The Juneau Icefield is a group of interconnected glaciers just north of Juneau, Alaska that extends into British Columbia, Canada and covers an area the size of Rhode Island. Maybe you’ve heard of the Mendenhall Glacier? It is part of the Juneau Icefield! The Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) has been collecting data on the icefield since 1948.
Characterizing Climate Change Feedbacks in Arctic Ponds while Incorporating Next-Generation Technologies and Arctic Field Experiences in Education
Wetlands represent a significant portion of the arctic landscape and are characterized by their numerous polygonal thaw ponds. These arctic pond habitats represent hotspots for biodiversity and carbon cycling. Particularly, ponds are key emitters of methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas that enhances climate change. This project will establish a foundational understanding of surface-atmosphere carbon dynamics of polygonal ponds and characterize the timing and pathways of CH4 emissions. In addition, this study will rescue historical records to better understand biogeochemical changes of ponds over the past 50+ years to answer where, when, and how the evolution of these aquatic systems has influenced surface-atmosphere carbon feedbacks to climate. The use of cutting-edge technologies including eddy-covariance flux system, drone & airborne imaging spectroscopy, drone LIDAR, and deep-learning Artificial Intelligence will allow us to characterize bottom-up and top-down regional scale CH4 emissions from arctic wetland ponds.
More Information About This Project
Participants Involved in This Project
Christian Andresen | Researcher Fellow
University of Wisconsin Madison | Madison, Wisconsin
Fatima Kamal | Educator Fellow
Pacific Science Center | Seattle, WA
From the Blog
An Unforgettable Adventure Begins As a high school science teacher, the invitation to join Macall Hock on an expedition to study the effects of a warming Arctic ecosystem on stream carbon cycling in Utqiagvik, Alaska, felt like stepping into a thrilling adventure. The beauty of the Arctic wilderness was a sight to behold, but the
Drs. Peter Ungar, Mary Heskel, and Aleksey Sheshukov explained (patiently) their areas of expertise, Arctic research projects, and provided me with a virtual mountain of photographs from their fieldwork. We talked about what projects would be suitable and appropriate for a variety of audiences. What would be engaging to different ages, interests and levels of scientific knowledge? I knew that I wanted my Photoshop class to be involved with this project, so I suggested creating a comic book.
Today we got set up and met the local 8th graders out on the ice! For some of them it was the first time they had been on the land-fast sea ice (which is ice that is "fastened" to the coastline). For some, it was old news. It was quite cold (-30F with the windchill), so many students hid in the tents we had set up. The previous days had been relatively warm, hovering around 0-10F degrees. The students were split into groups and rotated between the stations.
Made possible with funding by the National Science Foundation Award #2221990. The information contained here is those of the author(s) and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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