As the Director of ENRI, I would like to welcome you to our website and to the University of Alaska Anchorage. Our unit has been busy participating in several new research and outreach activities including the International Polar Year (IPY), the Alaska Forum on the Environment, and the planning of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) for Alaska along with Phase Three of the Alaska EPSCoR program.
ENRI undergraduate and graduate students receive Global Climate Change Fellowships
As part of the Center for Global Change & Arctic System Research annual undergraduate and graduate fellowship competition, six UAA students received funding to study patterns and processes in Arctic Systems.
The undergraduate fellows and project titles are:
Andy Anderson-Smith: Photosynthetic response of Eriophorum vaginatum to in situ shrub shading in tussock tundra of northern Alaska.
Stuart (Ty) Spaulding: How do herbivores and a changing climate impact shrub height and leaf area in western Greenland? Implications for biogeochemical cycling.
The graduate fellows, project titles and supervisors are:
Emily Lesca: An investigation into the mechanisms of selection for pelvic phenotypes in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in Wallace Lake, Alaska. Frank von Hippel.
Linnea Pearson: Postweaning development of muscle physiology in harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus), a mechanism by which climate change may impact seal survival. Jennifer Burns.
James Willacker: Quantifying the effects of climate induced drying on southcentral Alaskan lakes. Frank von Hippel.
Andrew Balser: Thermokarst distribution and ecological impacts in Arctic Alaska. Jay Jones and Jeff Welker.
Sean Cahoon: Herbivores modify the trajectory of the carbon and nutrient cycles in a warming Arctic. Jeff Welker.
The Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research was established in March 1990 to serve as the focal point at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for developing, coordinating and implementing interdisciplinary research and education related to the role of the Arctic and sub-Arctic in the Earth system, and to stimulate and facilitate global change research in this region. Thanks to generous new investments in 2009 by University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton and UAA Chancellor Fran Ulmer, the competition has been expanded to include UAA undergraduate and graduate students.
ENRI will now feature its research enterprise by highlighting individual research projects and the scientific discoveries associated with each publication. This rotating feature will provide a means of recognizing the high quality fundamental and applied research being lead by ENRI Faculty, Research Scientists and students.
Our first Discovery That Matters is the result of the publication: continuous estimates of C02 efflux from arctic and boreal soils during the snow-covered season in Alaska. Paddy Sullivan, Jeff Welker, Seth Arens and Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson. 2008. J. of Geophysical Research. 113: G04009.
Thirteen UAA Faculty in the Departments of Biology, Anthropology and Chemistry are now fellows of ENRI. This designation reflects the national recognition of these research groups and their contributions to research in Alaska and the north. The embedding of these exemplary research faculty into the institute strengthens UAA’s interdisciplinary research platform in Ecosystem Studies and Conservation Biology, Earth and Climate Processes and Human Ecology and Sustainability. The institute will now serve as the pinnacle of research excellence in the Natural Sciences and an intellectual foci for UAA and the Anchorage region. Funded research by this group exceeds $2 million, with support from NSF IPY, NSF Geosciences, NSF Office of Polar Programs, US Department of Energy, NOAA, NASA, and the National Institute of Health-NBRI.
We have two new IPY projects (Drs. J Welker, B Sveinbjornsson & P Sullivan) that are addressing the consequences of shrub increases in northern Alaska, and a project examining the Pan Arctic responses of plants and soils to long- term warming experiments as part of the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX). Two new postdoctoral scientists (Drs. Lina Taneva & Robert Pattison) are contributing to these studies at Toolik Lake, AK, and Thule, Greenland. These IPY projects complement other new activities at ENRI including measuring and monitoring freshwater lakes in south central AK, the Boreal Forest Observatory, and new studies on the causes and consequences of invasive species expansion in Alaska.
ENRI is contributing to the Phase 3 UA EPSCoR program by addressing processes governing plant-microbe interactions with studies by Dr. Jeff Welker and Ken Tape. In addition, Dr. Matt Carlson and James Sowerwine are investigating the effects of Melilotus alba (an invasive non-native species) on Salix alaxensis var. longistylis and other plants in South Central and Interior Alaska.
Draft ENRI Strategic Plan (October 2007)
The Environment and Natural Resource Institute (ENRI) at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) has created a Strategic Plan that delineates a revised mission and vision including the incorporation of UAA faculty fellows into the unit and the appointment of federal and state agency scientists as ENRI Affiliates. This revised approach and commitment will allow ENRI to serve the greater UAA and Anchorage intellectual and land management community while balancing fundamental and applied research. ENRI research is designed to address pressing issues in the north including climate and land use changes and the cascading consequences to ecosystem services and society responses.
