Download HAIS 4: USA IPY International Collaborations Two

IPY Research Awards (and Awards-To-Be-Made) Resulting from Second NSF IPY
Competition, with International Partnerships
0732656
Martinson, Douglas G. (Columbia University, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory)
IPY: SASSI Mooring Array in Western Antarctic Peninsula
The Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Program has
made this award to support a research program to observe and understand the role of the
ocean in the dramatic warming of the Western Antarctic Peninsula Region. The
Antarctic Peninsula region has undergone the most marked climate change on the globe
over the past 50 years. In particular, it has undergone rapid winter regional surface
atmospheric warming in winter that exceeds the global average fivefold. The rising
temperatures have been accompanied by retreat of the perennial sea ice cover and over
85% of regional glaciers, as well as pronounced ecosystem changes. The source for the
heat in winter, when the atmosphere is cold, must be the ocean but direct observations of
the ocean are limited primarily to the austral summer season. Antarctic circumpolar
current (ACC) water is relatively warm and is known to periodically make its way onto
the canyon-incised, relatively narrow shelves of the Peninsula via upwelling processes. It
is thought that the canyons may serve as conduits for the upwelled water but it is not
known how frequently and on what scale warm water incursions occur. It is proposed to
obtain and interpret time-series observations from an array of temperature, pressure and
current sensing moorings to address these issues. An optimization scheme will be
applied to the placement of the sensors on the moorings in order to effectively capture the
signals of interest. In combination with ongoing hydrographic work, including recently
funded improved spatial coverage by gliders, which is part of the Palmer Long Term
Ecosystem Research (LTER) program, regional ocean heat budgets will be determined.
The relationship of the warm water incursions with measures of larger scale atmospheric
dynamics such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation and Antarctic Dipole will also be
examined.
Broader impacts: The primary impact of this work will be to understand one of the major
drivers of the marked change along the Antarctic Peninsula. Provision of key physical
context information to the Palmer LTER extends its impact to the understanding of a rich
ecosystem undergoing change. This project is a contribution to the Synoptic Antarctic
Shelf-Slope Interactions Study (SASSI) and to the Climate of Antarctica and the
Southern Ocean (CASO) program. Both of these were endorsed by the International
Council for Science as a part of their IPY honeycomb of endorsed activities and are tied
into the objectives a number of international science planning communities. This
research is collaborative with the Polar Research Institute of China. The Chinese will
emplace complementary moorings to the ones proposed here as an International Polar
Year marine science contribution. The investigators will make quality controlled data
accessible through national archives.
Polar Research Institute of China
ICSU: 8
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0732921, 0732738, 0732651, 0732602, 0732655
Scambos, Ted A. (University of Colorado Boulder)
Petit, Erin C (Portland State University)
Gordon, Arnold L. and Huber, Bruce A. (Columbia University, Lamont Doherty Earth
Observatory)
Truffer, Martin (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Mosley-Thompson, Ellen and Thompson, Lonnie G. (Ohio State University)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf
System – A Multidisciplinary Approach, Cryosphere and Oceans
Like no other region on Earth, the northern Antarctic Peninsula represents a spectacular
natural laboratory of climate change and provides the opportunity to study the record of
past climate and ecological shifts alongside the present-day changes in one of the most
rapidly warming regions on Earth. This award supports the cryospheric and oceanographic components of an integrated multi-disciplinary program to address these rapid
and fundamental changes now taking place in Antarctic Peninsula (AP). By making use
of a marine research platform (the RV NB Palmer and on-board helicopters) and
additional logistical support from the Argentine Antarctic program, the project will bring
glaciologists, oceanographers, marine geologists and biologists together, working
collaboratively to address fundamentally interdisciplinary questions regarding climate
change. The project will include gathering a new, high-resolution paleoclimate record
from the Bruce Plateau of Graham Land, and using it to compare Holocene- and possibly
glacial-epoch climate to the modern period; investigating the stability of the remaining
Larsen Ice Shelf and rapid post-breakup glacier response – in particular, the roles of
surface melt and ice-ocean interactions in the speed-up and retreat; observing the
contribution of, and response of, oceanographic systems to ice shelf disintegration and
ice-glacier interactions. Helicopter support on board will allow access to a wide range of
glacial and geological areas of interest adjacent to the Larsen embayment. At these
locations, long-term in situ glacial monitoring, isostatic uplift, and ice flow GPS sites will
be established, and high-resolution ice core records will be obtained using previously
tested lightweight drilling equipment. Long-term monitoring of deep water outflow will,
for the first time, be integrated into changes in ice shelf extent and thickness, bottom
water formation, and multi-level circulation by linking near-source observations to distal
sites of concentrated outflow. The broader impacts of this international, multidisciplinary
effort are that it will significantly advance our understanding of linkages amongst the
earth's systems in the Polar Regions, and are proposed with international participation
(UK, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Argentina) and interdisciplinary engagement in the
true spirit of the International Polar Year (IPY). It will also provide a means of engaging
and educating the public in virtually all aspects of polar science and the effects of
ongoing climate change. The research team has a long record of involving
undergraduates in research, educating high-performing graduate students, and providing
innovative and engaging outreach products to the K-12 education and public media
forums. Moreover, forging the new links both in science and international Antarctic
programs will provide a continuing legacy, beyond IPY, of improved understanding and
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cooperation in Antarctica.
North Wollongong, Australia
Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, UK
Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK
University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
University of Southampton, UK
Alfred Wegener Polar Institute, Germany
University of Ghent, Belgium
Queens University, Canada
Argentine Antarctic Institute, Argentina
University of Barcelona, Spain
ICSU:
0732983
Vernet, Maria (University of California – San Diego, Scripps Institute of Oceanography)
Van Dover, Cindy L. (Duke University)
Smith, Craig R. (University of Hawaii)
McCormick, Michael L. (Hamilton College)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf
System – A Multidisciplinary Approach, Marine Ecosystems
A profound transformation in ecosystem structure and function is occurring in coastal
waters of the western Weddell Sea, with the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf. This
transformation appears to be causing the rapid demise of the extraordinary seep
ecosystem discovered beneath the ice shelf. This event provides an ideal opportunity to
examine fundamental aspects of ecosystem transition associated with climate change.
The project will use a remotely operated vehicle, shipboard samplers, and moored
sediment traps to characterize the seep community and to compare these areas to the open
sea-ice zone. These changes will be placed within the geological, glaciological and
climatological context that led to ice-shelf retreat, through companion research projects
funded in concert with this effort. The research features international collaborators from
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. The broader
impacts include participation of a science writer; broadcast of science segments by
members of the Jim Lehrer News Hour (Public Broadcasting System); material for
summer courses in environmental change; mentoring of graduate students and
postdoctoral fellows; and showcasing scientific activities and findings to students and
public through podcasts.
Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, UK
Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK
University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
University of Southampton, UK
Alfred Wegener Polar Institute, Germany
University of Ghent, Belgium
Queens University, Canada
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Argentine Antarctic Institute, Argentina
University of Barcelona, Spain
ICSU:
0732995 and 0732940
Barbeau, David L.; co-PI Robert C. Thunell (University of South Carolina at Columbia)
Scher, Howard D. (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Testing the Polar Gateway Hypothesis: An Integrated
Record of Drake Passage Opening and Antarctic Glaciation
This project studies the relationship between opening of the Drake Passage and formation
of the Antarctic ice sheet. Its goal is to answer the question: What drove the transition
from a greenhouse to icehouse world thirty-four million years ago? Was it changes in
circulation of the Southern Ocean caused by the separation of Antarctica from South
America or was it a global effect such as decreasing atmospheric CO2 content? This
study constrains the events and timing through fieldwork in South America and
Antarctica and new work on marine sediment cores previously collected by the Ocean
Drilling Program. It also involves an extensive, multidisciplinary analytical program.
Compositional analyses of sediments and their sources will be combined with (U-Th)/He,
fission-track, and Ar-Ar thermochronometry to constrain uplift and motion of the
continental crust bounding the Drake Passage. Radiogenic isotope studies of fossil fish
teeth found in marine sediment cores will be used to trace penetration of Pacific seawater
into the Atlantic. Oxygen isotope and trace metal measurements on foraminifera will
provide additional information on the timing and magnitude of ice volume changes.
The broader impacts include graduate and undergraduate education; outreach to the
general public through museum exhibits and presentations, and international
collaboration with scientists from Argentina, Ukraine, UK and Germany.
The project is supported under NSF's International Polar Year (IPY) research emphasis
area on "Understanding Environmental Change in Polar Regions". This project is also a
key component of the IPY Plates & Gates initiative (IPY Project #77), focused on
determining the role of tectonic gateways in instigating polar environmental change.
CADIC/CONICET (Ministerio de Educación, Ciencia y Tecnologia e innovación
Productiva, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas, Centra Austral
de Investigaciones Cientificas, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Servicio Geológico Minero Nacional (SEGEMAR), Buenos Aires, Argentina
National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev, Ukraine
IPY Plates & Gates Project, School of Earth & Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds,
UK
IPY Plates & Gates Project, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research,
Bremerhaven, Germany
ICSU: 77
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0732946
Steffen, Konrad; co-PI Eric Rignot (University of Colorado Boulder)
IPY: Stability of Larsen C Ice Shelf in a Warming Climate
This award supports a field experiment, with partners from Chile and the Netherlands, to
determine the state of health and stability of Larsen C ice shelf in response to climate
change. Significant glaciological and ecological changes are taking place in the Antarctic
Peninsula in response to climate warming that is proceeding at 6 times the global average
rate. Following the collapse of Larsen A ice shelf in 1995 and Larsen B in 2002, the
outlet glaciers that nourished them with land ice accelerated massively, losing a
disproportionate amount of ice to the ocean. Further south, the much larger Larsen C ice
shelf is thinning and measurements collected over more than a decade suggest that it is
doomed to break up. The intellectual merit of the project will be to contribute to the
scientific knowledge of one of the Antarctic sectors where the most significant changes
are taking place at present. The project is central to a cluster of International Polar Year
activities in the Antarctic Peninsula. It will yield a legacy of international collaboration,
instrument networking, education of young scientists, reference data and scientific
analysis in a remote but globally relevant glaciological setting. The broader impacts of
the project will be to address the contribution to sea level rise from Antarctica and to
bring live monitoring of climate and ice dynamics in Antarctica to scientists, students, the
non-specialized public, the press and the media via live web broadcasting of progress,
data collection, visualization and analysis. Existing data will be combined with new
measurements to assess what physical processes are controlling the weakening of the ice
shelf, whether a break up is likely, and provide baseline data to quantify the
consequences of a breakup. Field activities will include measurements using the Global
Positioning System (GPS), installation of automatic weather stations (AWS), ground
penetrating radar (GPR) measurements, collection of shallow firn cores and temperature
measurements. These data will be used to characterize the dynamic response of the ice
shelf to a variety of phenomena (oceanic tides, iceberg calving, ice-front retreat and
rifting, time series of weather conditions, structural characteristics of the ice shelf and
bottom melting regime, and the ability of firn to collect melt water and subsequently form
water ponds that over-deepen and weaken the ice shelf). This effort will complement an
analysis of remote sensing data, ice-shelf numerical models and control methods funded
independently to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the ice shelf evolution in a
changing climate.
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The
Netherlands
Centro de Estudios Cientificos, Valdivia, Chile
ICSU:
0732906, 0732804, 0732869, 0732730, 0732926, 0732844
Bindschadler, Robert A. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
McPhee, Miles G. (McPhee Research Company)
Holland, David M. (New York University)
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Truffer, Martin (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Stanton, Timothy, and Shaw, William J. (Naval Postgraduate School and University of
California, Santa Barbara)
Anandakrishnan, Sridhar (Pennsylvania State University)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Ocean-Ice Interaction in the Amundsen Sea Sector of
West Antarctica
The Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Integrated and System Science Program has
made this award to support an interdisciplinary study of the effects of the ocean on the
stability of glacial ice in the most dynamic region the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, namely
the Pine Island Glacier in the Amundsen Sea Embayment. This collaborative project is
being jointly supported with NASA. Recent observations indicate a significant ice loss,
equivalent to 10% of the ongoing increase in sea-level rise, in this region. These changes
are largest along the coast and propagate rapidly inland, indicating the critical impact of
the ocean on ice sheet stability in the region. While a broad range of remote sensing and
ground-based instrumentation is available to characterize changes of the ice surface and
internal structure (deformation, ice motion, melt) and the shape of the underlying
sediment and rock bed, instrumentation has yet to be successfully deployed for observing
boundary layer processes of the ocean cavity which underlies the floating ice shelf and
where rapid melting is apparently occurring. Innovative, mini ocean sensors that can be
lowered through boreholes in the ice shelf (about 500 m thick) will be developed and
deployed to automatically provide ocean profiling information over at least three years.
Their data will be transmitted through a conducting cable frozen in the borehole to the
surface where it will be further transmitted via satellite to a laboratory in the US.
Geophysical and remote sensing methods (seismic, GPS, altimetry, stereo imaging, radar
profiling) will be applied to map the geometry of the ice shelf, the shape of the sub iceshelf cavity, the ice surface geometry and deformations within the glacial ice. NASA is
supporting satellite measurements and the deployment of a robotic-camera system to
explore the environment in the ocean cavity underlying the ice shelf. To integrate the
seismic, glaciological and oceanographic observations, a new 3-dimensional coupled iceocean model is being developed which will be the first of its kind. The project builds on
the knowledge gained by the highly successful West Antarctic Ice Sheet program.
Broader impacts: This project is motivated by the potential societal impacts of rapid sea
level rise and should result in critically needed improvements in characterizing and
predicting the behavior of coupled ocean-ice systems. It is a contribution to the
International Polar Year and was endorsed by the International Council for Science as a
component of the “Multidisciplinary Study of the Amundsen Sea Embayment” proposal
#258 of the honeycomb of endorsed IPY activities. The research involves substantial
international partnerships with the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Bristol
in the UK. The investigators will partner with the previously funded “Polar Palooza”
education and outreach program in addition to undertaking a diverse set of outreach
activities of their own. Eight graduate students and one undergraduate as well as one post
doc will be integrated into this research project.
School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK
British Antarctic Survey, UK
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ICSU: 258
0732885
Tweedie, Craig E. (University of Texas at El Paso)
IPY: Back to the Future (BTF) – Resampling Old Research Sites To Assess Change in
High Latitude Terrestrial Ecosystem Structure and Function
Craig Tweedie of the University of Texas at El Paso will determine how key structural
and functional characteristics of high latitude terrestrial ecosystems in the Arctic have
changed over the past 25 or more years and predict whether such changes are likely to
continue. The PI will play a leading role in the international Back to the Future project
(IPY project #214). He will establish a focused international Back to the Future
coordination and information web portal; rescue data and re-establish and re-sample four
principal ecological study sites including the International Biological Program (IBP) site
near Barrow, Alaska, the Research in Arctic Terrestrial Ecosystems (RATE) site near
Atqasuk, Alaska, and the PhD dissertation sites of two well known and respected Arctic
plant ecologists, Pat Webber (Central Baffin Island) and Terry Callaghan, Disko Island
(West Greenland); and coordinate two international Back to the Future synthesis
meetings. Date will be archived for open access at the National Snow and Ice Data Center
(NSDIC). Students will assist in re-sampling historical research sites and gain hands-on
research experience under the mentorship of Webber and Callaghan as the latter resample sites of their own Ph.D. research approximately 40 years after they were
established.
The project will elucidate decadal scale ecosystem changes in multiple land cover types
across the Arctic; validate and improve models of environmental change based on remote
sensing; assess the impact of global change on ecosystem structure and function
including arctic plant biodiversity; and improve our knowledge feedback mechanisms
between land and atmospheric subsystems of the arctic.
Undergraduate students, a graduate student, and a postdoctoral fellow will be trained and
mentored at a leading minority serving institution. The students will be mentored by
pioneering and accomplished Arctic researchers.
of Alberta, Canada
International Tundra Experiment (ITEX), University of British Columbia
St. Petersburg State University, Russia
Abisko Naturvetenskapliga Station, Sweden
(International BTF proposals are pending for other investigators in Sweden, Norway,
Iceland, Russia, and UK
ICSU: 214
0733074
Schimel, Joshua P. (University of California – Santa Barbara
Reardon, Kenneth F. and Wallenstein, Matthew D. (Colorado State University)
Weintraub, Michael N. (University of Toledo)
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IPY: Microbial Winter Survival Physiology: A Driver on Microbial Community
Composition and Carbon Cycling
Arctic landscapes are changing rapidly. The "greening" and "shrubification" of the Arctic
drive climate feedbacks (via albedo and energy exchange) as well as affecting human
activities directly. Vegetation change, however, is driven belowground by nutrient
availability, a result of microbial feedbacks that also have independent effects on the
climate system (e.g. CO2 and CH4 emissions). The microbial system, therefore, plays a
key role in regulating the functioning of the overall Arctic System. As organisms migrate
and spread across the Arctic, the processes they regulate migrate with them. Predicting
changes in the pattern of tundra biogeochemistry therefore requires understanding the
factors that regulate the distribution and functioning of key groups of microbes. Are
bacteria and fungi regulated simply by the chemical substrates available to them, and thus
by plant distribution? Or alternatively, are microbes independently regulated by the
challenges of tolerating the freezing conditions of winter? What are microbial adaptations
to low temperature, and what are their ecological consequences? These are interesting
questions for basic microbial ecology, but are also important in the context of the
changing Arctic. The core hypotheses of this project are: 1) the distribution of specific
microbial groups is controlled primarily by plant community composition, but 2) the
challenge of acclimating to winter requires changes in membrane composition,
cryoprotectants, and freeze-tolerance proteins that involve physiological costs to
microbes that have important implications for overall ecosystem function. Hypotheses
will be tested by analyzing patterns of microbial distribution and physiology across
toposequences in Alaska (low Arctic) and Greenland (high Arctic), capturing latitude and
plant community variation. Seasonal changes (pre- and post-freeze, pre- and post-thaw)
will be assessed by using clone library and quantitative genetic analyses (QPCR) to
evaluate microbial community composition. Microbial membrane chemistry
(phospholipids) and cryoprotectants (amino acids, trehalose, polyols) will be assessed by
chemical analyses. Shifts in protein production patterns, including anti-freeze proteins,
chaperones, and others will be assessed using proteomic techniques. This work will be
supported by laboratory studies evaluating specific aspects of freezing stress: rate,
temperature, and duration. It will be integrated with other studies on pan-Arctic microbial
population dynamics by collaboration with the ICSU MERGE network. This will be the
first ever study on how stress physiology regulates microbial distributions.
Life Sciences Faculty, University of Vienna, Austria
Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Unit for Polar Ecology, Yerseke, The Netherlands
School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Japan
ICSU: 55
0732168
Post, Eric S. (Pennsylvania State University)
IPY: Establishing a Legacy for International Collaboration Investigating Ecological
Consequences of Arctic Climate Change
Funding was provided to Pennsylvania State University to support for a one-year
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residence for Dr. Eric Post at the Danish Ministry of Environment during the
International Polar Year. In Denmark, Dr. Post will coordinate his ecological research at
Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland with research conducted by Danish colleagues at
Zackenberg, Northeast Greenland. This collaborative research seeks to understand
fundamental aspects of the ecology of Arctic organisms and how they are responding to
environmental change. The PI's residence at the Danish Ministry of Environment will
promote formal collaboration, the development of infrastructure, and data-sharing that
will foster deeper understanding of Arctic ecology and the likely effects of climate
change. Specific focus will be given to comparisons and contrasts between the interaction
between plants and animals at high- and low-Arctic sites. The funding also will be used
to formalize the exchange of students and post-doctoral fellows studying ecology at
Kangerlussuaq (Pennsylvania State) and at Zackenberg laboratory (Danish Ministry of
Environment). The collaborative effort will integrate research from the low-Arctic site
(Kangerlussuaq) and the high-Arctic site (Zackenberg) with three foci:
(1) individual- and species-level responses to climatic warming (how to the sequences of
life history events of individuals respond to warming in high and low-Arctic
communities);
(2) community-level response to climatic warming (integrating long-term observations of
the timing of biological processes and changes in that timing to determine whether
responses to warming differ according to trophic level and between the high- and low
Arctic); and
(3) ecosystem-level response to climatic warming (investigating the role of plant-animal
interactions in vegetation response to climatic warming in low- and high-Arctic
environments).
The funding will foster international mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows; establish the infrastructure for long-term, international scientific collaboration in
Greenland; and enhance public awareness of Arctic ecology and threats posed by global
warming.
Danish Ministry of the Environment, Denmark
ICSU:
0732758
Chapin, F. Stuart (Terry); co-PIs Taqulik Hepa, Gary Kofinas, T. Scott Rupp (University
of Alaska Fairbank; Hepa is with the North Slope Borough)
IPY: Impact of High-Latitude Climate Change on Ecosystem Services and Society
The Arctic System is undergoing unprecedented changes, many of which are
consequences of global warming trends that are amplified at high latitudes. Arctic change
is regionally variable for both biophysical and cultural reasons. Ecosystem services,
which are the benefits that society derives from ecosystems, are the critical links between
these environmental changes, ecological impacts, and their consequences for society. The
goals of the proposed research are to: (1) document the current status and trends in
ecosystem services in the arctic and boreal forest, (2) project future trends in these
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services, and (3) assess the societal consequences of altered ecosystem services.
The intellectual merit of this research derives from several sources, including: (1)
provision of a qualitative assessment of status and trends in a comprehensive suite of
ecosystem services at scales ranging from individual communities to the pan-arctic, (2)
provision of a quantitative regional assessment of historical and likely future trends of
those ecosystem services that are of greatest concern to Alaskan communities,
substantially enhancing the capacity to predict the societal consequences of climate
change for Alaskan communities and policy makers, (3) involvement of Alaskan
communities in the design, implementation, and use of research to ensure from the outset
that the research directly meets stakeholder needs, (4) networking with other research
groups to share research results as an integral component of the program, and (5)
collaboration with similar research programs in other arctic nations to achieve a panarctic synthesis of status and trends in ecosystem services.
The broader impacts include: (1) inclusion of indigenous communities as
integral components of the research team (rather than as passive recipients of research
results), empowering local communities to understand present and future options for
adaptation to climate change, (2) communication of research products that are
immediately useful for policy formulation by communities and agencies as an integral
component of the process, (3) training of Alaska Natives at PhD, undergraduate, and
high-school levels to conduct research on the ecological and societal consequences of
climate change, (4) directly addressing critical a missing link in most global change
research - quantitative assessment of causes, consequences, and likely future trajectories
of those ecosystem services that are of greatest concern to society, and (5) leaving a
legacy of spatially explicit time series of data and maps of ecosystem services and their
likely future trends.
The research addresses IPY/understanding environmental change because it focuses on:
(1) understanding relationships among climate changes, ecosystems and society,
including mechanisms that control these relationships at multiple spatial scales, (2)
understanding relationships among environmental change and ecosystem services and
their socio-economic consequences in polar regions, (3) launching new initiatives that are
interdisciplinary in nature, leave a data legacy, and eng gage the public, and (4) using
LTER and AON sites and building on international collaborations.
(Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamigue), Quebec, Canada
Canadian Wildlife Service, and Coordinator of CircumArctic Rangifer Monitoring and
Assessment (CARMA) Network, Canada
CAVIAR (Community Adaptation and Vulnerability In Arctic Regions); Department of
Geography, University of Guelph, Canada
Plant Ecology and Biogeography, University of Lapland, Arctic Centre, Rovaniemi,
Finland
Dept. of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural
Sciences, Umeå, Sweden
Forestry Faculty, University of Joensuu, Finland
ICSU: 162, 157
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0732713
Harlow, Henry J., Ben-David, Meerav (University of Wyoming)
Adaptive Long-Term Fasting in Land- and Ice-Bound Polar Bears: Coping with Ice Loss
in the Arctic?
The population biology of polar bears occupying land in summer months is
comparatively well known. Much less is known about the larger fraction of polar bear
populations which stays on the ice through the summer. A better understanding of the
physiology of fasting in both summer habitats is needed to understand how reduced sea
ice cover in the Arctic will impact polar bear populations. Bears that stay ashore in
summer have almost no access to food and tend to be inactive. Those that stay on the ice,
however, have continued access to prey and make extensive movements. This project
pairs scientists from the University of Wyoming and the U. S. Geological Service to
follow the movements of bears in both habitats and monitor their body temperature,
muscle condition, blood chemistry, and metabolism. They will determine the
physiological implications of summering on the ice versus on shore. The physiological
data will be added to spatially-explicit individual-based population models to predict
population response to reduced ice cover. The results will provide information important
to management by indigenous, U.S., and international management and conservation
agencies and address the interests of policy makers and the public.
IUCN (World Conservation Union) Polar Bear Specialist Group
ICSU:
0732726 and 0732739
Pfeffer, W. Tad; co-PIs Ian M. Howat (University of Washington) and Shad R. O’Neel
(University of Colorado Boulder)
Conway, Howard B. (University of Washington)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Dynamic Controls on Tidewater Glacier Retreat
Intellectual merit. The Principal Investigators will study both ongoing and historical
changes in dynamics at the rapidly retreating Columbia Glacier, in south central Alaksa.
Tidewater glaciers (TWGs) like Columbia Glacier terminate in the ocean and merit
special attention because they exhibit some of the largest and strongly non-linear
dynamic volume changes of all glaciers worldwide. In addition, most ice sheet mass loss
occurs at marine-ending outlet glaciers that display dynamic instabilities very similar to
TWG. Yet, the response of these glaciers to climate forcing remains very poorly
understood. They will continue an unmatched 30-year record of observations at Columbia
Glacier and to study the similarities between it and the rapidly retreating Greenland outlet
glaciers. Project goals are aimed at a predictive capability for future TWG volume
changes, which are a dominant constituent of global sea level rise. A variety of
measurements including vertical aerial photogrammetry (and subsequent featuretracking), terrestrial time-lapse photogrammetry, airborne radar, GPS surveying, and
meteorological monitoring will provide robust constraints for both inverse and forward
modeling of the stress and flow fields. The need for a better understanding of the
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interaction between climate forcing, glacier dynamics and ice volume change is widely
recognized and has led to recommendations for better glacier observations in the the
IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers, the SEARCH Implementation Plan, the IPY E.U.
initiative GLACIODYN, and the NSF call for an Arctic Observing Network. Both the
SEARCH Implementation Plan and GLACIODYN list Columbia Glacier specifically as a
key glaciological site. This study strongly aligned with the goals of GLACIODYN, and
has been endorsed by the steering committee.
Broader impacts. Because of their large numbers, small glaciers still dominate the
cryosphere's contribution to global sea level rise. The largest uncertainties in this
contribution are from TWG where volume changes are controlled by unmeasured and
poorly understood dynamical processes. Rapid freshwater inputs of glaciers and ice
sheets directly affect ocean currents, and catastrophic retreats have affected global
climate, as evidenced through Heinrich Events. Regional and local changes from rapid
volume change at TWGs affect fjord geometry and circulation while exposing new
landmass, which causes large changes in terrestrial ecosystems including some of the
strongest observed isostatic rebound signals. This study will create new partnerships
through collaborations with European colleagues interested in advancing terrestrial
photogrammetric methodology, and through a forward modeling collaboration with A.
Vieli. The activity is a collaboration between researchers from the Universities of
Colorado and Washington, and has a strong educational component, involving
undergraduates, and two graduate students. Outreach will occur through channels offered
by INSTAAR and National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), local outreach activities
conducted by the Principal Investigators in Valdez, Alaska and University of
Washington. Data will be provided to the GLACIODYN outreach coordinator, who will
use Virtual Globe technology for project visualization. Results will appear in pee
reviewed journals, presentations at national and international meetings, and small
workshops focusing on software and algorithm development, and will be archived at
NSIDC and UNAVCO.
Field Sites include Greenland.
IASC Working Group on Arctic Glaciology/GLACIODYN Coordinator, University of
Utrecht, Meteorology, The Netherlands
Dept. of Geography, University of Durham, UK
Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Poland
Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences or HFT, Stuttgart, Germany
ICSU: 37
0732925
Persson, Ola P.G. (University of Colorado Boulder)
IPY: Remote Sensing of the Macro and Microphysical Structure of Arctic Clouds During
ASCOS (Arctic Summer Clouds Ocean Study)
The international Arctic Summer-Clouds Ocean Study (ASCOS) will provide an
opportunity during the International Polar Year (IPY) to obtain measurements of macroand microphysical properties of clouds over the pack ice in the high Arctic. These
measurements will be particularly unique and valuable because they will be co-located
12
with fine-scale measurements of the Arctic boundary-layer structure and processes and of
aerosol concentrations and types. The data set will be a legacy of IPY. In particular, they
provide critical data for validation of climate model parameterizations of Arctic clouds,
addressing a key issue identified in current climate models.
Funds are provided to:
1) Deploy a cloud radar, a microwave radiometer, and a ceilometer onboard the
icebreaker R/V Oden to obtain measurements from which the PI will derive cloud macroand microphysical properties. The measurements will be obtained in Arctic all-liquid, allice, and mixed-phase clouds near the North Pole during the international ASCOS field
program in July- September, 2008. The macrophysical properties will include cloud base,
cloud top, cloud fraction, cloud duration, and cloud reflectivity. The microphysical
properties will include cloud phase, liquid water path, and profiles of ice water content,
ice particle effective radius, liquid water content, effective drop radius, vertical velocity,
and turbulent dissipation rate.
2) Compare these properties during this pack-ice transition season to cloud properties
similarly derived by the project participants and others over the pack ice during SHEBA,
at Arctic Ocean coastal sites near Barrow, Alaska, and at the SEARCH site in Eureka,
Canada.
3) Temporally and spatially link these cloud properties to the evolution of the boundarylayer wind and thermodynamic structure and to the evolution and distribution of aerosols
measured by other researchers during ASCOS. This objective will provide insights to key
processes for the current climate and for Arctic climate change, and is highly linked to
work by other ASCOS participants, hence requiring significant international scientific
collaboration.
Dept. of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Sweden
Dept. of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Sweden
EU - DAMOCLES
IASOA
ICSU: 40
0732556
Shepson, Paul B. (Purdue University)
IPY: Halogen Chemistry and Ocean-Atmosphere-Sea Ice-Snowpack (OASIS) Chemical
Exchange During IPY
The objective of this project is to develop a novel instrument for ultra-trace level
determination of the halogen atom (Cl, Br, and I) and radical (ClO, BrO and IO)
concentrations in the air above the Arctic Ocean. The development of the instrument will
help to address the hypothesis that halogen atom chemistry derived from salt associated
with the surface of the sea ice has a very large impact on the oxidizing power of the
Arctic atmospheric boundary layer. This in turn results in production of cloud
condensation nuclei, which in turn influence cloud cover. However, the ability to directly
13
measure halogen atom concentrations needs to be developed, so that this important
chemistry (that results in rapid depletion of ozone and mercury during Arctic spring) can
be monitored as sea ice cover changes in the coming decades. The instrument to be
developed involves sampling air into a quartz flowtube, in which the halogen atoms react
rapidly with trifluoropropene, to produce a halogenated ketone that can be detected with
great sensitivity using chromatographic techniques. During this project the development
of this field-calibrated method will be completed, and it will be implemented in a variety
of polar marine environments during the International Polar Year. Fieldwork will be done
aboard the Canadian icebreaker 'Amundsen' in spring 2008 and the Swedish icebreaker
'Oden' in summer 2008, and at Barrow and a pack ice camp in early spring 2009.
Interpretation of the field measurements will be aided by 1-D, multiphase, numerical
modeling of interactions among reactive species, and mixing and transport. An important
outcome of the project will be a fully-tested, robust, portable sampling device that will
facilitate long-term measurements of halogen atom chemistry as part of the Arctic
Observing Network as the sea ice cover in the Arctic changes. Broader impacts include
(1) participation in the fieldwork of a writer, Peter Lourie, who is planning to write a
book about global climate change, and (2), development of public outreach and graduate
courses related to Arctic climate change in partnership with the Purdue Climate Research
Center.
Dept. of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Sweden
Dept. of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Sweden
Atmospheric Science and Technology Division, Science and Technology Branch,
Environment Canada
Centre for Earth Observation Science, University of Manitoba, Canada
ICSU: 38
0732796 and 0732875
Pekar, Stephen F. (CUNY Queens College)
Speece, Marvin A. (Montana Tech. of the University of Montana)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Using New Tools to Explore Undiscovered Country:
Understanding the Tectonic and Stratigraphic History of Offshore New Harbor, Ross Sea,
Antarctica
This project studies the Earth's transition thirty four million years ago from a greenhouse
state with forests in Antarctica to its current icehouse state with ice caps at both poles.
This time interval--the Eocene-Oligocene--had atmospheric CO2 levels similar to those
predicted for the Earth in the next century. Sedimentary records of this period can thus
help us understand how the Earth's climate will change in the near future. This project
investigates the transition in Antarctica by collecting seismic and gravity data from
offshore New Harbor (ONH). The work's ultimate goal is to select areas for future
drilling as part of the ANDRILL Program, a multinational initiative that aims to recover
stratigraphic records of Antarctica's climatic and glacial history over the past 50 million
years. ONH is an ideal locale to sample these sedimentary archives as existing data
suggest that substantial strata deposited from the Eocene through mid-Oligocene. The
work uses new over-ice seismic techniques that employ a snowstreamer and air gun to
quickly acquire seismic reflection data. A complementary high resolution gravity survey
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will also be performed to determine structural patterns. The outcomes will be tied to
information from other surveys and drill holes to characterize this region. The study will
also help understand the link between formation of the sedimentary basin and the
adjacent mountain range.
In terms of broader impacts, this project has an integrated educational and mentoring
program targeting sixth through tenth grade students from groups typically
underrepresented in the sciences. This will be highlighted by a teacher accompanying the
expedition. In addition, this project provides support for two graduate and two
undergraduate students.
The project is supported under NSF's International Polar Year (IPY) research emphasis
area on "Understanding Environmental Change in Polar Regions". This project will leave
an important legacy for IPY by characterizing drilling sites relevant to understanding
global warming. The project is also international in scope by including scientists from
New Zealand. In addition, this project will help educate the next generation of Antarctic
researchers through education at the K12 through graduate student levels.
University of Otago, New Zealand
ANDRILL Executive Director
ANDRILL Science Committee Chair, Antarctic Research Centre, Victorian University of
Wellington, New Zealand
Earth Sciences, University of Parma, Italy
Instituto Nazionale de Geofysica e Vulcanologia
ICSU: 256
0733007
Parsons, David B.; co-PIs Dale Barker, Terrance Hock, Jordan Powers (National Center
for Atmospheric Research)
IPY: NCAR Facility Support, Scientific Contributions and Collaborative Research to
Understand Environmental Change in Antarctica through Participation in
CONCORDIASI
The Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Ocean and Atmospheric Science Program and
Geosciences Directorate, Atmospheric Science Division have made this award to support
the deployment of innovative driftsonde gondolas on super high pressure balloons to be
launched from McMurdo by the French Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales. The
instrumented balloons will be released during August to November 2008 in the polar
stratospheric vortex as part of the international CONCORDIASI atmospheric science
project. The long-duration balloons will drift for up to several months carrying
driftsondes comprised of up to 60 miniature dropsondes that can be released remotely
upon demand to vertically profile the atmosphere from flight level to the ground for
temperature, humidity, pressure and wind speed. The data will be posted and made
accessible in near real time.
Broader impacts: The driftsonde data to be contributed by NCAR are essential to the
atmospheric studies targeted by CONCORDIASI ranging from the understanding of
15
gravity wave propagation in the stratosphere to stratospheric cloud particle formation and
ozone depletion to validation of satellite sensors that promise to lead to improved
operational forecasting for Antarctica. Meteo France plans to use the driftsonde data to
calibrate the Infrared Advanced Sounder Interferometer (IASI) sensor launched on the
European METOP satellite in October 2006 for operational forecasting applications in
polar regions. Additional ground based atmospheric soundings are to be undertaken at
several other locations including the newly established Italian-French research station
CONCORDIA on Dome C. CONCORDIASI (which is a contraction of CONCORDIA
and IASI) stems from a French-US partnership involving a number of institutions,
namely NCAR, UWyoming,and UCLA in the US, and CNES. Meteo France, Laboratoire
de Meteorologie Dynamique, Institut Paul Emile Victor and the Laboratoire de
Glaciologie et Geophysique de l'Environment in France. CONCORDIASI is a
contribution to the IPY-The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiments
(THORPEX) cluster of activities approved by the ICSU-WMO panel. THORPEX is a
ten-year program within the World Weather Research Program.
Centre Spatial de Toulouse Sous-Direction Ballons, Equipe Projects Ballons, Centre
National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), France
Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Ecole Polytechnique, France
Météo-France
Laboratoire glaciologie et géophysique de l’énvironnement, France
European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting
ENEA and PNRA, Italy
Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, Australia
ICSU: 41, 121
0732535
Arrigo, Kevin R. (Stanford University)
Shedding Dynamic Light on Iron Limitation: The Interplay of Iron Limitation and
Dynamic Irradiance Conditions in Governing the Phytoplankton Distribution in the Ross
Sea
The Southern Ocean plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, accounting for
approximately 25% of total anthropogenic CO2 uptake by the oceans, mainly via primary
production by phytoplankton. Previous studies show that iron, light availability, and the
quality of the light climate play a major role in defining where and when the different
phytoplankton taxa bloom. The proposed research will examine how the interaction
between iron limitation and irradiance govern phytoplankton distributions and will result
in improved models for ocean, ice and atmosphere interactions. The models will generate
future climate scenarios to test the impact of climate change on the phytoplankton
community structure, distribution, primary production and carbon export in the Southern
Ocean. Outreach will include participation in Stanford’s Summer Program for
Professional Development for Science Teachers, Stanford’s School of Earth Sciences
high school internship program, and development of curriculum for local science training
centers, including the Chabot Space and Science Center.
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany
16
University of Groningen. The Netherlands
Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research
IPY-GEOTRACES Program; IPY- Polar Aquatic Microbial Ecology
ICSU:
0732327
McGovern, Thomas (CUNY Hunter College)
IPY: Long-Term Human Ecodynamics in the Norse North Atlantic: Cases of
Sustainability, Survival and Collapse
Why do societies succeed or fail when confronted with climate change, culture contact,
and the unexpected outcomes of long term human impact upon landscape and resources?
North Atlantic provides some unique case studies for the collaborative, cross-disciplinary
study of these fundamental questions. Just over 1000 years ago, a wave of Viking-Age
Scandinavian colonization brought a common culture, language, and set of economic
strategies from Norway to Newfoundland. By 1800, these once uniform island
communities had experienced radically different fates: the Greenland colony was totally
extinct, Icelanders were barely surviving in a heavily eroded landscape, and the Faroese
were continuing a stable and successfully sustainable thousand year long adaptation with
apparently little erosion or population loss. These contrasting case studies provide the
focus for an international, interdisciplinary project that makes use of the International
Polar Year (IPY) initiative to bring together scholars, students, and local community
members from Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands in a cooperative effort to;
1) Understand the complex dynamics of human-environment interaction on the millennial
scale, human impact on island flora, fauna, and soils, sustainable and unsustainable
resource use, the impacts of climate change, interactions between subsistence and
exchange economies;
2) Collect and analyze directly comparable data sets (artifacts, zooarchaeology,
archaeobotany, geoarchaeology) from coordinated regional-scale excavations taking
place on all three islands as an IPY surge activity, sharing gear, specialists, and
excavation staff for inter-comparability,
3) Involve local communities in the research effort and aid them in making inter-island
connections which will aid their own outreach efforts,
4) Engage US and international students at high school, undergraduate, and graduate
level in fieldwork and in the development of K-12 classroom materials.
Dept. of Geography and Geosciences, The University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK
Dept. of Archaeology, Durham University, UK
Dept. of Archeological Sciences, University of Bradford, UK
Greenland National Museum and Archives
National Museum of Denmark
National Museum of the Faroe Islands
Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Archaeology, University of Iceland
School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, UK
ICSU:
17
0732787
University of Alaska Fairbanks
IPY: Documentation of Alaskan and Neighboring Languages
18
This project centers on definitive documentation in the form of dictionaries and/or
grammars of ten endangered northern languages in or near Alaska. These belong to
four families: Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit, Tsimshianic, Eskimo-Aleut, and IndoEuropean (Kodiak Russian Creole). Four are at the very brink of extinction:
Southern Tsimshian, has one speaker, age 94 ; Eyak, one speaker, 88; Kodiak
Russian Creole perhaps 5 speakers, average age 90; Attuan Aleut, one rememberer,
80. The rest range in viability from Han Athabaskan, with perhaps 9 speakers,
youngest in sixties, to Central Alaskan Yupik, still with children speakers in perhaps
15 of 67 villages.
The 10 linguists are all proven senior scholars in their field. Their experience in
the languages or language families averages almost 40 years, one being a native
speaker of her North Slope Inupiaq, Edna Ahgeak MacLean. In most cases this
project will enable these scholars to finish work which is the result of a lifetime or
decades of work, based in every case on all previous documentation of the language
and their own fieldnotes. The intent is to produce comprehensive documentation,
both grammar and lexicon (with priority on lexicon)-- unless either is otherwise
already available, or possible at a later point, or available at least for a closely related
dialect or language. The languages are in Alaska, Canada, and Russia; the scholars
are based in Canada (Ritter, Tarpent), Russia (Kibrik, Golovko), Japan (Miyaoka),
the rest in the U.S. Listing follows:
▪Han Athabaskan, Willem de Reuse, mostly lexicon;
▪Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan, Andrej Kibrik, lexicon and grammar;
▪Eyak, Michael Krauss, lexicon and grammar;
▪Tlingit, Jeff Leer, lexicon;
▪Southern Tsimshian, Marie-Lucie Tarpent, lexicon and grammar; this divergent
form of Tsimshianic, recognized only since the 1970s, is especially important for
comparative purposes. The work will proceed in a comparative framework,
including Macro-Penutian;
▪North Slope Inupiaq, Edna Ahgeak MacLean, lexicon;
▪Central Alaskan Yupik, Osahito Miyaoka, grammar;
▪Central Siberian Yupik, Steven Jacobson, lexicon; an extremely important data
source, the card-file of N. M. Emel?ianova, will be processed in St. Petersburg for
this;
▪Alutiiq, Jeff Leer, lexicon;
▪Kodiak Russian Creole, Evgenii Golovko; virtually no documentation yet exists;
it remains unclear how far it diverges from Ninilchik or Kenai Russian Creole; it was
natively spoken on Afognak Strait until the earthquake and tsunami of 1964;
▪Atuuan Aleut, Evgenii Golovko; another exceptional situation; 12 phonograph
cylinders of text (ca. 30 minutes) recorded in 1909 by Jochelson still need to be
transcribed, of which 7 are chanted ? the only instance of such attested in this part of
the world; Golovko will work with Moses Dirks and John Golodoff, raised on Attu
1927-1942, to transcribe them;
▪Alaska-Yukon Border Athabaskan (Han, Kutchin, Tanacross, Upper Tanana),
John Ritter; to provide an account of especially complex tone movement or
assimilation in this area, necessary even for text orthography and pedagogy.
All subprojects of course involve participation of native speakers of these
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communities, and are recognized there as vital to the future of each of the languages.
Russian Academy of Sciences and Moscow State University, Russia
European University at St. Petersburg, Hertzen Pedagogical University St. Petersburg,
Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
Osaka Gakuin University, Japan
Mount Saint Vincent University , Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
ICSU:
0732665 and 0732822
Saito, Mak (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Allen, Andrew (The Institute for Genomic Research)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Comparative Genomic and Proteomic Survey of Major
Antarctic Marine Phytoplankton: A Foundation for Polar Phytoplankton Genomics
The application of molecular tools to polar phytoplankton and biogeochemical studies
has been hindered thus far by the lack of sequence data. The research will create a
foundation for polar marine phytoplankton genomics and proteomics by surveying three
of the major phytoplankton species found in Antarctic waters, using primarily expressed
sequence tags libraries (EST). These expressed sequence tag libraries will be developed
under environmentally relevant conditions, in particular under iron limitation, to improve
gene models of key genes involved in important polar biogeochemical processes. The
P.I.’s will work with a freelance journalist and National Public Radio reporter to develop
a series of stories for distribution in local and national radio markets. In addition, a high
school teacher will be hosted at TIGR. A polar genomics module will be developed for
the Venter Institute’s mobile outreach laboratory: DISCOVER GENOMICS! Finally, the
proposed EST sequencing and bioinformatic data management program will be
synergistic and collaborative with the European Union funded functional genomics
DIATOMICS project that involves laboratories from 5 European countries and Israel.
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France
EU DIATOMICS project
ICSU:
0733033
Wayne, Robert K (University of California Los Angeles)
(with Marco Musiani and John Novembre)
IPY: Genomic-Scale SNP Genotyping of the Arctic Wolf: Ecology and Adaptation over
Space and Time
The era of the genome has arrived and environmental applications of technology that
have emerged from this effort are numerous. New molecular technology resulting from
the federally funded dog genome project will be applied to questions about genetic
diversity and adaptation of gray wolves, a close relative of the dog. The utility of past
genetic studies of wolves has been limited to only about ten molecular markers and DNA
sequence data from but one gene. The new 127,000 marker dog genotyping chip can be
used on wolves, providing far more information on genetic diversity and migration
20
patterns than previous studies. Critically, some of these markers are located near genes
that affect adaptation and thus may permit the discovery of genes that influence function
and the response of wolves to environmental change. Genetic variation in gray wolves
will be characterized from six genetically defined populations across the Arctic to assess
genetic diversity and how it corresponds to environmental and phenotypic variation.
Further, how these genes have changed in the past as a result of climate fluctuations will
be studied by genetic analysis of ancient wolf remains. Previous research on such ancient
specimens has revealed dramatic population turnover and the extinction of a unique form
of North American wolf. This study will be one of the first to apply high-throughput SNP
genotyping chips to natural populations and will provide new analytical tools for such
analyses. This project should reveal ecologically and genetically important regions of the
wolf genome, and yield insights into how environmental change has shaped variation in
the genome through time. The unique historical and spatial scale of our analysis will
improve our understanding of how climate change can affect genetic variation in general
and identify populations under the greatest threat.
Environmental Design, University of Calgary, Canada
Center for Bioinformatics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada
ICSU:
21