Witness the Arctic - Spring 1998, Volume 6 Number 1

1 Standardized 400-year proxy climate records reflecting surface air temperature for sites from Arctic Europe east to Canada and Greenland. Red indicates temperatures greater than one standard deviation warmer than average for the reference period (1901-1960), whereas dark blue indicates at least one standard deviation colder than this average. All series presented as five-year averages, except for sites 8 and 29 which are plotted at their original, lower resolution. All time series represent surface air temperature, except site 29, which represents sea-surface temperature. These data are available at the NGDC Web site (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/paleo.html) (illustration by K. Hughen). continued on next page ARCTIC Published by the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States • 600 University Avenue • Suite 1 • Fairbanks, AK 99709 Chronicles of the Arctic System Science Research Program Spring 1998, Volume 6 Number 1 Past Environmental Change in the Arctic: A PALE Contribution to Arctic System Science The Arctic, although at present one of the least disturbed regions on Earth, may also be one of the most susceptible to both natural and human-induced climatic changes. The effects of global climate change are likely to be amplified in the Arctic due to positive feedback mechanisms. Melting of ice and snow, for instance, reduces the total surface area that reflects sunlight; as more solar radiation is absorbed by rock, soil, and water, the earth warms. Other feedback mechanisms operating in arctic regions may include: • temperature inversions resulting in stable atmospheric conditions, which can trap warm air near the earth’s surface; and • local or regional increases in cloud cover amplifying a warming trend, because in the Arctic, clouds, like greenhouse gases, absorb heat (infrared radiation) escaping from the earth’s surface. Because of this sensitivity, climate change may be evident in the Arctic before it is discernible in other parts of the world. The Arctic, in turn, may be capable of influencing climate at lower latitudes, or even globally, through: • impacts on temperature gradients in the northern hemisphere and on atmospheric circulation, geographically sparse, indicates that the Arctic warmed by about 1.2°C between 1910 and 1945. While some areas of the Arctic have cooled recently, the observed average temperature increase for the Arctic exceeds that of the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. In order to extend the record of arctic environmental variability both spatially and further back in time, researchers depend upon indicators of past climatic • modulation of atmospheric greenhouse gas (e.g., CH4) concentrations and, possibly, • complex interactions involving highlatitude river runoff and subsequent effects on global oceanic circulation. For these reasons, the Arctic is an important region for the study of patterns of natural climate variability. The instrumental record of arctic climate change, though brief and by Konrad Hughen and the PALE high-resolution research group1 1. J. Overpeck, K. Hughen, D. Hardy, R. Bradley, R. Case, M. Douglas, B. Finney, K. Gajewski, G. Jacoby, A. Jennings, S. Lamoureux, A. Lasca, G. MacDonald, J. Moore, M. Retelle, S. Smith, A. Wolfe, and G. Zielinski 2 Feature Article conditions that are preserved in ice; ocean, lake, and wetland sediments; and tree rings. Such paleorecords: • permit the evaluation of recent climatic changes from the perspective of the past; • help determine whether changes observed during this century are unique; • allow the identification of interannual to century-scale climatic variability in the circumarctic region; and • provide evidence for the role that natural forcing mechanisms play in driving arctic climate. The Paleoclimates from Arctic Lakes and Estuaries (PALE) initiative within ARCSS (see page 8) has identified as one of its goals the recovery of high-resolution paleoclimate records from a network of sites throughout the Arctic. Here we present a brief summary of the results of a recent, PALE-sponsored study of past climate change in the Arctic (Overpeck et al. 1997). The Paleoclimatic Perspective Paleoclimate records are derived from indicators such as tree-ring widths, summer melt layers in ice cores, varve thicknesses in lake sediments (figure this page), and microfossils including foraminifera and diatoms. Such “proxy” data have demonstrated that the arctic environment underwent large changes during the Holocene (the last 10,000 years). During the early to middle Holocene, most of the Arctic experienced summers 1-2°C warmer than today. Local effects of topography, sea-surface temperatures, and land-ice cover resulted in variations in the timing of maximum warmth. In the late Holocene, decreasing summer temperatures culminated in the Little Ice Age, a period that began before AD 1500 and ended during the last century. The new PALE paleoclimate compilation (figure page 1) is based on over 20 records of summer temperature from the North American Arctic and substantially fewer from the Eurasian Arctic. This compilation of annually resolved records provides a 400-year view of arctic variability superimposed on the Holocene trends described above. The most notable pattern of change seen in records throughout the Arctic is the transition from anomalously cold conditions of the 19th century to peak warm conditions in the 20th century (figure page 3). The 20th-century Arctic is warmer than during any period since 1600. The 19th-20th-century warming was 1-3°C locally and averaged approximately 1.5°C across the Arctic. The 20th-century warming observed in the instrumental record was, thus, only part of a larger circumarctic climatic event that began in the mid-19th century and marked the end of the Little Ice Age. Another striking aspect of arctic temperature change over the last 400 years is that most of the Arctic experienced cooling in the first part of the 19th century, leading to the coldest period of the Little Ice Age. During parts of the 17th century, much of the Arctic was colder than today. Several of the records, however, show temperatures during the 18th century nearly as warm as today. Arctic climatic change prior to 1800 was more regional in nature than after this time. For example, many sites around the Arctic were warmer at some time between 1700 and 1820 than they were later in the 19th century, but the timing and duration of this warmth varied significantly from region to region. This is also true of the preceding 17th-century period of generally colder conditions. These records were combined to construct a spatially weighted record of average circumarctic summer temperatures for the past 400 years. The individual time series, together with the arctic average record and additional information on each site are available online from the National Geophysical Data Center (http://www. ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/paleo.html). Climate Forcing Mechanisms The reconstruction of average paleotemperature for the circumarctic region reveals significant variability over all of the last 400 years. The record is dominated, however, by the dramatic warming trend from approximately 1840 to the 1950s. During this period, atmospheric concentrations of CO2, CH4, and other greenhouse gases increased rapidly as a result of human (anthropogenic) activity. Because greenhouse gases trap outgoing long-wave radiation in the atmosphere, rising concentrations are believed to cause increased global temperatures. Half of the post-1840 warming (approximately 0.75°C), took place during the 80 years from 1840 to 1920, during which time atmospheric CO2 and CH4 increased by only 14 and 25% (20 ppm and 200 ppbv), respectively. The current best estimates of climate sensitivity to trace gases suggest that trace gases alone may be able to explain only 0.1-0.4°C of the pre1920 warming. Therefore, the influence of other climate forcing mechanisms must be considered before attributing recent changes in the Arctic to human activity. The possibility that the sun significantly influences climate is suggested by the fact that high inferred solar irradiance correlates with warm arctic temperatures during both the 18th and 20th centuries. In particular, the strong increase in temperatures after 1840 may have been a partial response to high solar irradiance. At least two factors, however, argue against a dominant role for solar forcing over the past 400 years: • the absence of a distinct prolonged cold period associated with the late 17th-century Maunder sunspot minimum period (a period of low inferred solar irradiance); and • the estimated low sensitivity of climate to reconstructed changes in solar irradiance (less than that for greenhouse gases). With evidence mounting that human (trace gas) and solar activity may be responsible for only a fraction of variation Photomicrograph of annually laminated sediments from Ogac Lake, near Upper Soper Lake, on southern Baffin Island. Light laminae result from diatoms blooming during the summer ice-free season. Dark laminae are mineral grains washed into the lake with runoff from early summer snowmelt. Many tidewater lakes in the Arctic contain similar varved sediments. 3 in climate, insight into the possibility that volcanic activity forces climate was gained through collaboration with a team working on the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) ice core (see page 8). Comparison of the PALE temperature record with a volcanic sulfate record from GISP2 indicates that most decade-scale periods of average circumarctic cooling correspond to peaks in reconstructed volcanic activity. These findings agree with earlier evidence for significant volcanic forcing of arctic temperatures, in addition to a more regional 100-200-year record of volcano-climate linkages for subarctic North America. It is quite likely that the period of anomalously low volcanic activity from 1935 to 1960 may have contributed to the peak arctic summer temperatures at this time, reducing the implied sensitivity of the climate system to trace-gas and solar forcing during this same period. Renewed volcanic activity after 1960 likely contributed to the observed arctic cooling after peak mid-century warmth. Thus, the first half of the unprecedented 19th-20th-century increase in arctic temperatures appears to be a natural readjustment as volcanic forcing weakens and irradiance (and, to a lesser extent, greenhouse gases) rise between 1840 and 1920. After 1920, both anomalously high solar irradiance and low volcanic aerosol loading likely continued to influence arctic climate, but exponentially increasing atmospheric trace-gas concentrations appear to have played an increasingly dominant role. The Response to Arctic Climate Variability An obvious impact of recent climate change is the observed retreat of glaciers throughout the Arctic during the past century. Although it has been suggested that climate warming may be accompanied by a sufficient increase in snowfall to expand ice sheets, it appears probable that most arctic glaciers will continue to melt if the Arctic continues to warm. High-latitude permafrost conditions have also changed during the past 200 years. Ground temperature records support other evidence that dramatic warming has taken place since the 19th century. Further thawing of frozen ground will, in turn, affect hydrology, ecology, trace-gas fluxes, construction, and transportation in the Arctic. The paleoenvironmental record of the past four centuries, together with recent ecological studies, indicates that potential future climatic warming is capable of driving changes in the arctic biosphere that will likely rival any changes driven by non-climatic processes, including human land use. For example, studies of recent seedling establishment and viability north of present treeline, together with evidence from annually dated fossil pollen records, suggest that those arctic plant species abundances and/or ranges have varied significantly in response to varying temperatures. The limnology of arctic lakes is also likely to continue to respond to climatic change. Sediments from shallow ponds and lakes on Ellesmere Island show that warming since the mid-19th century caused dramatic shifts in diatom populations such as an increase in species diversity. These shifts are consistent with a longer growing season. Freshwater algae are sensitive recorders of environmental change; changes in their populations may influence the structures of higher trophic levels. Implications for the Future PALE reconstruction of past environmental change in the Arctic suggests that natural variability in this region is large and is working together with human activity to cause unprecedented arctic environmental change. Furthermore, the feedbacks that have amplified arctic temperature changes in the past have been nonlinear. For these reasons, linear extrapolations of observed patterns of change into the future will fail to predict arctic climatic change. Reliable predictions of future change will require climate-system models that have proven to be effective in simulating past changes, including interactions and feedbacks, such as those reconstructed here. Even as these models are developed and tested, however, the arctic environment is likely to continue its pattern of rapid change. Konrad Hughen is a NOAA postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, where he continues his research on arctic lakes. References Overpeck, J., K. Hughen, D. Hardy, R. Bradley, R. Case, M. Douglas, B. Finney, K. Gajewski, G. Jacoby, A. Jennings, S. Lamoureux, A. Lasca, G. MacDonald, J. Moore, M. Retelle, S. Smith, A. Wolfe, and G. Zielinski. 1997. Arctic environmental changes of the last four centuries. Science 278:1251-1256. Spatially weighted average temperature record combining 29 paleotemperature time series from around the circumarctic. The individual time series were standardized to the same reference interval (1901-1960) and binned into fiveyear averages using identical intervals. The average record shows that the entire Arctic experienced dramatic warming from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, culminating in the warmest temperatures of the last four centuries. To evaluate the magnitude of recent warming in the context of background variability, this average record was re-standardized using a mean and standard deviations that were calculated using the entire 400-year record. Average arctic temperatures during much of the 1900s are consistently greater than one standard deviation warmer than the rest of the record and cannot be explained as a result of natural patterns of variability (illustration by K. Hughen). Feature Article 4 The new ARCSS science plan, Toward Prediction of the Arctic System, published in March 1998 (see page 5), reviews progress over the past eight years of arctic system research and begins to define emerging questions and research priorities. Important findings, major accomplishments, and research priorities are outlined in the following pages (pages 6-9 this issue), as well as in the new science plan. The research conducted by the ARCSS program has contributed much to understanding the arctic system and leads now to the next stages of integration and synthesis. Toward Prediction of the Arctic System sets out five questions that will form the basis of ARCSS planning over the next several years; the questions transcend the scope of any single component or project and offer opportunities for collaboration among the components. The questions are listed here with a brief description of some areas of inquiry that arise through this integrative approach. The extent of the research questions and their integration and synthesis possibilities are greater than can be described here: 1. How will the climate of the Arctic change over the next 10 to 100 years? Answering this question requires integration of information on land, shelf, and ocean climate feedbacks, common global and Ledbetter, Gilbert Awarded for Excellence Two NSF Arctic Section staff members recently received the National Science Foundation Directors Award for Excellence. ARCSS Program Director Michael Ledbetter and Arctic Coordination Specialist Simona Gilbert were awarded this honor in June 1998 in recognition of their work at NSF. The awards stated: ...Gaining recognition for Administrative Excellence—Simona L. Gilbert for her knowledge and expertise in merit review and budget management in establishing a system for consistent review of the Arctic Sciences Section’s research support requirements, liaison with logistics contractors, and coordination of Arctic logistics requests. ...Recognized for Program Management Excellence—Michael T. Ledbetter for his leadership, vision, and deep understanding of complex scientific issues associated with a multi-agency international project that is generating information about the surface heat budget of the Arctic Ocean to help assess global warming. The NSF Directors Award is made annually and recognizes exceptional work by NSF staff. For more information see http://www.nsf.gov/. ARCSS Program Updates regional climate models, and testing models with paleoclimate data. 2. How will future climate change interact with human activities to affect the sustainability of natural ecosystems and human societies? Understanding the potential impacts of climate change requires the development of regional predictions of climate. Most of the arctic region’s population live along the coast; better understanding of land-sea climate interactions is critical. Major questions include the interactions of climate change with petroleum development, hard-rock mining, longrange transport of contaminants and increased use of the Arctic by lower latitude residents. 3. How will changes in arctic biogeochemical cycles and feedbacks affect arctic and global systems? The synthesized understanding of arctic processes gained through ARCSS research could lead to development of the first integrated models of regional changes in arctic marine and terrestrial ecosystems, including changes in species of direct importance to people. 4. How will changes in arctic hydrologic cycles and feedbacks affect arctic and global systems? Research advancing understanding of small-scale hydrological processes that produce large-scale changes in river discharge could lead to prediction of changes in freshwater inputs to the shelf-basin system. In combination with the results of other ARCSS research, predictions could be made about the consequences of these changes to North Atlantic ocean circulation and, thereby, to environmental changes of substantial importance to people. 5. Are predicted changes in the arctic system detectable? Separating natural climate signals from human-induced climate change requires a context of past climate change on a regional basis as well as measurements of current indicators of change. In collaboration with other international efforts, a circumarctic view of past and current climate change and related changes in arctic ecosystems could be developed by systematically comparing current and past marine and terrestrial measurements. The ARCSS Committee (AC)—the committee that provides community guidance to the ARCSS Program—will meet 29-30 October 1998 in Fairbanks, Alaska, to discuss research priorities and to continue developing the integrative and thematic aspects of ARCSS described here, as well as extrapolating ARCSS research across the circumarctic. The AC, chaired by Jack Kruse, plans to focus on: • climate interactions and climate models—integrating terrestrial and marine processes; developing a better predictive capability; • human/environment interactions— including building stronger connections to higher trophic level research; and • hydrology—freshwater inputs to the marine system; interactions between the Arctic and the world oceans; predicting changes in sea ice, coastal marine productivity, and contaminant transport. For more information, contact ARCSS Program Director Mike Ledbetter (703/ 306-1029; fax 703/306-0648; mledbett@ nsf.gov) or Jack Kruse, AC Chair (413/ 367-2240; fax 413/367-0092; [email protected]), or see the ARCSS Web site (http://arcss.colorado.edu) or the ARCUS Web site (http://www.arcus.org). New Science Plan Guides ARCSS Research 5 ARCSS Program Updates Participants at a November 1997 workshop on the Study of Arctic Change presented research results corroborating earlier observations that the Arctic Ocean and atmosphere are in the midst of a significant physical change. More than 70 oceanographers, sea-ice experts, and atmospheric scientists reported on manifestations of the change, discussed key questions, and deliberated how to further study the change. By mid-1997, data from arctic expeditions and atmospheric studies suggested that the influence of Atlantic Water in the Arctic Ocean has become more widespread and intense in this decade than had previously been documented (see Witness Autumn 1997). New observations include: • There is a correlation between an increase in the temperature of Atlantic Water in the Arctic and the North Atlantic Oscillation index. • Since 1990, there has been a marked decrease in heat and salinity input to the Arctic from the Pacific Ocean through Bering Strait. • The cold halocline, which insulates the sea-ice cover from heat stored in Atlantic Water, has thinned and in some areas disappeared in the 1990s. • There has been a trend in the 1990s toward decreasing ice extent, especially in the Siberian shelf seas. • Spring and early summer air temperatures have increased. The melt season in the Arctic has gotten longer. In at least one Alaska location, permafrost temperatures have been increasing since approximately 1991. • In atmospheric circulation within the North Pacific region in the 1990s, a Polar Pattern is increasingly important relative to the Pacific North American and North Pacific circulation patterns. • Beaufort Sea mixed layer salinities measured in late 1997 during the SHEBA experiment (see page 7) are substantially lower than they were in the 1970s. This suggests that there has been increased melting of ice during summer. Heat (solar radiation) stored in the mixed layer is also greater. Together, these and earlier observations suggest that arctic change is at least a decadal-scale phenomenon that has broad implications and relates to changes at lower latitudes. Workshop participants proposed that an international Study of Arctic Change should include: • regular measurements of atmosphere, ocean, ice, and some terrestrial parameters for at least the next decade; • examination of historical records for evidence of such change in the past; and • a modeling effort to try to understand the causes of the change. Some of the required observations are being carried out now as part of other programs. Prompt attention to the need for further data can close critical gaps. The Arctic Change workshop was funded by the NSF ARCSS Program. A draft workshop report is available for review (http://psc.apl.washington.edu/ Arctic_change/Report_5.html). For more information, contact James Morison in Seattle, WA (206/543-1394; fax 206/543-3521; [email protected]. washington.edu). Workshop Confirms Significant Arctic Change The new science plan for the ARCSS Program, Toward Prediction of the Arctic System: predicting future states of the arctic system on seasonal-to-century time scales by integrating observations, process research, modeling, and assessment was published in March 1998. This plan examines the progress made in the last eight years, reviews significant research findings from each of the major programs of ARCSS, provides a basis for increased integration and synthesis, and begins to define the questions and research priorities that now arise based on increased understanding of the arctic system. Copies of Toward Prediction of the Arctic System are available from ARCUS. The document also is available as a PDF file from the ARCUS Web site. New ARCSS Science Plan Available All-Hands Workshop Report Toward An Arctic System Synthesis: Results and Recommendations, the report from the first Arctic System Science (ARCSS) Program all-investigator workshop, which convened in May 1996 in Snowbird, Utah, is now available. More than 175 researchers who had been active in the first seven years of ARCSS research, investigators from other major national and international arctic research programs, and representatives of federal agencies conducting arctic research presented results, assessed the state of the ARCSS scientific enterprise and worked together to identify the following three research priorities related to the workshop theme, Variability of the Arctic System: Manifestations and Mechanisms: • Temporal and Spatial Change; • Environment, Resources, and People; and • Global Change and the Arctic System. Synthesis recommendations from the workshop were further developed in discussions with members of thearctic research community. These recommendations formed the basis for the new ARCSS science plan (see below). The report is available from ARCUS ([email protected]). It is also available as a PDF file on the ARCUS Web site (http://www.arcus.org/ARCSS/AllHands/). 6 In late 1997, a special issue of Global Change Biology published 16 papers developed from the 6th International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) workshop, held in April 1995 at the University of Ottawa, Canada. ITEX research is carried out in 11 countries; in the United States, studies are supported through the LAII component of the ARCSS Program. Each paper compares the short-term responses of common species to climate variations and manipulations at ITEX sites (see Witness Autumn 1997). These manipulations include passive warming of tundra plots by open-top chambers and manipulation of snow depth. The opentop chambers increase mean near-surface temperatures by 1-3oC during the growing season, simulating predictions from global circulation models. Editors of the compendium make the following qualitative observations: effects of climate change at the ecosystem level in arctic and alpine tundra. ITEX researchers gathered in Santa Barbara in December 1996 to conduct a quantitative analysis of the data that had been gathered from sites throughout the tundra biome (see Witness Autumn 1996). Marilyn Walker coordinated the workshop; a manuscript describing the first results from the meta-analysis is forthcoming. For more information, contact Greg Henry in Vancouver, BC, Canada (604/822-2985; fax 604/822-6150; [email protected]) or Marilyn Walker in Boulder, CO (303/492-5276; fax 303/4926388; mwalker@ taimyr.colorado.edu). References Global Change Biology. December 1997. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) Short-term Responses of Tundra Plants to Experimental Warming. 3(1):1-164. Global Change Biology Publishes ITEX Results • All vascular plant species investigated responded to the temperature increase, especially in variables related to timing (phenology) and reproduction. • Short-term responses appear to be individualistic; there were no apparent patterns in responses noted for functional types. • Responses were generally similar among sites, although the magnitude of response tended to be greater in higharctic sites. • Early snowmelt increased carbon: nutrient ratios in plants. Sustained growth and reproductive responses to warming will depend on nutrient supply; increased carbon:nutrient ratios in litter could buffer nutrient cycling and hence plant growth. • Ongoing long-term research at ITEX sites, linked to other global change initiatives, will help elucidate probable ARCSS Program Updates LAII Research Moves West A new research program in the Western Arctic/Bering Sea region begins in 1998 under the Land-Atmosphere-Ice Interactions (LAII) component of the ARCSS Program. Arctic Transitions in the Land-Atmosphere System (ATLAS) examines transitions on arctic lands that are caused by climate change to develop scenarios of future change in the arctic system. Researchers aim to achieve this goal by quantifying geographic patterns and processes of climate-land surface exchanges of mass and energy. ATLAS follows the LAII Flux Study, which examined CO2 and CH4 sources and sinks in the Kuparuk River basin of northern Alaska that could have feedback effects on the global climate (see Witness Autumn 1996). ATLAS is broader than the Flux Study in at least three respects: • It will extrapolate climate, permafrost, vegetation, and fluxes at spatial scales from plots to the circumpolar Arctic. • It will develop scenarios of future trajectories of these parameters over the next 10-200 years. • The guiding motivation of the research is to improve understanding of the coupled nature of the land and atmosphere in the arctic system. ATLAS supports eight multiinvestigator projects ranging from climate to vegetation, trace-gas, and hydrology studies. The tightly integrated program includes field studies, remote sensing, and modeling. The new field studies will take place in a Western Arctic transect from Barrow to Atkasuk and Ivotuk on the North Slope, moving to the Seward Peninsula and, eventually, to Chukotka, Russia, over a five-year period. Under-investigated issues that ATLAS studies will address include: • spatial and temporal patterns of climate and soil moisture, and their relationship to energy exchange and runoff; • modeling of hydrology at the regional scale (a finer scale than is afforded by global climate models), • compiling and extrapolating data to fill in gaps in the climate data for large areas of the Arctic; • patterns and controls of large-scale methane flux; • socio-economic implications of global change in the region; and • documentation of carbon, water, and energy fluxes in the high Arctic. ATLAS research activities will contribute to other research programs, both within ARCSS and at other agencies (e.g., the Bering Sea Impacts Study, see page 18). ATLAS projects will also advance international synthesis and monitoring programs (e.g., Circumarctic Active Layer Monitoring network of the International Permafrost Association). The ATLAS Implementation Plan, published in March 1998, is available on the LAII Web site (see address below). The Journal of Geophysical Research– Atmospheres will publish a special issue on LAII Flux Study research in early 1999. For more information, contact Patricia A. Anderson at the LAII Science Management Office in Fairbanks, AK (907/4745698; fax 907/474-6722; patricia@gi. alaska.edu; http://www.laii.uaf.edu/). 7 The Russian-American Initiative on Shelf-Land Environments (RAISE) Prospectus is now available. The objective of RAISE is to facilitate collaborative research between Russian and American scientists in order to understand processes and events in terrestrial, shelf, and ocean environments in northern Eurasia (see Witness Autumn 1997). ARCSS strongly encourages submission of interdisciplinary proposals; the next due date is 1 August 1998. Proposals should demonstrate clear connections to both: • the goals of RAISE and • ARCSS themes as described in the program’s long-range plan (see page 4). For more information about the ARCSS Program, contact Michael Ledbetter (703/306-1029; fax 703/306-0648; [email protected]). The Prospectus is available from ARCUS and can be downloaded as a PDF file from the ARCUS Web site (http://www.arcus.org/RAISE/). ARCSS Program Updates Ocean-Atmosphere-Ice Interactions (OAII) researchers are now retrieving data from the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) Phase II field efforts, and are moving forward on Phase I of the Western Arctic Shelf-Basin Interactions program. Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean The Canadian icebreaker Des Groseilliers has been drifting in arctic pack ice since October 1997. As of mid-June 1998, it was approximately 875 nautical miles from its original location. Interesting scientific results include evidence that the ice pack appears to be anomalously thin and that this is associated with variations in the temperature and salinity of upper water layers. A manuscript presenting these results (McPhee et al. 1998) is available on the SHEBA Web site (http://sheba.apl.washington.edu/). SHEBA field work has received considerable media attention, including reports on ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’ Evening News with Dan Rather, and National Public Radio’s Morning Edition; and articles by the Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, and The New York Times. OAII Receiving Data from Beaufort Sea Pack Ice RAISE Prospectus Available Western Arctic Shelf Basin Interactions The Science Plan for the Western Arctic Shelf Basin Interactions (SBI) program has been approved, and an Announcement of Opportunity solicited Phase I proposals due in June 1998. SBI will have a biological and biogeochemical focus. The SBI Science Plan is available from the OAII Science Management Office (SMO) and on the OAII Web site (http://arcssoaii.ccpo.odu.edu/). OAII Science Steering Committee (SSC) The OAII SSC met in Knoxville, Tennessee in November 1997. Terry Whitledge, Chief Scientist on the 1997 U.S. Navy Submarine Arctic Science Cruise (see page 13), gave an overview of the experiment, which included data collection at the SHEBA site. The SSC considered three research initiatives proposed by members of the arctic science community: 1) the Study of Arctic Change initiative (see page 5), 2) the Canadian Arctic Throughflow project, and 3) the Canadian Basin initiative. The SSC supports these projects for further consideration and has made recommendations for focusing the planning efforts. Kelly Falkner, Dennis Darby, and Andrew Weaver succeed Knut Aagaard, Dave Clark, and Terry Whitledge on the SSC. OAII is grateful for the efforts of retiring members. The Planning Workshop Report from the May 1997 ARCSS/OAII All-Hands Meeting in Virginia Beach (see Witness Autumn 1997) is now available from the OAII SMO. For more information, access the OAII Web site (http://arcss-oaii.ccpo.odu.edu/), or contact Lou Codispoti at the OAII SMO in Norfolk, VA (757/683-5770; fax 757/683-5550; [email protected]) or OAII SSC Chair Jackie Grebmeier in Knoxville, TN (423/974-2592; fax 423/ 974-3067; [email protected]). References McPhee, M.G., T.P. Stanton, J.H. Morison, D.G. Martinson. 1998. Freshening of the upper ocean in the Central Arctic: is perennial sea ice disappearing? Geophysical Research Letters 25(10):1729-1732. As of 19 June 1998, the Canadian Icebreaker Des Groseilliers, platform for the SHEBA research experiment, had drifted approximately 875 nautical miles since 2 October 1997, when it had been frozen into the Beaufort Sea pack ice. 8 the northern hemisphere is complete, GISP2 investigators continue to examine the core for clues on climate change. The international Ice-Core Circum-Arctic Paleoclimate Program (ICAPP; see page 17), has begun to collect and analyze other ice coring sites in the Arctic and compare them to the GISP2 record. This program and continued collaboration with other ARCSS initiatives will help to improve knowledge of the arctic climate system. For more information, see the GISP2 Web site (http://www.gisp2.sr.unh.edu/ GISP2/), or contact Mark Twickler at the GISP2 Science Management Office in Durham, NH (603/862-1991; fax 603/ 862-2124; [email protected]). At the February 1998 Principal Investigators meeting in Boulder, Colorado, PALE researchers reviewed progress over the past three years: • High-resolution climate records have been reconstructed using a wide range of climate proxies. • A synthesis of current high-resolution data collected by numerous researchers was recently published in Science (see feature article). • Regional heterogeneity in climate response across the Arctic is emerging as a pattern, as more data are gathered at both short (2,000-year) and longer (20,000and 150,000-year) time scales. • Several new climate-model simulations have been run, including a 10,000-year BP simulation using a low-resolution global climate model (GCM) (GENESIS 2.0) and a simulation of the North Atlantic region using a high-resolution limited area model (ARCSyM). The group developed four themes to focus the next three years of research: • What is the significance of the prominent 20th-century warming and coincident environmental changes in the context of changes that occurred through the Holocene? • What is the sensitivity of arctic climate to altered forcing and potentially large feedbacks to the climate system (e.g., snow and ice albedo, vegetation)? • Where are the important links between land and ocean shelf (e.g., extent and effects of changes in arctic sea ice)? • What are sub-regional patterns and causes of climate variability, and how do these relate to biogeophysical processes (e.g., carbon dynamics, permafrost) that may feed back to the climate system? The latter two themes provide opportunity for coordination with other ARCSS programs; collaborative workshops are envisioned for the coming year. PALE also plans to: • further develop regional climate models in Beringia and the North Atlantic, • further develop simulations with coupled atmosphere-ocean GCMs, • expand its geographic focus in conjunction with its international counterpart, Circum-Arctic PaleoEnvironments (CAPE). In particular, the PALE Atlas, developed as a pilot project for the Beringian region (see Witness Autumn 1997), will be expanded to cover the Arctic and is expected to become the standard repository for arctic paleoenvironmental data. To view the PALE Atlas, visit http://www.ngdc. noaa.gov/paleo/pale/atlas.html. The Beringian paleoenvironments workshop, co-sponsored by PALE in September 1997 and attended by well over 100 participants from North America and the Former Soviet Union, highlighted the breadth and depth of Beringian research and the large community of scientists who can potentially contribute to ARCSS goals. Quaternary Science Reviews will publish papers from this meeting in a special issue devoted to Beringia. PALE and CAPE have initiated datamodel comparisons in conjunction with the BIOME 6000 project, which aims to generate global maps of vegetation “biomes”—units defined on the basis of their dominant plant functional types— from pollen data for present, 6,000, and 18,000 14C years BP. These maps will then be used to assess GCM runs coupled to the BIOME vegetation model. PALE cosponsored an international workshop in Germany in April 1998, with three goals: • adapt an existing coupled biogeographybiogeochemistry model to simulate the major features (composition and function) of arctic vegetation, • refine the present method for inferring biomes from paleoecological records in order to allow efficient discrimination among arctic vegetation types, and • generate circumarctic paleovegetation maps. For more information, contact Kim Marsella at the PALE Science Management Office (303/492-0246; fax 303/492-6388; [email protected]), and see the PALE Web site (http://www. ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pale/index.html). ARCSS Program Updates PALE PI Meeting Sets Direction for the Next Three Years Journal of Geophysical Research Publishes GISP2 and GRIP Research In November 1997, the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) published a Special Issue on the U.S. and European ice cores collected between 1989 and 1993 at Summit, Greenland (see Witness Spring 1997). This joint issue of JGR—Oceans and Atmospheres—contains 47 articles presenting research results from the cores (see Publications, page 23). GISP2 investigators have been working closely with the World Data Centers for Glaciology and Paleoclimatology to produce a CD-ROM on the Greenland Summit Ice Cores. This CD-ROM is now available through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (303/492-6199). The data are also available from the ARCSS Data Coordination Center Web site (http://arcss.colorado.edu/). Although the GISP2 initiative to collect the longest ice core available in 9 NSF News In April 1998, NSF published Arctic Research Program Opportunities (NSF 98-72), updating its 1995 document addressing proposals for research in all of the Arctic and for arctic research based at institutions in the United States. The United States Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984 defines the Arctic as: • all areas north of the Arctic Circle; • all United States territory north and west of the boundary formed by the Porcupine, Yukon, and Kuskokwim rivers; and • all contiguous seas including the Arctic Ocean; the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi seas; and the Aleutian chain. Field projects falling outside these boundaries but directly related to arctic science and engineering conditions or issues, such as laboratory and theoretical studies, are appropriate. NSF is one of 12 federal agencies that sponsor or conduct arctic science, engineering, and related activities. As mandated by the Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984, federal interagency research planning is coordinated through the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) which is chaired by NSF (see Witness Autumn 1996). In fiscal year 1997, NSF provided $49.39 million for 362 arctic research projects. Of this, $30.71 million was from the OPP Arctic Research Program. The goal of the Arctic Research Program is to gain a better understanding of the earth’s biological, geological, chemical, and sociocultural processes, and the interactions of ocean, land, atmosphere, biological, and human systems. OPP offers focused multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary programs that emphasize the uniqueness of the Arctic for special scientific studies. OPP encourages the study of: • long-term, human-environment interactions; • contemporary socioeconomic, cultural, and demographic issues in the changing political environment of the post-Cold War world; • bipolar research, especially glaciology, permafrost, sea ice, ecology, and aeronomy. Increasing emphasis is being given to the integration of research and education. Scientific programs connected to students (K-12 and above), affected communities in the North, and the general public’s improved understanding of basic research are strongly encouraged. Educational components are encouraged with proposed research in all disciplines and programs, but stand-alone proposals are also entertained. Research Programs Three integrated programs in OPP support arctic research: Arctic Natural Sciences—glaciology; and atmospheric, biological, earth, and ocean sciences; Arctic Social Sciences—anthropology, archeology, economics, geography, linguistics, political science, psychology, sociology, and related subjects, especially human/environment interactions, including issues related to subsistence and sustainable development; and Arctic System Science (ARCSS)— interdisciplinary research to • understand the physical, geological, chemical, biological, and sociocultural processes of the arctic system that interact with the total Earth system and thus contribute to or are influenced by global change, in order to • advance the scientific basis for predicting environmental change on a seasonal-to-centuries time scale, and for formulating policy options in response to the anticipated impacts of global change on humans and societal support systems. ARCSS places an emphasis on four scientific thrusts: • understanding global and regional impacts of the arctic climate system and its variability; • determining the role of the Arctic in global biogeochemical cycling; • identifying global change impacts on the structure and stability of arctic ecosystems; and • establishing the links between environmental change and human activity. NSF Publishes Arctic Research Program Opportunities Target dates for all NSF Arctic program proposals changed in 1998 to 15 February and 1 August. NSF proposal guidelines and other useful information, such as abstracts of projects funded, can be found at the NSF Web site (http://www.nsf. gov/). New Proposal Dates OPP also provides support for Arctic Research and Policy (management and integration of arctic data and information) and Arctic Logistics. The Guide to Programs (NSF 97-150) describes special funding opportunities including international cooperative activities, human resources development, and other programs (see Witness Autumn 1997). New announcements of research opportunities and the Foundation’s Grant Proposal Guide (NSF 98-2) are available on the NSF Web site (http://www.nsf.gov). Copies of the Guide and the NSF Proposal Forms Kit (NSF 98-3) are available from the NSF Clearinghouse (301/947-2722; [email protected]; http:// www.nsf.gov/bfa/cpo/gpg/kit/start.htm). A compilation of all NSF arctic and related research grants for each fiscal year is available (NSF 98-101 or http:// www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf9778 for FY 1997. The current NSF Guide to Programs (NSF 97-150 or http:// www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?gp) should be consulted for additional program information. For more information, see the OPP Web site (http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/). 16 The Nansen Arctic Drilling Program (NAD) is an international research effort designed to study the Arctic’s geological evolution and past environmental change in order to better predict the future of the Arctic Basin and its effect on global processes. In 1995, NAD began seeking closer links to the international Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), which has sampled in all the world’s oceans except the Arctic. In 1997, following an October 1996 workshop in St. Petersburg, Russia (see Witness Spring 1997), NAD published an implementation plan. The plan is available from the NAD Secretariat at Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI) in Washington, DC (202/232-3900; fax 202/232-8203; [email protected]; http:// www.joi-odp.org/joi/PDFs/ NADImplPlan.pdf). Regional Planning Groups have formed to define the scientific objectives terrestrial peats, lake sediments, loess, permafrost, periglacial features, and glacial deposits. Researchers hope to encounter alternating sequences of terrestrial and marine sediments in the Land Bridge sediments, documenting perhaps dozens of sea-level changes that occurred through the Pleistocene, as continental ice sheets waxed and waned in response to changes in climate. Because volcanism has been important on and around the margin of the Bering Land Bridge through the Quaternary (the past 1.6 million years), tephras and other volcanic deposits will form part of the marine sedimentary record. Furthermore, recent tectonic features are likely to be recorded in the core, as the Bering Land Bridge is believed to form an active plate margin between Asia and North America. Jim Begét (University of Alaska Geophysical Institute) is the scientific leader for the Bering Sea Land Bridge component of NAD. Plans are also moving forward for the other NAD target sites. In summer 1998, the Polarstern will investigate potential drill sites on Alpha Ridge and perform a site survey in the Laptev Sea (Russia’s permission is pending at press time). NAD plans to select the Laptev Sea drill site(s) in 1999 and to drill in 2000. The 1998 Submarine Arctic Science Cruise (SCICEX, see page 13) will conduct a refraction/reflection program on the Chukchi Plateau which may yield potential NAD drilling sites. A Lomonosov Ridge drilling proposal has been submitted to ODP. (A 1996 attempt to drill on Lomonosov Ridge from the Swedish icebreaker Oden was aborted.) A team of scientists led by Yngve Kristoffersen (University of Bergen) has been identified to determine best sites and platforms. For more information, contact Andrea Johnson in Washington, DC (202/2323900, x213 or 202/939-1623; fax 202/232-8203; [email protected]), or visit the JOI Web site (http://www.joiodp.org/). Nansen Arctic Drilling Program Defines Targets The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) is an international partnership of scientists and research institutions organized to explore the evolution and structure of the Earth. Since January 1985, ODP has used the drill ship JOIDES Resolution to recover more than 160,000 meters of core, providing researchers with access to a vast repository of sediments and rocks. Scientists from partner countries submit and review drilling proposals via ODP’s scientific advisory structure, the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES), which guides the program. Although it has been successful, ODP is scheduled to end on 1 October 2003. In order to promote further collaboration, an international conference is planned for May 1999 in Vancouver, Canada. The conference will define the scientific objectives for a future, multiplatform ocean drilling program with two major vessels. This conference will focus on the scientific goals of non-riser drilling; The Future of Scientific Ocean Drilling and required technology, to conduct site surveys, and to submit proposals. The initial targets are: • Bering Sea Land Bridge, • Laptev Sea on the continental shelf, • the Yermak and Chukchi Plateaus, and • in the deep Arctic, the Lomonosov and Alpha ridges. The Bering Sea Land Bridge program seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of past environmental variability in the Bering Strait’s role as a Pacific gateway through documentation of past change and assessment of the possible responsible mechanisms. The program will explore the links between ocean and continents (e.g., sea level, sea-ice cover, glacial history, marine/terrestrial paleoecology). A multidisciplinary approach will be required, in part because the Bering Land Bridge has been exposed above sea level at times; at least part of the sedimentary record is likely to include it will complement the July 1997 Conference for Cooperative Ocean Riser Drilling (CONCORD), which defined the scientific initiatives for use of a riserequipped drilling vessel. (That report is available at http://mstip1.jamstec.go.jp/ jamstec/OD21/CONCORD/result.html). As a basis for guiding and structuring the Spring 1999 conference, the JOIDES Office is soliciting brief (approximately 1page) statements of interest that describe a scientific objective, its importance, and the necessity for drilling. Technical details are not necessary. This is an opportunity for interested researchers to influence the scientific direction of the new program; input from the arctic research community is encouraged. Statements of interest should be submitted to the JOIDES Office by 1 September 1998. For more information, contact JOIDES in Woods Hole, MA (508/2893481; fax 508/457-2187; joides@whoi. edu; http://www.whoi.edu/joides). Science News 17 Reconstruction of past climatic change in the Arctic as a measure of natural variability in the system requires data most suitably obtained from ice cores. The Greenland Ice Core Project (see page 8) has demonstrated the wealth of data available in polar glaciers. No single ice core from the Northern Hemisphere, however, is able to provide a complete picture of past climatic change, particularly during warm climatic modes, like the Holocene, when arctic climate is more regionalized than during glacial times. Ice cores are needed from the many smaller ice caps in the circumarctic region as well as from subarctic alpine sites. Because international cooperation is increasingly important in this field, the multi-national Ice-Core Circum-Arctic Paleoclimate Program (ICAPP) was formally established in 1996 as part of the Past Global Changes Project (PAGES) of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP). ICAPP will use paleoclimatic records from ice cores and snow and ice sampling to evaluate variability in past climate change and the magnitude and spatial variability of natural and anthropogenic pollutants reaching the Arctic. ICAPP will also encourage the compilation of these records to place the Arctic in the context of the global climate system. The initial ICAPP project was a drilling program on the Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island, jointly undertaken by the Geological Survey of Canada, Climate Change Research Center (University of New Hampshire), and the Nagaoka Institute of Snow and Ice Studies, Japan. A 334-meter core was collected from the summit region in 1995; a second core was collected on a smaller dome in 1996 as part of IGBPPAGES and the Mass Balance of Arctic Glaciers and Ice Sheets in relation to Climate and Sea-Level Changes (MAGICS) Project of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). The IASC Glaciology Working Group discussed future ICAPP ice-coring projects at its January 1998 meeting in Wales. Of particular interest is a proposed coring project on the glacier Akademii Nauk, on Severnaya Zemlya in Russia, probably in A second focus, setting arctic priorities, provided an opportunity for a panel of stakeholders and policymakers to identify priority problems in the Arctic. A panel of scientists then commented on the information that would be necessary to solve those problems. IASC encourages others to foster comparable dialogues at national and international levels. For more information, contact Odd Rogne in Oslo, Norway (+47/22-95-9600; fax +47/22-95-96-01; [email protected]) or visit the IASC Web site (http://www. npolar.no/iasc/). Science News The Arctic Climate System Study (ACSYS) of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) held a conference on Polar Processes and Global Climate on Orcas Island, Washington, in November 1997. This second ACSYS Scientific Conference examined climatic processes in both polar regions, explored the connection between these processes and the global climate system, and addressed the need for global climate investigations to account realistically for polar processes. The conference focused on three subthemes on the Polar Climate System: • New Observational Insights; • Sources, Sinks, and Budgets; • Processes and their Modeling; and a fourth on Polar and Global Climate: • Variability and Feedbacks. Approximately 150 participants took part. The conference demonstrated the extensive progress in understanding and determining the dynamic nature of the Second ACSYS Science Meeting Held arctic climate system and its links to the wider global climate system since the first ACSYS Conference held in 1994. WCRP and ACSYS have fostered multidisciplinary activities including international coordination of observations and data sets and model intercomparisons. Conference proceedings and a list of abstract titles are available on the Internet (http://www.npolar.no/acsys/rosarioweb/ procedur.htm) and (http://www.npolar. no/acsys/rosarioweb/abstractlist.htm). The final proceedings and abstracts are being published by WCRP. In early August 1998, ACSYS will convene two consecutive meetings in Seattle, Washington on the Arctic Buoy Program and Sea-Ice Charts of the Arctic (see Calendar, page 23). For more information, contact Tordis Villinger at the ACSYS Program Office in Oslo, Norway (+47/22 95 95 73; fax +47/22 95 96 01; [email protected]; http://www.caroline.npolar.no/acsys/). 1999. Researchers also plan to collect cores from Lomonosov, Vestfonna, Svalbard, and Franz Josef Land within two years. For more information—and to contribute information on proposed and ongoing ice-coring projects in the Arctic—contact Gregory Zielinski in Durham, NH (603/862-1012; fax 603/862-2124; [email protected]) or Roy Koerner in Ottawa, ON Canada (613/996-7623; fax 613/996-5448; rkoerner@nrcan. gc.ca). Program Coordinates Arctic Ice-Core Research and Data IASC Meeting Engages Policymakers The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) held its annual meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska, in April 1998. One focus of the meeting was impacts and effects of global change. Speakers reviewed: • current studies of global change (e.g., the regional Bering Sea Impact Study, see page 18; terrestrial ecosystem studies); • specific effects (e.g., effects of increased UV-B exposure); and • societal concerns. 18 research planning and information sharing on the Bering Sea (http:// www.pmel.noaa.gov/bering/); and • a draft Bering Sea Ecosystem Research Plan based on previous planning reports (See Table; http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/ bering/), recommending research on 1) impacts of human activities on ecosystem health, production, and composition; and 2) effects of climate on individual species and productivity of the Bering Sea. A June 1998 workshop in Anchorage, Alaska gathered feedback on the draft plan; a revised draft will be available soon. The plan ultimately will guide research efforts to be undertaken through the North Pacific Research Board, recently created by federal legislation. Contact Pat Livingston at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, WA (206/526-4242; fax 206/526-6723; [email protected]). Science News The Bering Sea is one of the richest marine ecosystems in the U.S. In the last decade, at least ten agencies and institutions have expressed concern about environmental changes observed in the Bering Sea and have developed science plans addressing diverse questions about the region (see Table;Witness Spring and Autumn 1997, Autumn 1996). According to the 1996 National Research Council report on the Bering Sea ecosystem, the combined effects of variability in climate forcing, structure and function of food webs, commercial harvest levels, and other anthropogenic disturbances are causing changes in the ecosystem. Understanding the complex biophysical system interactions that structure the ecosystem, including direct and indirect effects of fishery removals, is critical to determining and monitoring its health. This understanding can help mitigate human-induced changes and aid in designing management strategies Bering Sea Ecosystem Research Underway incorporating natural variability. Research coordination and data sharing among the organizations that study and utilize resources of the Bering Sea are critical to this process. To this end, a scientific workshop on the Bering Sea ecosystem, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, was held 4-5 December 1997 in Anchorage, Alaska. Workshop recommendations included: • continue building a Bering Sea metadatabase (see Witness Autumn 1997; http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/ bering/mdb/); and • identify mechanisms for Alaskan Natives and coastal communities to communicate traditional and local knowledge and to participate in research. Initial results include: • a dedicated Web site at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory for troffEhcraeseRevitarepooC sucoFhcraeseR sutatSgnidnuFdnastcudorP -ICOF(snoitagitsevnIdetanidrooCyhpargonaecO-seirehsiF )AAON seirehsiflaicremmocgnitceffasrotcaflacigoloibdnalacisyhP niseirehsiflaicremmocno1991ecnisdednufhcraeseR .sretawnaksalA hcraeseRaksalA–margorPhcraeseReniraMlanoigeRaksalA )PRA–PRMRA(nalP fostceffe–htlaehmetsysocednaytilauqretawgnidraugefaS srotcafnamuhdnalarutan nalPecneicS3991 aeSgnireB–)APMM(tcAnoitcetorPslammaMeniraM nalPydutSmetsysocE metsysoceaeSgnireBehtfoytilibatsdnahtlaehehtrotinoM sisahpmedribaesdnalammameniramhtiw nalPecneicS5991 detanidrooCyhpargonaecOdna,lammaMeniraM,dribaeS ,SWFSUybtroffeevitarepooC.)ICOMMS(snoitagitsevnI .FAUdna,SGSU,SFMN nisnoilaesrelletSdnasdribaesroftatibahgnigarofeziretcarahC esnopserehtdnatsrednuotaeSgnireBdnaaksalAfofluGeht esabyerpnisnoitautculfotsrotaderplevelpotfo gnirbsrotagitsevnI.5991nidetcellocatadyranimilerP .snoitazinagroevitcepserriehtmorfsecruoser aeSgnireBehtnotropeRlicnuoChcraeseRlanoitaN metsysocE egnahcdecudni-namuhdnaetamilc–scimanydmetsysocE .hcraeserdnuftonseodmargorP.tropeR6991 gnireB)SECIP(noitazinagrOecneicSeniraMcificaPhtroN gniyrraCdnaegnahCetamilCdnapuorGgnikroWaeS margorPyticapaC smetsysocenognihsifdnaytilibairavetamilcfostceffE snalPecneicS7991,6991 )AAON-CCSBES(yticapaCgniyrraCaeSgnireBtsaehtuoS tcejorP metsysocecigalepnoytilibairavetamilcfostceffE detcepxesdrawaIIesahP.89-6991dednufstcejorp51 .2002nituoesahplliwtcejorP.8991rebotcO )CEBOLG(scimanyDmetsysocElabolG.S.U slaminaeniramnoytilibairavetamilcfostceffE nalPecneicS6991 rednu)PAMA(margorPtnemssessAdnagnirotinoMcitcrA ygetartSnoitcetorPlatnemnorivnEcitcrAeht stnatullopfostceffednatnuomA .hcraeserdnuftonseodmargorP.tropeR7991 )AAON-IRA(evitaitinIhcraeseRcitcrA ,stupnitnanimatnocdnametsysoceehtfoytilibairavlarutaN stceffedna,etaf erutuF.8991nidednuf32;7991nidednufstcejorp51 .niatrecnugnidnuf )SISEB(ydutStcapmIaeSgnireB cihportllaotetamilcmorf–egnahclabolgfostcapmilanoigeR slevel .hcraeserdnuftonseodmargorP.tropeR8991 -PMESB(tcejorPtnemeganaMmetsysocEaeSgnireB )AAON esohtgnomanoitacinummocdnanoitanidroocesaercnI tnemeganamdnahcraesermetsysoceaeSgnireBnidetseretni .99YFrofdetapicitnagnidnufemoS.tropeRtfarD 19 Science News Numerous scientists and educators contributed to a statement of opportunities now being prepared for the NSF Arctic Social Sciences Program (ASSP). ASSP encompasses all social sciences supported by NSF, including anthropology, archeology, economics, geography, linguistics, political science, sociology, and related subjects. While proposals in any of these fields are welcome, arctic social scientists have identified research areas of particular interest. Under current program guidelines, areas of particular interest include: • rapid social change, • community viability, and • human/environment interactions. These three areas were identified in the 1989 report, Arctic Social Science: Agenda for Action, as priorities for all federal agencies represented on the Interagency Opportunities in Arctic Social Sciences Arctic Research Policy Committee (see Witness Autumn 1996). The new statement of opportunities, directed specifically toward ASSP, builds upon the 1989 report and incorporates post-Cold War developments in the Arctic. The document draws upon the research that has been supported by ASSP, contributions of arctic social scientists who met in Seattle, Washington, in October 1997 (see Witness Autumn 1997), and the many researchers and representatives of arctic indigenous peoples who commented on the first draft. These recommendations expand the original research areas into five topics: • culture and environment, • resources and economic change, • development of social and political institutions, • ethnic and regional identities, and • knowledge systems. Arctic Social Sciences Conference—ICASS III The statement encourages interdisciplinary, international, and community partnerships and offers useful guidelines while retaining the flexibility and creativity characteristic of ASSP. The final version is expected to be published this fall and will be available on the ARCUS Web site (http://www.arcus.org/ arcsocsci/) as well as in published form. In the meantime, prospective applicants may consult the current ASSP program announcement on the NSF Web site (http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/arctic/ start.htm). The Arctic Social Sciences Program welcomes small, singleinvestigator proposals, dissertationimprovement proposals, as well as multiinstitution, multi-investigator projects. For more information, contact Program Manager Fae Korsmo in Arlington, VA (703/306-1029; fax 703/ 306-0648; [email protected]). Social scientists from throughout the circumpolar North participated in the 3rd International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS III) in May 1998, in Copenhagen, Denmark. ICASS III is sponsored by the International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA), which was formed in 1990 to represent arctic social scientists in international contexts and to provide a network for social scientists working and/or living in the North. Keynote presentations at the ICASS III meeting Changes in the Circumpolar North: Culture, Ethics, and SelfDetermination were made by Carol Geddes (Canada) and Susanne Dybbroe (Denmark) on the topic of indigenous and local knowledge; Aqqaluk Petersen (Greenland) and Eldon Yellowhorn (Canada) on social viability and cultural continuity; and Nils Oskal (Saami/ Norway) and Nikolai Vakhtin (Russian Federation) on political dynamics, governance, and self-determination. Conference sessions included the topics of arctic economies, living conditions in the North, oral history and cultural revival, globalization and the North, indigenous peoples and ecosystem management, education and social change, rapid social and cultural change, land rights and self-government in the Russian North, sustainable development, and research ethics. The IASSA General Assembly met during the conference and formally adopted a set of ethical guidelines for research in the Arctic that will be forwarded to the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), indigenous peoples organizations, and professional associations. IASSA’s continuing goal is to promote the conduct of research in the North that is in accordance with the highest standards of professional responsibility and accountability. IASSA members elected a new sevenmember governing council, which chose Professor Gerard Duhaime (Université Laval/Canada) as the organization’s new chair. Other council members are: Noel Broadbent (USA/Sweden), Oscar Kawagley (USA), Ludger Muller-Wille (Canada), Marit Myrvoll (Norway), Frank Sejersen (Denmark), and Nikolai Vakhtin (Russian Federation). Ex-officio members of the council are Jens Dahl, IASSA’s previous chair, and Murielle Nagy (Canada), IASSA’s new secretary. IASSA agreed to move its secretariat from the University of Copenhagen to Université Laval in Quebec, Canada. ICASS IV will be held in 2001 in Quebec. The Secretariat’s new address is: IASSA c/o GETIC, Pavillon Ernst-Lemieux, Université Laval, Quebec, G1K 7P4, Canada (418/656-7596; fax 418/6563023; [email protected]). Following ICASS III, a number of social scientists participated in an IASC working group on Rapid Cultural and Social Change in the Circumpolar North. The purpose of this group is to facilitate international comparative and interdisciplinary research in the social sciences within the IASC research program. For more information about this effort, contact Ludger Muller-Wille in Montreal, PQ, Canada (514/398-4960; fax 514/3987437; [email protected]). 20 Research-education partnerships in polar science education must serve students living in the Arctic—and those who live far from the Arctic. Most students and members of the public outside the Arctic have a limited and often inaccurate understanding of the region and its peoples. Young arctic residents may feel remote from modern scientific researchers, even though they inhabit an under-investigated region that attracts talented researchers who are tantalized by important questions. Scientists, educators, and related professionals met in April 1997 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to address the value and potential of research-education partnerships in polar science education. The report developed on the basis of that workshop, Building Partnerships in Polar Research and Education, endorses the introduction of polar science curricula into K-12 classrooms within and beyond the Arctic, and states that such curricula must reflect: • the constructive use of emerging communication technologies, Alaska. Representatives from institutions including the University of Kansas, University of California-Irvine, Bureau of Land Management, ARCUS, and UAF participated in reviewing the 1997 field season and making recommendations for 1998. The Steering Committee requested that ARCUS survey the arctic research community about future uses of the station, particularly to assess support for arctic science education programs based there. ARCUS distributed the survey in March 1998; many respondents expressed strong interest in the proposed education programs. For more information, see the TFS Web site (http://www.uafbio.alaska.edu/ toolik/toolik.html), or contact Michael Abels in Fairbanks, AK (907/474-5063; fax 907/474-5513; [email protected]). Science News NSF is funding the Institute of Arctic Biology (IAB) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) to support the design and construction of a winter residence facility for the Toolik Field Station (TFS). The winter residence will complement the winter-use lab, funded by the Office of Polar Programs, which became operational in 1994 and will allow researchers to access the station’s field sites during the arctic winter. Design of the winter residence facility has been completed, and construction is expected to be finished this summer. During the past two field seasons, upgrades at the field station have included: • a 12’ x 60’ meeting room/library; • studies of electrical, water, waste water, and drainage needs; • a site survey and mapping for planning purposes; • a drainage project that upgraded the station road, installed 24-inch gravel pads under laboratories and the proposed winter facilities; • an antenna mast to support two new phone lines; and • purchase of chairs for the new laboratories and meeting room. During the 1997 field season, the station provided accommodations for 216 science project members who stayed 3,974 days. Users and staff were in residence 1 May-9 September 1997. The station provided logistic support for 31 funded projects, four artists/writers-inresidence, and the 11th International Northern Research Basins Symposium and Workshop. The TFS Steering Committee and Science Users Group held its annual meeting in December 1997 in Fairbanks, Toolik Field Station Expands to Year-Round Capabilities Education News Arctic Science Has Rich Opportunities to Engage Students • contributions of local indigenous peoples to science, and • collaboration of researchers with educators. The report addresses three main topics: Media-based arctic science education— Participants strongly recommended development of a media-oriented education program to focus the attention of educators and the public on research in the Arctic. Participants also recommended development of a longer term educational program that would feature curricula on the Web (e.g., virtual arctic field trips) and structured classroom projects with mentors or guides from the arctic community. Curriculum development—Participants agreed on the need for a broad-based educational effort to introduce polar research into K-12 curricula. Wherever possible, the learning programs should include hands-on research experience for students and teachers. Because of the geographic challenges posed by the polar regions, the use of information technology (e.g., the Internet, CD-ROMs) is key to quick information access and a sense of the dynamic nature of science. Supplements to curricula could include access to current research data, online mentoring, and a system for matching researchers and teachers for collaboration. Partnerships in research and education— Participants formed partnerships to plan specific interdisciplinary researcheducation projects. Work on the projects synthesized diverse expertise and developed connections among academic, agency, arctic community, and education participants. Several projects planned at the workshop have been implemented and show promising early results. For more information, contact workshop co-chairs Peter Sommerville in Christchurch, New Zealand (+64/3 358 4450, fax +64/3 358 4480; [email protected]) and Elena Sparrow in Fairbanks, AK (907/474-7699; fax 907/474-6184; [email protected]). For a copy of Building Partnerships in Polar Research and Education, contact ARCUS or check the ARCUS Web site for a downloadable PDF file. 21 Education News Curriculum Resources on the Internet Indigenous curriculum resources are now available in the Culturally-Based Curriculum Resources database maintained at the Alaska Native Knowledge Network (ANKN) Web site (http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/). Materials in the database illustrate ways in which indigenous and Western knowledge systems can be applied in schools through a balanced, comprehensive, and culturally aligned framework adaptable to local circumstances. The resources will help teachers and students connect the knowledge, skills, and waysof knowing necessary for a village livelihood with those reflected in the schoolcurriculum. The database is a project of the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative (AKRSI), ANKN, and ARCUS to improve access to locally produced curriculum resources for rural schools in Alaska (see Witness Autumn 1997). For more information, contact Sean Topkok, Indigenous Curriculum Specialist, in Fairbanks, AK (907/474-5897; fax 907/474-5615; [email protected]). Four high school science teachers from across the U.S. will join arctic research projects during the 1998 field season. They are sponsored by NSF’s Teachers Experiencing the Arctic and Antarctic (TEA) program, which has been placing teachers, teamed with one or two high school students, with research teams in the Arctic since 1996. TEAntarctic has been sending teachers to Antarctica since 1992. TEA is jointly funded by the Office of Polar Programs and the Education and Human Resources Directorate. The goals of the TEA program include: • immersing teachers in a research experience as a component of their continuing professional development; • infusing polar research experiences into classrooms in rich, engaging, and innovative ways that underscore the relevance of science and the scientific process to society and individuals; and • establishing collaborations among teachers, students, school districts, researchers, and the community to build on the TEA experience. Each of the four teachers will join one of the following projects this summer: • Collecting and analyzing water and ice samples on an arctic cruise with Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) scientists; • Assisting researchers from Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation with an archeological dig of an Ipiutak culture site in the northwest Alaska village of Deering; • Validating measures of oil contamination in otters with investigators from the University of Alaska at the new SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, to better understand the effects of oil spills on animals; and • Mapping the depth of the soil active layer on the North Slope of Alaska with scientists from the University of Delaware, as a contribution to estimates of carbon flux in response to climate change in the region. From their field sites, TEA teachers post daily journals and answer questions on a Web site; after the field season, they share their experience with other teachers, students, and their community. In particular, they develop related classroom Science Teachers Gain Arctic Research Experience materials and mentor two science teachers for 100 hours each over a three-year period. The teachers may also continue to collaborate with the field research team. In Barrow, Alaska, a TEA research experience has already significantly enriched the science curriculum. Tim Buckley, a science teacher at Barrow High School, worked with CRREL scientists on a research cruise in the Arctic Ocean in the summer of 1996 (see Witness Autumn 1996). He learned how to collect ice and water samples and how to analyze them for structural features, pH, chlorophyll content, and conductivity. Buckley and his students now collect ice cores in the winter for CRREL researchers who had lacked such samples. Some analysis of the winter cores is done by the students in Barrow; some is done at CRREL. Both research and education benefit from this partnership. For more information, contact Wayne Sukow at NSF (703/306-1613; fax 703/ 306-0412; [email protected]), see the TEA Web site (http://www.glacier.rice.edu/ chapters/tea/tea_introduction.html), or contact ARCUS. Qaiyaan Opie, Avaiyak Panigeo, and Wayne Danjin, students at Barrow High School in Barrow, Alaska, drill an ice core from Elson Lagoon for a winter sample (photo by Tim Buckley). 22 Museums Can Be Educational Catalysts in the Arctic by I. Michael Heyman Arctic Perspectives Museums contribute to research and education in all disciplines by protecting and displaying treasures of nature and of humankind. They illuminate forces that generate, shape, and sustain natural and cultural diversity. Arctic collections may be particularly important in research and education because of the Arctic’s vast size, relative inaccessibility, geographic complexity, and cultural vitality. Not everyone who is interested in the Arctic can visit the region; most of the general public learns about the Arctic from museum exhibitions, and researchers rely on collections for many purposes. The pre-eminent arctic collection in an American museum is at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). More than a century of careful collecting and research by scientists has resulted in an unsurpassed repository of natural and cultural objects. Today, the Smithsonian’s role in Alaska and throughout the North is taking a dynamic turn, moving rapidly beyond an earlier mandate as collector, repository, and interpreter of arctic science and culture into an era of active information exchange and partnership in research and education. None of this would have been possible without the collections that had been gathered by scientists who worked almost continuously in the North ever since Spencer Baird, the second Secretary of the Smithsonian, sent naturalist Robert Kennicott to collect from the Mackenzie District in 1858. Kennicott’s explorations in Alaska and the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 set the stage for a massive drive to document the natural history and cultures of this terra incognita. Baird’s goal was to conduct the first complete scientific inventory of an extensive, pristine natural region anywhere in the world. In the decades that followed, the Smithsonian dedicated substantial resources to gather carefully documented collections, publish reports, interpret the finds, and preserve the collections. In the 1980s, curators in the Anthropology Department mounted a major effort to reveal the Alaska Native ethnographic collections that had been under wraps, literally in the attic, for more than 100 years. Bill Fitzhugh and his colleagues at the NMNH have assembled groundbreaking scholarly exhibitions such as Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo and the joint Russian-American show Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Both toured nationally. Fitzhugh and his colleagues have organized smaller versions of these shows that could tour locally to towns and villages throughout Alaska, Canada, and Europe; recently Crossroads Siberia became the first American exhibit ever to travel in the Russian Far East. With help from my predecessor Bob Adams and then Director of NMNH Frank Talbot, the Museum staff organized the Arctic Studies Center (ASC) in 1988, secured Congressional funding, and began participating in the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (see Witness Autumn 1996) and other national and international bodies. The ASC is now a small but active unit of the NMNH (see Member Insert), which has ensured that research and education programs concerning Alaskan Native issues are high on the priority list of the Museum and the Smithsonian. The Center’s media programs have brought its activities to broad audiences, and its prize-winning Internet presentations have pioneered new methods to reach vast audiences, especially in the North. Most recently, the Center participated with our National Museum of American History in mounting Oil from the Arctic, a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. In 1994, the NMNH began a new phase of its outreach to Alaska by entering into agreement with the Anchorage Museum of Art and History and the City of Anchorage to open a regional ASC office in Anchorage. This alliance has brought a Smithsonian presence and some of the beautiful objects of Native heritage back to Alaska. Having nearly completed the first five years with able direction from Aron Crowell, we are now developing a longer term vision. Bob Fri, Director of NMNH, and Pat Wolf, Director of the Anchorage Museum, have been working with Fitzhugh, Crowell, Stephen Loring, Igor Krupnik, and others at the ASC to produce an exciting new long-range plan that will build a concrete new vision of Smithsonian-Alaskan partnerships. The Anchorage office of the ASC offers the Smithsonian’s educational resources and programs to arctic communities. For example, as tourism grows in the North, more museums and cultural centers are opening, needing trained staff. ASC/Anchorage has shared the Smithsonian’s expertise with these developing museums through a series of museum-training seminars. The ASC will also act as a link between teachers in northern communities and the Smithsonian’s outstanding education programs, including lesson plans, resource guides, and partnership and outreach services. Native cultural and historic material are prominent in many ofthese education programs. By using the new tools of the information age and by physically reaching out to its Alaskan constituents, the Smithsonian has begun to fulfill its contemporary intention to cultivate a fruitful two-way relationship with arctic peoples. The Institution’s repository of arctic treasures is becoming more accessible to its sources, contributing to arctic research endeavors, and educating northern citizens. I. Michael Heyman has been Secretary of theSmithsonian Institution since 1994. He is Chancellor and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. In the1970s, he worked as a lawyer on the negotiations that led to the development of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Illustration: Ivory carving of the powerful Sea Spirit Sedna who controls the whereabouts of animal souls (Artist: Susie Silook; photograph courtesy of the Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution). 23 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS): Process and Organisation, 1991-1997: An Assessment. Norwegian Polar Institute (+47/22 95 95 00; fax +47/22 95 95 01; [email protected]). Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions. (1:10,000,000) U.S. Geological Survey Circum-Pacific Map Series CP-45. 40” x 58”. $4.00 plus $3.50 handling (800/USA-MAPS). Greenlanders, Whales, and Whaling: Sustainability and Self-Determination in the Arctic. Richard A. Caulfield. 1997. University Press of New England. Hanover, NH. 224 p. (800/421-1561; fax 603/643-1540; http://www.dartmouth.edu/acad-inst/upne/). Voices from the Bay: Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Inuit and Cree in the Hudson Bay Bioregion. 1997. Canadian Arctic Resources Committee. Ottawa, Ontario. 98p. (613/ 241-7379; fax 613/241-2244; [email protected]). ARCUS 600 University Avenue, Suite 1 Fairbanks, Alaska 99709 USA Phone: 907/474-1600 Fax: 907/474-1604 [email protected] http://www.arcus.org Executive Director Wendy K. Warnick ARCUS is a nonprofit organization consisting of institutions organized and operated for educational, professional, or scientific purposes. ARCUS was established by its member institutions in 1988 with the primary mission of strengthening Arctic research to meet national needs. ARCUS activities are funded through a cooperative agreement with NSF; by DOE, AFN; and by member dues. Witness the Arctic is published biannually by ARCUS. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF. Submit ideas for the Fall 1998 newsletter by 1 September 1998. Contributors: K. Aagaard, M. Abels, V. Alexander, P.A.Anderson, P.M.Anderson, G. Brass, L.Brigham, R. Caulfield, L. Codispoti, M.Cross, C. Elfring, W. Fitzhugh, S.Forman, J. Grebmeier, G. Henry, M.Heyman, B. Hrycyk, K. Hughen, A. Johnson, L. Johnson, F.Korsmo, J. Kruse, P. Livingston, S. Loring, C. Lovett, K. Marsella, M. Ledbetter, W. Maslowski, C.McNeave, J. Morison, R. Moritz, C.Paulson, T. Pyle, M. Retelle, O. Rogne, S.Silook, J. Swift, G. Tapper, S.Topkok, W. Tucker, M. Twickler, T. Villinger, M. Walker, P. Webber, G. Weller, G. Zielinski. Managing Editor: Wendy Warnick Editor/Designer: Marty Peale Production Editors: Michael Sharp, Anne Sudkamp, Alison York Copy Editor: Diane Wallace wit.ness (wit nis) n. 1.a. One who has heard or seen something. b. One who furnishes evidence. 2. Anything that serves as evidence; a sign. 3. An attestation to a fact, statement, or event. —-v. tr. 1. To be present at or have personal knowledge of. 2. To provide or serve as evidence of. 3. To testify to; bear witness. —-intr. To furnish or serve as evidence; testify. [Middle English witnes(se), Old English witnes, witness, knowledge, from wit, knowledge, wit.] August 3-4, 1998 The Arctic Buoy Program. Seattle, WA. Contact Tordis Villinger at the Arctic Climate System Study (ACSYS) Program Office in Oslo, Norway (+47/22 95 95 73; fax +47/22 95 96 01; [email protected]; http://www.npolar.no/acsys/seattle98/ index.htm). August 5-6, 1998 Sea Ice Charts of the Arctic. Seattle, WA. Contact Tordis Villinger at the Arctic Climate System Study (ACSYS) Program Office in Oslo, Norway (+47/22 95 95 73; fax +47/22 95 96 01; [email protected]; http://www.npolar.no/acsys/seattle98/ index.htm). August 17-20, 1998 Second International Conference on Climate and Water. Espoo, Finland. Contact Risto Lemmelä in Tuusula, Finland (+358/92 75 38 35; fax +358/94 51 38 27; [email protected]; http://ahti.hut.fi/wr/caw2/). August 24-28, 1998 Polar Aspects of Global Change. International symposium and field trip to Svalbard. Tromsø, Norway. Contact the International Symposium on Polar Aspects of Global Change, c/o Norsk Polarinstitutt in Tromsø (+47/77 60 67 00; fax +47/77 60 67 01; [email protected]; http://www.tromso.npolar.no/polaraspects). September 20-25, 1998 The 17th Polar Libraries Colloquy. Reykjavik, Iceland. Contact Palina Hedinsdottir, Icelandic Institute of Natural History (+354/5629822; fax +354/ 5620815; [email protected]; http://www.hafro.is/hafro/Joint/conf.html). September 23-26, 1998 International Workshop on Environmental and Climatic Variations and their Impact in the North Atlantic Region. Reykjavík, Iceland. Contact Hjördís Hendriksdóttir at the Icelandic Research Council (+354/5621230; fax +354/ 5529814; [email protected]; http://www.rannis.is/english/news-adv/workshop/index.html). October 5-7, 1998 Remote Sensing for Marine and Coastal Environments. Fifth International Conference. San Diego, CA. Contact ERIM International (313/994-1200; fax 313/994-5123; [email protected]; http://www.erim-int.com/CONF/marine/ MARINE.html). October 6-8, 1998 SCICEX 2000: A Workshop to Plan for Submarine-based Arctic Science. Warrenton, VA. Contact Drew Rothrock in Seattle, WA (206/685-2262; fax 206/543-3521; [email protected]) or Wieslaw Maslowski at the Naval Postgraduate School (408/656-3162; fax 408/656-2712; [email protected]; http://psc.apl.washington.edu/scicex/scicex2000.html). October 25-28, 1998 International Cooperation in Arctic Research: Detecting Global Change and its Impacts in the Western Arctic. 49th Arctic Division Science Conference, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Fairbanks, AK. Contact Syun Akasofu at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (907/474-7282; fax 907/474-5882; [email protected]; http://www.gi.alaska.edu/). For more information, see the Calendar on the ARCUS Web site (http://www.arcus.org/). Publications Calendar Publications 24 Most of our time at ARCUS is spent working with the arctic research community to envision and implement; there is little time for introspection. While working on this issue of Witness, however, I saw many references to the value of teamwork, which led me to think back on the ten issues of Witness that we have produced, our partnership with the arctic research community, and what we have all accomplished. Summer is busy in the Arctic, as plants, animals, scientists, tourists, and builders try to squeeze the maximum amount of productivity into an all too brief season. Many arctic researchers are in the field now working with teams of students and colleagues. Arctic field research remains compelling, in spite of the frequently rigorous conditions, because of opportunities for advancing knowledge, collaborating with colleagues, educating students, as well as learning about an amazing environment. Several lessons can be drawn from these arctic field experiences, especially about the importance of planning and cooperation during what may be difficult times. The attitude of the team leader is vital to maintain group cohesion in the A Note from the Executive Director Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 99 Fairbanks, AK Printed on Recycled Paper Arctic Research Consortium of the United States 600 University Avenue, Suite 1 Fairbanks, AK 99709 USA Inside Feature 1 ARCSS Program Updates 4 NSF News 9 Capitol Updates 10 Arctic Policy News 11 U.S. Arctic Research Commission12 Polar Research Board 12 Science News 13 Education News 20 Arctic Perspectives 22 Calendar & Publications 23 face of adversity. The supporting logistical infrastructure is crucial to protect the group’s safety and get the work done. Keeping an eye on the long term— remembering that ups and downs are inevitable—will maintain sanity. Efficiency of effort matters. Planning ahead is always a good idea. Vision and leadership are critical, as are persistence, creativity, and plain hard work. These lessons apply as well to the diligence of the arctic research community in science planning. I look back to our first issue of Witness, published in Winter 1992, and note several things: the ARCSS Program was in its infancy, NSF did not yet have a dedicated Arctic Sciences Section, many broad arctic logistics needs were unmet, the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy had only recently been formulated. Considerable progress has been made in all of these areas in six years because of the cooperation of many people, who contributed to joint planning enterprises on top of the demands of their individual research programs. The arctic research community has persevered through its share of difficult times and continued to propose and develop exciting and important research initiatives and logistics investments. Much of this research is now producing compelling results, and the logistics needs are receiving deserved attention. These successes are due to hard work by this active community, rigorous and vital research efforts, and the fact that we have cooperated effectively on issues that affect the community as a whole. In the demanding world of arctic research, uniting our efforts—synergy—makes the best use of our individual expertise. 1 ARCTIC Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution Arctic Research Consortium of the United States Member Institution The Arctic Studies Center (ASC) was created by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in 1988 to promote the study of arctic peoples, cultures, and environments. Building on 150 years of Smithsonian arctic exploration and science, its mission lies in cultural, biological, and environmental studies in the Arctic and Subarctic, particularly in Alaska, but also throughout the circumpolar North. The ASC is the primary U.S. government program with a special focus on arctic cultural research and education. In keeping with the Smithsonian commitment to “the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” the Center conducts field research and museum studies, builds and maintains collections and archives, produces exhibition and outreach programs, and conducts museum-based educational programs. Training of museum professionals and outreach enhancing legacies of northern peoples are central to its mission. Fellows and interns provide support for scientists and community scholars. ASC collections and research programs involve close collaboration with northern communities and Native groups in areas of exhibition, museum training, and research. Research, collection development, and public programs are essential to Smithsonian scholarship and public education programs. ASC work is multidisciplinary, circumpolar, international, and community-based. Our fundamental concern is with the preservation of arctic cultural legacies. Research ASC research explores problems and topics of the arctic and subarctic world. Center staff emphasize anthropological archeology, ethnology, ethnohistory, and related aspects of biology and natural science. Research problems commonly include a variety of cultural studies involving human-environmental interactions from the Pleistocene to modern times. The ASC also investigates modern processes of cultural contact and transformation from perspectives of history, contemporary affairs, demography, geography, and ecology. Over the past 20 years, Smithsonian northern studies have concentrated on research in three circumpolar regions: • Inuit-European transformations in theEastern Canadian Arctic; • trans-Beringian contacts and evolutionary systems in the Greater North Pacific region; and • recent culture history and transformations involving modernization and industrial development in the Yamal region of Western Siberia. From Trash to Treasures Having pursued northern studies since the 1850s, the Smithsonian possesses one of the world’s finest anthropological collections from arctic regions. The most important early collections are ethnological materials acquired by Smithsonian naturalists between 1858 and 1890 from the Mackenzie District, Ungava, Baffin Island, Coppermine, Alaska, and Siberia. These collections were purchased from Native people with highly prized Western trade goods. Edward W. Nelson, who collected now priceless materials in Western Alaska in 1877-81, was called by his Yup’ik friends “the Man Who Buys Good-For-Nothing Things.” A Koniag (Aluutiq) woven spruce root hunting hat collected by William J. Fisher from Karluk, Kodiak Island in 1884. Decorations include sea lion whiskers, dentalium, and glass beads (NMNH, Smithsonian Institution). ARCSS Addresses Spring 1998 ARCUS • 907/474-1600 • Fax 907/474-1604 • [email protected] • http://www.arcus.org/ Important ARCSS Program Information Arctic System Science Program http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/arctic/system.htm Michael Ledbetter, ARCSS Program Director Office of Polar Programs (OPP) National Science Foundation (NSF) 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 755 Arlington, VA 22230 Phone: 703/306-1029 • Fax: 703/306-0648 [email protected] ARCSS Committee (AC) http://www.arcus.org/ARCSS/ AC Coordination Wendy Warnick, Executive Director Arctic Research Consortium of the United States 600 University Avenue, Suite 1 Fairbanks, AK 99709-3651 Phone: 907/474-1600 • Fax: 907/474-1604 [email protected] or [email protected] Jack Kruse, ARCSS Committee Chair Institute of Social and Economic Research University of Alaska Anchorage 117 N. Leverett Road Leverett, MA 01054 Phone: 413/367-2240 • Fax: 413/367-0092 [email protected] ARCSS Data Coordination Center http://arcss.colorado.edu/ Matthew Cross, Director Chris McNeave, Data Manager National Snow and Ice Data Center University of Colorado Campus Box 449 Boulder, CO 80309-0449 Phone: 303/492-1390 • Fax: 303/492-2468 [email protected] [email protected] Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) http://www.gisp2.sr.unh.edu/GISP2/ GISP2 Science Management Office Mark Twickler, Associate Director Climate Change Research Center Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space University of New Hampshire 39 College Road, Morse Hall Durham, NH 03824-3525 Phone: 603/862-1991 • Fax: 603/862-2124 [email protected] GISP2 Executive Committee Paul A. Mayewski, Chair Climate Change Research Center Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space University of New Hampshire 39 College Road Morse Hall Durham, NH 03824-3525 Phone: 603/862-3146 • Fax: 603/862-2124 [email protected] GISP2 Advisory Committee Wallace Broecker, Chair Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University PO Box 1000 61 Route 9 West Palisades, NY 10964-8000 Phone: 914/365-8413 • Fax: 914/365-3183 [email protected] Paleoclimates from Arctic Lakes and Estuaries (PALE) http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pale/index.html PALE Science Management Office Kim Marsella, Science and Data Manager Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research University of Colorado Campus Box 450 Boulder, CO 80309-0450 Phone: 303/492-0246 • Fax: 303/492-6388 [email protected] PALE Science Steering Committee Mary E. Edwards, Co-Chair Department of Geography Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet N-7055 Dragvoll, Norway Phone: +477/359-6090 • Fax: +477/359-6100 [email protected] Michael J. Retelle, Co-Chair Department of Geology Bates College 44 Campus Avenue Lewiston, ME 04240 Phone: 207/786-6155 • Fax: 207/786-8334 [email protected] Land-Atmosphere-Ice Interactions (LAII) http://www.laii.uaf.edu/ LAII Science Management Office Gunter E. Weller, Director Patricia A. Anderson, Deputy Director Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 757740 Fairbanks, AK 99775-7740 Phone: 907/474-5698 • Fax: 907/474-6722 [email protected] or [email protected] LAII Science Steering Committee F. Stuart (Terry) Chapin, Chair Institute of Arctic Biology University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 757000 Fairbanks, AK 99775-7000 Phone: 907/474-7922 • Fax: 907/474-6967 [email protected] Ocean-Atmosphere-Ice Interactions (OAII) http://www.ccpo.odu.edu/~arcss/ OAII Science Management Office Louis A. Codispoti, Director Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography Old Dominion University 768 52nd Street, Crittenton Hall Norfolk, VA 23529 Phone: 757/683-5770 • Fax: 757/683-5550 [email protected] or [email protected] OAII Science Steering Committee Jacqueline M. Grebmeier, Chair Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee 569 Dabney Hall Knoxville, TN 37996-0100 Phone: 423/974-2592 • Fax: 423/974-3067 [email protected] ARCUS Addresses Spring 1998 Published by the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States • 600 University Avenue • Suite 1 • Fairbanks, AK 99709 ARCUS Board of Directors Executive Director Wendy K. Warnick Business Manager Alison A. Carter Project Managers Anne C. Sudkamp Alison D. York Executive Assistant Diane R. Wallace Internet and Communications Specialist Michael (Milo) Sharp Indigenous Curriculum Specialist C. Sean Topkok TEA Project Coordinator Renée D. Crain ARCUS Staff Vera Alexander, Secretary School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 757220 Fairbanks, AK 99775-7220 Phone: 907/474-6824 • Fax: 907/474-7386 [email protected] http://www.uaf.edu/ Richard B. Alley Earth System Science Center Pennsylvania State University 306 Deike Building University Park, PA 16802 Phone: 814/863-1700 • Fax: 814/865-3191 [email protected] http://www.essc.psu.edu/ Linda Brubaker College of Forest Resources University of Washington PO Box 352100 Seattle, WA 98195-2100 Phone: 206/543-5778 • Fax: 206/543-3254 [email protected] http://www.washington.edu/ Gail A. Fondahl NRES/Geography University of Northern British Columbia 3333 University Way Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9 Canada Phone: 250/960-5856 • Fax: 250/960-5539 [email protected] http://www.unbc.ca/ John E. Hobbie, Executive Committee The Ecosystems Center Marine Biological Laboratory 167 Water Street Woods Hole, MA 02543 Phone: 508/548-6704 • Fax: 508/457-1548 [email protected] http://www.mbl.edu/ Leslie A. King Environmental Studies University of Vermont 153 S. Prospect Street Burlington, VT 05405 Phone: 802/656-8167 • Fax: 802/656-8015 [email protected] http://nature.snr.uvm.edu/ Caleb Pungowiyi Natural Resources Kawerak Inc. PO Box 948 Nome, AK 99762 Phone: 907/443-4728 • Fax: 907/443-3708 [email protected] Paul B. Reichardt, President College of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 755940 Fairbanks, AK 99775-5940 Phone: 907/474-7608 • Fax: 907/474-5101 [email protected] http://www.uaf.edu/ Michael J. Retelle, Executive Committee Department of Geology Bates College 44 Campus Avenue Lewiston, ME 04240 Phone: 207/786-6155 • Fax: 207/786-8334 [email protected] http://www.bates.edu/ Peter Schlosser Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University PO Box 1000 Palisades, NY 10964-8000 Phone: 914/365-8707 • Fax: 914/365-8155 [email protected] http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/ John E. Walsh Department of Atmospheric Sciences University of Illinois - Urbana 105 S. Gregory Avenue Urbana, IL 61801 Phone: 217/333-7521 • Fax: 217/244-4393 [email protected] http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/coe/ Bernard D. Zak, Treasurer Environmental Characterization and Monitoring Systems Department Sandia National Laboratories Mail Stop 0755 Albuquerque, NM 87185-0755 Phone: 505/845-8631 • Fax: 505/844-0116 [email protected] http://info.arm.gov/ Editor/Design Marty V. Peale Arctic Marine Science Plan Clara M. Jodwalis ARCUS Consultants ARCUS Addresses Spring 1998 ARCUS • 907/474-1600 • Fax 907/474-1604 • [email protected] • http://www.arcus.org/ ARCUS Member Institutions, Representatives, and Alternates Arizona State University http://www.asu.edu/ Troy L. Péwé, Representative Department of Geology Arizona State University PO Box 871404 Tempe, AZ 85287-1404 Phone: 602/965-2883 • Fax: 602/965-8102 [email protected] Edmund Stump, Alternate Representative address same as above Phone: 602/965-5081 • Fax: 602/965-8102 [email protected] Bates College http://www.bates.edu/ William G. Ambrose Biology Department Bates College 44 Campus Avenue Lewiston, ME 04240-6084 Phone: 207/786-6114 • Fax: 207/786-6123 [email protected] Gerald F. Bigelow Classical and Medieval Studies Program Bates College address same as above Phone: 207/786-8320 • Fax: 207/786-8333 [email protected] Brown University http://www.brown.edu/ Douglas D. Anderson Department of Anthropology Brown University PO Box 1921 Providence, RI 02912 Phone: 401/863-7060 • Fax: 401/863-7588 [email protected] Shepard Krech III address same as above Phone: 401/863-7056 • Fax: 401/863-7588 [email protected] Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/ Debra Meese Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory 72 Lyme Road Hanover, NH 03755-1290 Phone: 603/646-4594 • Fax: 603/646-4644 [email protected] Walter (Terry) Tucker III Snow and Ice Division Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory address same as above Phone: 603/646-4268 • Fax: 603/646-4644 [email protected] Dartmouth College http://www.dartmouth.edu/ Oran R. Young Institute of Arctic Studies Dartmouth College 6114 Steele Hall. Room 408A Hanover, NH 03755-3577 Phone: 603/646-1278 • Fax: 603/646-1279 [email protected] Ross A. Virginia Environmental Studies Program Dartmouth College 6182 Steele Hall Hanover, NH 03755-3577 Phone: 603/646-1456 • Fax: 603/646-1682 [email protected] Desert Research Institute http://www.dri.edu/ Robert A. Wharton, Jr. Desert Research Institute PO Box 60220 Reno, NV 89506 Phone: 702/673-7469 • Fax: 702/673-7421 [email protected] Randy Borys Atmospheric Sciences Center Desert Research Institute address same as above Phone: 702/677-3122 • Fax: 702/677-3157 [email protected] In February 1998, ARCUS announced the winners of the Second Annual ARCUS Award for Arctic Research Excellence. A panel of senior scientists from ten universities reviewed the 22 student papers submitted for this competition. The four winners selected were major contributors to the research and primary authors of the papers they submitted: •Kurt M. Cuffey (and G.D. Clow), Department of Geological Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA: Temperature, accumulation, and ice-sheet elevation in central Greenland through the last deglacial transition. •Brenda Ekwurzel, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY: Distribution and variability of freshwater sources within the Arctic Ocean surface and halocline waters. •Sadredin C. Moosavi (and P.M. Crill), Department of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH: CH4 oxidation by tundra wetlands as measured by a selective inhibitor. Second Annual ARCUS Student Award Winners Announced •Brian T. Person (and C.A. Babcock and R.W. Ruess), Department of Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK: Forage variation in broodrearing areas used by pacific black brant geese on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska. The award is designed to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to pursue their interests in arctic sciences. The winners received a $500 award and presented their papers at the March 1998 Arctic Forum in Washington, DC. For the 1999 competition, papers must be submitted by December 1998. Students from any institution may apply. For more information, see the ARCUS Web site (http:// www.arcus.org/), or contact any ARCUS Member Institution Representative or ARCUS. ARCUS Addresses Spring 1998 Published by the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States • 600 University Avenue • Suite 1 • Fairbanks, AK 99709 ARCUS Member Institutions, Representatives, and Alternates ( continued ) Ilisagvik College Katherine Ahgeak Ilisagvik College PO Box 749 Barrow, AK 99723-0749 Phone: 907/852-9177 • Fax: 907/852-1752 [email protected] Frank F. Willingham address same as above Phone: 907/852-9176 • Fax: 907/852-9146 [email protected] Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/ William M. Smethie Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University PO Box 1000 61 Route 9 West Palisades, NY 10964-8000 Phone: 914/365-8566 • Fax: 914/365-8155 [email protected] Bernard Coakley address same as above Phone: 914/365-8552 • Fax: 914/365-8156 [email protected] Louisiana State University http://www.lsu.edu/ H. Jesse Walker Department of Geography and Anthropology Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4105 Phone: 504/388-6130 • Fax: 504/388-4420 [email protected] George M. Strain Research and Graduate Studies Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803 Phone: 504/388-5833 • Fax: 504/388-5983 [email protected] Marine Biological Laboratory http://www.mbl.edu/ Bruce J. Peterson The Ecosystems Center Marine Biological Laboratory 167 Water Street Woods Hole, MA 02543 Phone: 508/548-3705 • Fax: 508/457-1548 [email protected] Northern Illinois University http://www.niu.edu/ Jay Stravers Department of Geology Northern Illinois University 312 Davis Hall DeKalb, IL 60115 Phone: 815/753-7927 • Fax: 815/753-1945 [email protected] Oregon State University http://www.orst.edu/ Patricia A. Wheeler College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University 104 Oceanography Admin Building Corvallis, OR 97331-5503 Phone: 541/737-0558 • Fax: 541/737-2064 [email protected] Timothy Boyd address same as above Phone: 541/737-4035 • Fax: 541/737-2064 [email protected] San Diego State University http://www.sdsu.edu/ Allen S. Hope Department of Geography San Diego State University 5500 Campanile Drive San Diego, CA 92182-4493 Phone: 619/594-2777 • Fax: 619/594-4938 [email protected] Douglas A. Stow address same as above Phone: 619/594-5498 • Fax: 619/594-4938 [email protected] Sandia National Laboratories http://www.sandia.gov/ Hugh W. Church Environmental Characterization and Monitoring Systems Department Sandia National Laboratories PO Box 5800 Albuquerque, NM 87185-0755 Phone: 505/845-8705 • Fax: 505/844-0116 [email protected] Mark D. Ivey address same as above Phone: 505/845-9574 • Fax: 505/844-0116 [email protected] Smithsonian Institution http://www.si.edu/ Stephen Loring Arctic Studies Center - Department of Anthropology Smithsonian Institution NMNH MRC-112 10th and Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20560 Phone: 202/357-4742 • Fax: 202/357-2684 [email protected] Aron L. Crowell Anchorage Museum of History and Art - Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Smithsonian Institution 121 W. 7th Avenue Anchorage, AK 99501 Phone: 907/343-6162 • Fax: 907/343-6130 [email protected] Texas A&M University http://www.tamu.edu/ William Bryant Department of Oceanography Texas A&M University Campus MS 3146 College Station, TX 77843 Phone: 409/845-2680 • Fax: 409/845-6331 [email protected] University of Alaska Anchorage http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/ Kim M. Peterson Department of Biological Sciences University of Alaska Anchorage 3211 Providence Drive Anchorage, AK 99508 Phone: 907/786-4772 • Fax: 907/786-4607 [email protected] John M. Booker Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies University of Alaska Anchorage address same as above Phone: 907/786-4546 • Fax: 907/786-4019 [email protected] University of Alaska Fairbanks http://www.uaf.edu/ Roger W. Ruess Institute of Arctic Biology (IAB) University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 757000 Fairbanks, AK 99775-7000 Phone: 907/474-7153 • Fax: 907/474-6967 [email protected] Ted DeLaca Office of Arctic Research University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 757560 Fairbanks, AK 99775-7560 Phone: 907/474-7314 • Fax: 907/474-7225 [email protected] University of Colorado http://www.colorado.edu/ Donald (Skip) A. Walker Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research University of Colorado Campus Box 450 Boulder, CO 80309-0450 Phone: 303/492-7303 • Fax: 303/492-6388 [email protected] Amanda Lynch Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences - Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences University of Colorado Campus Box 216 Boulder, CO 80309-0216 Phone: 303/492-5847 • Fax: 303/492-1149 [email protected] ARCUS Addresses Spring 1998 ARCUS • 907/474-1600 • Fax 907/474-1604 • [email protected] • http://www.arcus.org/ ARCUS Member Institutions, Representatives, and Alternates ( continued ) University of Massachusetts http://www.umass.edu/ Julie Brigham-Grette Department of Geosciences University of Massachusetts Campus Box 35820 Morrill Science Center Amherst, MA 01003-5820 Phone: 413/545-4840 • Fax: 413/545-1200 [email protected] Raymond S. Bradley address same as above Phone: 413/545-2794 • Fax: 413/545-1200 [email protected] International Affiliates Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS) http://www.geog.mcgill.ca/northern/ acunhome.html Peter G. Johnson Department of Geography University of Ottawa PO Box 450, Station A Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 Canada Phone: 613/562-5800 • Fax: 613/562-5145 [email protected], [email protected] Gilles Gauthier Departement de biologie Universite Laval Cite Universitaire Quebec, PQ G1K 7P4 Canada Phone: 418/656-5507 • Fax: 418/656-2043 [email protected] GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences http://www.geomar.de/ Jorn Thiede Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Science Columbusstrasse D-27568 Bremerhaven, Germany Phone: +49/471-4831-100 Fax: +49/471-4831-102 [email protected] Heidi Kassens Research Center for Marine Geosciences GEOMAR Wischhofstrasse 1-3 Geb 4 D-24148 Kiel, Germany Phone: +49/431-600-2850 Fax: +49/431-600-2941 [email protected] McGill University http://www.mcgill.ca/ Marianne Stenbaek English Department McGill University 805 Sherbrooke Street W. Montreal, PQ H3A 2T6 Canada Phone: 514/398-6579 • Fax: 514/398-8364 [email protected] University of Northern British Columbia http://www.unbc.ca/ Kevin Hall Geography Program University of Northern British Columbia 3333 University Way Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9 Canada Phone: 250/960-5864 • Fax: 250/960-5538 [email protected] Scott Polar Research Institute http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/ Keith S. Richards Scott Polar Research Institute University of Cambridge Lensfield Road Cambridge, CB2 1ER UK Phone: +44/1223-336579 Fax: +44/1223-336549 [email protected] William J. Mills Scott Polar Research Institute University of Cambridge Lensfield Road Cambridge, CB2 1ER UK Phone: +44/1223-336557 Fax: +44/1223-336549 [email protected] University of Miami http://www.miami.edu/ Peter Minnett Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science University of Miami 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway Miami, FL 33149-1098 Phone: 305/361-4104 • Fax: 305/361-4622 [email protected] Zafer Top address same as above Phone: 305/361-4110 • Fax: 305/361-4112 [email protected] University of Nebraska-Lincoln http://www.unl.edu/ Karl C. Kuivinen Snow and Ice Research Group Polar Ice Coring Office University of Nebraska-Lincoln 2255 W. Street, Suite 101 Lincoln, NE 68583-0850 Phone: 402/472-9833 • Fax: 402/472-9832 [email protected] Priscilla C. Grew University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1820 R Street 302 Administration Lincoln, NE 68588-0001 Phone: 402/472-3123 • Fax: 402/472-3834 [email protected] University of New Hampshire http://www.unh.edu/ David Bartlett Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space University of New Hampshire 39 College Road Morse Hall Durham, NH 03824-3525 Phone: 603/862-0322 • Fax: 603/862-1915 [email protected] Berrien Moore III address same as above Phone: 603/862-1766 • Fax: 603/862-0188 [email protected] University of Washington http://www.washington.edu/ Ronald S. Sletten Quaternary Research Center University of Washington PO Box 351360 Seattle, WA 98195-1360 Phone: 206/543-0571 • Fax: 206/543-3836 [email protected] University of Wisconsin-Madison http://www.wisc.edu/ David M. Mickelson Department of Geology and Geophysics University of Wisconsin-Madison 1215 W. Dayton Street Madison, WI 53706 Phone: 608/262-7863 • Fax: 608/262-0693 [email protected] Herbert D.G. Maschner Department of Anthropology University of Wisconsin-Madison 5240 Social Sciences Building 1180 Observatory Drive Madison, WI 53706 Phone: 608/262-5818 • Fax: 608/265-4216 [email protected]