was pleased to enjoy her 15 minutes of fame, she didn't know that it would come in the form of a picture showing her sitting on the tundra, wearing a bug jacket, and holding a pair of scissors. I had to laugh. Getting a career started in global change biology is a tricky business, and I agree that field work can at times lack the glamor of other scientific disciplines! However, I suspect that Victoria will have the opportunity to enjoy many more minutes of fame because of her hard work and attention to detail, I'm glad that she is part of the project.

So, what about my NGEE Arctic briefing of Thom Mason? It went well. He has a great understanding of all the work going on across the laboratory. Climate modeling and the importance of field and laboratory measurements that serve to support those models is an area familiar to him. He even had comments about the NGEE Arctic blog. Having thought about it for a few hours now, maybe Thom would enjoy going to Alaska like Martin Keller, Associate Laboratory Director, and others did last year? That was a great trip! Let's see, we could...

Heading back to Alaska – Activities for the coming days

Having just recovered from my trip to Toolik Lake, Barrow and the Seward Peninsula two weeks ago, I am stepping back on an airplane bound this time for Fairbanks and then onward to Barrow.  My objectives for this trip are two-fold.  First, I will be taking part in discussions related to the NASA-sponsored ABoVE or Arctic and Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (http://above.nasa.gov/).  The Science Definition Team (SDT) is composed of 20 or more scientists who are working together to develop a concise science plan for this activity. As many of us know, climate change in the Arctic and Boreal region is unfolding faster than anywhere else on Earth, resulting in reduced Arctic sea ice, thawing of permafrost soils, decomposition of long-frozen organic matter, widespread changes to lakes, rivers, coastlines, and alterations of ecosystem structure and function. In tackling this multi-disciplinary challenge, NASA’s Terrestrial Ecology Program (led by Diane Wickland) is in the process of planning a major field campaign which will take place in Alaska and western Canada during the next 5 to 8 years. ABoVE seeks a better understanding of the vulnerability and resilience of ecosystems and society to this changing environment.

Although the full scope of the ABoVE project as yet to be defined, research carried out as part of ABoVE will integrate geospatial data collected by airborne and satellite platforms with information obtained from field studies and ground-based monitoring across high-latitude ecosystems. Dan Hayes (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) and Eric Kasischke (University of Maryland) has the distinction of serving as the two co-Chairs for the ABoVE SDT. It is envisioned that through a series of conference calls and face-to-face meetings the SDT will, over the next 12 months, refine the science questions and issues to be addressed in ABoVE and then develop a detailed study design for the ABoVE field campaign. The work of the SDT will culminate in a concise experiment plan that NASA will use to guide its implementation of the field campaign. This plan will include the science questions to be addressed; a compelling rationale explaining the scientific and societal importance of the study; the research approach/strategy; and a reasonably detailed study design and description of required field and remote sensing observations, required field infrastructure, logistics, and data management capabilities.  The SDT has already met once and is well-prepared for their second meeting in Fairbanks.

A group photograph of the NASA ABoVE Science Definition Team (SDT) at a recent meeting in La Jolla, California.

In addition to contributing to the ABoVE SDT discussions, I will also be traveling to Barrow where I will (1) conduct field work as part of the NGEE Arctic project and (2) host five NASA program staff as they continue to learn more about the Arctic and how they might leverage established field sites in Alaska and western Canada. Prior to their arrival in Barrow, these five will have visited Toolik Lake.  I look forward to hearing about their experiences and comparing notes since I was there just a couple of weeks ago.  We have a great schedule of activities planned for NASA staff in Barrow with tours of the DOE-sponsored Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Facility, the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the NGEE Arctic field sites.  I will be posting updates on that portion of our trip beginning Monday, July 15.

 

 

 

Science Camp – A job well done

Alessio and Skye have now completed the last day of science camp in Barrow. It ended on a positive note. All the kids completed a poster in which they summarized what they had learned during the week. Alessio writes that “Yesterday night we were a little worried about this final day. Were we asking too much? Will the kids be understandably tired of working after 6 days?” Not surprisingly, some of them needed a lot of encouragement to get their posters completed, a project that required anywhere from 2 to 3 hours of solid work, with little distraction. Alessio admits what they did not want to do was end the camp with kids struggling to get their posters done. With a lot of determination, the kids took the bull by the horns and did their very best to produce nice posters which were then proudly displayed for their peers.

 

Thus, with modest fanfare the Earth Science camp came to an end. It was quite an adventure for Alessio. This journey began in January, with the drafting of an initial proposal, continued with the planning of all the activities and ended up in Barrow, in the great Arctic summer, surrounded by the joyous laughs of 10 kids. Alessio mentioned that he “did not know why he and Skye ended up doing this camp. On many occasions, while studying in Fairbanks, he heard about the “other Alaska”, the rural Alaska, the Alaska that goes forward in remote places, in small native communities.” Apparently curiosity did get the best of him and the science camp became a reality. And what better than a summer camp with rural youths to learn something about this world?  

And, according to Alessio, something indeed was learned. “First, we now have our Eskimo names: my name is Ukpik, it means snowy-owl and Skye’s name is Ugruk, bearded seal. Second, I have come to realize that middle school students are an immense source of fun. You can spark their excitement with pretty much everything. It is, however, a very short, intense fire, as they tend to get bored pretty quick. Never drop the guard or you will lose them. Third, offering opportunities to youths is an incredibly noble and rewarding act. Ilisagvik offers camps for middle and high-school kids throughout the entire summer. Earth Science, Land resource, Photo-journalism, Inupiat values, construction camp and so forth. It is essential to inspire youths. Fourth, our best lesson all week; Tunnel Man was awesome!” Alessio admits that the kids grew a little tired of his attempts to explain permafrost. However, with the help of Tunnel Man, all of a sudden the interest level of the kids increased a notch. What was a boring message imparted so succinctly by their teacher with a strange Italian accent, became a mysterious Alaskan superhero, a dude that mushes across frozen rivers, visits their villages, traverses the Arctic, and raps about permafrost.” Alessio spotted a few of the kids independently watching Tunnel Man on their IPhone after class. He speculates that if we want to communicate climate change and educate the next generation on Arctic science, perhaps we need to elicit the assistance of Sea Ice Woman, Ecosystem Crusader, Glacier Dude, and the Snow Drifter.

Finally, Alessio closes by saying that his “…personal map of Alaska has now been enriched by Point Lay, Point Hope, Wainwright, and White Mountain. I did not actually go to these places, but I have the smiles of their kids well fixed in my memory.”  Alessio concludes by thanking Illisagvik College, Exxon Mobile, Conoco Phillips, the Alaska Climate Science Center, and the International Arctic Research Center (IARC), University of Alaska Fairbanks for sponsoring this science camp.

 

 

 

Terrestrial vegetation takes center stage at science camp - Day 4

Alessio continues to demonstrate a great ability to engage others in the science camp activities. A few days ago he enlisted the assistance of Liyuan and Beth, and that was a success. Today he was able to coordinate with two other NGEE Arctic investigators – Victoria and Jenny – to talk with the kids about plants. These two plant ecologists have spent several years working in the Arctic, especially in Barrow, and they know their plant communities extremely well. Victoria writes “This afternoon we printed off copies of the Alaska vegetation map and distributed those to the kids. We then asked them to introduce themselves by saying their name, age, where they lived, and their vegetation type. The kids had a fun time trying to decide if they were moist acidic tundra or a tall shrub.” Victoria mentioned that “one boy was from a location much further south than the others and wasn't on the map, so our discussion was briefly diverted to the difference between tundra and boreal forests and why there are no trees in the Barrow area.”

 

Victoria and Jenny picked a great topic since Alessio and Skye had the kids collect and draw plants earlier in the day. Given that activity, each child had a question for Victoria and Jenny - some easier than others. There were very good ones relating to fungi and shrubs, the nutritional content of lichens, and plant reproduction. Victoria wrote that “the kids really liked the description of tillering in sedges - the 'mothers' and 'daughters', and the idea of huge patches of vegetation being one large family of tillers.” Earlier in the week our NGEE Arctic team had seen evidence for this just south of the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) in a series of drained thaw lake basins and Victoria and Jenny were able to use this experience to reinforce their botany lesson.

After discussions of plant communities, Jenny showed off the ASD spectrometer and together she and Victoria explained that the vegetation map was derived using a satellite that collected similar types of data. This led to a broad range of questions about light, wavelengths, and spectra; and to all sorts of related topics, including how insects see different patterns on flowers (in the UV) and some basic philosophy about whether wavelengths outside the visible spectrum can legitimately be described as 'undiscovered colors'.

 

Victoria and Jenny then shared with the kids a copy of the Flora of Alaska and explained about Eric Hulten and the detailed work he did to compile his vegetation surveys. Hulten was a Swedish botanist, plant geographer, and 20th century explorer of the Arctic. Jenny apparently had just read his biography and suggested that the kids keep an eye open for the poppy named after him as they drive around Barrow - Papaver Hultenii. 

 

 

Allessio writes that the topic of plants sparked an excellent conversation. The kids were very enthusiastic and engaged, and the initial planned twenty minutes ended up lasting nearly two hours. Thanks Victoria and Jenny!

 

 

Science Camp at Ilisagvik College - the adventure continues!

Alessio tells me that he, Skye, and others leading the Science Camp at Illisagvik College in Barrow are now halfway through their journey.  He wrote late last night with the following update:

“Unlike plate tectonics and glaciers, which were topics of discussion earlier in the week, Tuesday’s topics were more relevant to the environment of the North Slope: tundra and permafrost. After watching Tunnel Man, we started off with modeling an ice-wedge polygon landscape using clay. Everyone became gradually accustomed with the idea that, beneath the familiar tundra, there is frozen ground and that the frozen ground is responsible for the configuration of the landscape.”

Alessio’s reference to Tunnel Man may be new to a few of you. Tunnel Man is a super hero who lives in ice tunnels, and teaches children about ice wedges and permafrost in Alaska. Tunnel Man is played by Kenji Yoshikawa, a UAF Research Associate Professor for the Institute of Northern Engineering. He is actively engaged in geophysical, geothermal, hydrologic, and permafrost research throughout Alaska, and is known both for his science and for his creative videos where he plays out the character of Tunnel Man. Kenji has aggressively pursued the goals of the permafrost outreach program and travels to schools throughout the state developing working relationships with those involved in educational communities.

 

Later in the day, Alessio and the kids cruised out to the Barrow Environmental Observatory with the very noble intent of putting into practice what they had learned in the classroom.  Numerous mosquitoes, Alaska’s summertime enemies, descended upon the group and did their best to distract the next-generation of Arctic scientists. The kids could not quite endure repeated attacks and the frequency of “When are we going back to the car?” skyrocketed. Nonetheless Alessio, Skye, and the kids did get to meet Liyuan and Beth, who kindly demonstrated their techniques for sampling surface and pore water on the tundra. Liyuan and Beth are geochemists from ORNL and they are in Barrow conducting research as part of the NGEE Arctic project. Liyuan indicated that the kids braved the mosquitoes, paid attention, and then distilled the essence of their interaction into the question “Can we drink the water?”  Beth replied that it wouldn’t taste very good and Skye commented that an Arctic fox may have used the pool of water for a potty break. Discussions then quickly turned to other topics!

 

 
Alessio and the kids thanked Liyuan and Beth for their help and then turned to other activities: they measured the thawed layer thickness; they noticed that the thawed layer was thicker in the depressions; they also discovered that the temperature of the permafrost was way colder than the temperature of the tundra. Alessio quickly dug a hole and chopped off tiny samples of permafrost and passed it around among the group. “It’s cold!!!”, somebody shouted. A valuable lesson was learned that then sparked discussions about how weather and disturbance can influence the tundra through impacts on ice and frozen soil.

 

The afternoon was spent reviewing previous day’s activities. Alessio optimistically commented that all of a sudden concepts fell into place. They watched some more Tunnel Man, they emailed him, they prepared “artificial permafrost” using sand, water and ice cubes and they discussed earlier measurements with the thaw probe.

Alessio writes that “After three days we are getting to know the kids in considerable detail. We can recognize their writing and the style of each of them. Some of the kids are beginning to open up to us, and are expressing an interest in what we are trying to teach them. It is an amazing experience, beautifully rewarded by their smiles or by the occasional blinking when they understand concepts. We are grateful to be here with them and very excited that Tunnel Man replied to our email!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Science Camp at Ilisagvik College - Another Awesome Day

I heard from Alessio last night and it seems that he, Skye, and the kids made it through another exciting day at science camp. The camp is being offered through Ilisagvik College. Located in the northernmost point of Alaska (Barrow), Ilisagvik College is a two-year community college offering quality post-secondary academic, vocational, and technical education. The college and its staff are dedicated to perpetuating and strengthening Inupiat culture, language, values, and traditions. They are active in supporting various camps throughout the year for local residents of the North Slope.

 

 

 

Knowing the high-energy style of interaction that Alessio enjoys, I appreciated the humor underlying in his summary of yesterday’s activities. He writes:

“Entertaining these young humans for 8 hours a day is both an intense and rewarding activity. Forget about the PowerPoint style lecture that I am so familiar with. Their attention span lasts no more than 5 minutes. After that, magnificent phenomena starts to happen: pencils get examined and broken, paper gets folded, moustaches are being drawn under noses, and objects starts flying. One soon learns how to identify the signs of an instable boat and learn how to get them back onto a productive path: “Ok! Let’s play a game!” We measured air-temperature, emptied our rain gauge, we discussed the concept of habitat, we drew pictures of polar bears standing on the ice, we measured the melting of mini-glaciers located in different climates (some of them inside the classroom some of them outside the classroom), we learned how female and male emperor penguin find each other, we clay-modeled birds’ feet to figure out adaptation strategies, we observed rocks, plants and each other’s hair on a portable microscope and we analyzed the difference between the Arctic and the Antarctic. As you might guess the comparison between the two hemispheres was quite imbalanced. The Arctic part of the Venn diagram was enthusiastically filled by content, the Antarctic… not so much.”

Alessio and others involved in the camp stayed up late last night putting the finishing touches on the activities for today. Tuesday is “Permafrost Day”. The kids will model the tundra landscape using clay. Later in the day they will visit the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) where scientists from the NGEE Arctic project and other national and international teams are conducting research this summer. It will be interesting to see how the kids react to science in the field. Alessio points out that the Arctic is home to these kids, they have observed polar bears and seals, they dream of becoming whalers, caribou hunters, and they already maneuver snow machines with great expertise. There is still much to teach these kids about their frozen environment; fortunately, Alessio is doing that this week. 

Some highlights of camp Day 2 at Ilisagvik College: modeling various bird feet,
looking through microscopes, and collecting precipitation data with a rain gauge. Earth science is fun!
Photo courtesy of Skye Sturm

 

 

North Slope students experience science first hand…

Alessio Gusmeroli has a passion for science, and this week he gets to put that boundless enthusiasm into practice as he interacts with students on the North Slope of Alaska.  I have worked with Alessio now for several years as part of the NGEE Arctic project and he is not your typical quiet scientist, he is full of energy and ready to talk to anyone about the Arctic.  Alessio has the experience necessary to discuss the snow science, glaciology, permafrost dynamics in a changing world, and just about anything else that just happens to exist at temperatures below the freezing point.

 

Alessio is a post-doctoral research associate at the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  This week he is working in collaboration with the local community college in Barrow (Ilisagvik College) as they host a summer camp for North Slope Residents, 7th-8th graders.  The camp has 10 kids, from different villages across the North Slope; including Barrow, Point Hope, Point Lay, Wainwright and White Mountain. The camp is called Nuna, which is the Inupiat word for Earth.  Alessio and others involved in the camp will do numerous activities in the coming days focused on the Earth as a whole, from mountains to sea, from glaciers to permafrost, from people to animals and plants.  Day 1 was, according to Alessio, fun and everyone enjoyed celebrating their success on the gravel beaches of Barrow.

 

Photo courtesy of Skye Sturm