Projects/Activities

Protect wildlife and habitat for future generations; fulfill international treaty obligations related to fish and waterfowl; provide opportunity for subsistence use by residents Main gaps: Few data prior to 1981.

1) Annual monitoring of molting Greater White-fronted Geese (Interior refuges) 2) Waterfowl (primarily) breeding pair survey (MBM- done 1997, 2008-09) 3) Breeding Bird Survey (2 routes; annual, though not in 2009) 4) Alaska Landbird Monitoring Survey (2 plots; biennial) 5) Refuge moose population survey (annual) 6) Refuge wolf survey (annual as conditions allow; minimum census) 7) Henshaw Creek fish weir (annual; TCC = operator) 8) Stream gages (operational Oct 2009; will operate at least 6 years) 9) Snow markers (6 on refuge; checked monthly in winter; statewide??)

To inventory and monitor resources of the Yukon Flats Basin to achieve refuge purposes.

Collect snow data and related environmental parameters for streamflow forecasting. Locations: Sixty one (61), see http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/Alaska/alaska. Main gaps: Lack of resources for equipment and staff. Access to potential observing sites is limited, and disallowed in some cases, due to land status or their location in public lands designated and/or proposed as wilderness areas.

The purpose of the project is to combine the Danish Meteorological Institute’ HIRHAM climate model and permafrost research. This collaboration between the two fields is expected to result in a prognosis of changes in the permafrost distribution in Western Greenland (maritime Arctic climate) and Alaska (continental Arctic climate) to the year 2050. Network type: permafrost

To acquire atmospheric data in support of both the prediction and detection of severe weather and of climate trend and variability research. This serves a broad range of users including researchers, policy makers, and service providers. Main gaps: Long-term, atmospheric monitoring in the North poses a significant challenge both operationally (e.g. in-situ automated snowfall measurements) and financially (charterd flights for maintenance and calibration).Most monitoring in the North is limited to populated areas. Attempts to develop an AMDAR capacity out of First Air and Canadian North fleets failed due to economical and technical difficulties. As demonstrated through impact studies, benefits of AMDAR in the North would be tremendous, however would require acquisition and deployment of specialized sensing packages such as TAMDAR (which includes measurements of relative humidity), development of datalink capacity through satellite communications (e.g. Iridium), and upgrading some aircraft systems when possible, especially the aircraft navigation systems. Network type: Atmospheric observing stations over land and sea composed of: - Surface Weather and Climate Network: o In-situ land stations comprising both Hourly stations and Daily Climate observations - Marine Networks: o Buoys (moored and drifting) o Ships: Automatic Volunteer Observing System - Upper Air Network: o In situ (radiosonde) o In situ Commercial Aircraft (AMDAR)

The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) maps ice extent and type for shipping and weather prognoses (Table 6, #4.1). The ice extent at sea is of great importance for navigation, and assistance from an icebreaker is often needed, especially for harbors in the Bothnian Bay. Hence, ice conditions are mapped daily during the winter period, normally from the end of November until the end of May. Ice meteorologists take advantage of detailed reports about ice type and ice thickness from observers along the coast, e.g. pilots, special ice observers, and from the icebreakers passing through the ice-covered sea. Observations from helicopters are part of the regular icebreaking activities. Satellite images, especially from US weather satellites (NOAA-15, NOAA16 and NOAA-17), complement the ice reports and provide information on the large-scale ice situation on the scale 1 km x 1 km during clear sky conditions. More detailed ice information, down to the scale 20 m x 20 m, can be retrieved from a satellite-based instrument called Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). SAR sensors are also found onboard the Canadian RADARSAT (in operation since 1996) and on the European ENVISAT (since 2003) and provide information on the ice situation regardless of weather conditions and time of day. A good description of the ice situation is also needed as input data for weather prognosis models because the extent of sea ice has a major influence on weather (especially in coastal areas), and on temperature, cloudiness, and precipitation. Results from daily ice mapping are saved in a database from which e.g. climate statistics for the Baltic region may be generated.

Increasing temperature in the Arctic will increase the soil temperature and decrease the area covered by permafrost. Depending on the situation, microbial decomposition of stored soil organic carbon will increase and release carbon dioxide and eventually methane, two greenhouse gases that may accelerate climate change. Some international programs study permafrost development. At 1540 meters altitude in Tarfala, temperature is measured in one borehole down to 100 m and another down to 15 m below soil surface in the Permafrost and Climate in Europe (PACE) program coupled to the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTNP) (Table 5, #2.5). Four more shallow, boreholes near Abisko are suggested candidates for PACE, one managed by Luleå Technical University and three managed by Lund University (Table 5, #1.21). Abisko Research Station carries out manual sonding of the active permafrost layer at Stordalen, an activity on behalf of Geobiosphere Science Center (CGB), Lund University and part of the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) (Table 3). The active layer has been monitored at 11 sites along an 80 km east-west profile from 1978 to 2002. Eight of these were bog sites situated in a transect from the dry and cold east to the milder and wetter west, all at approximately 390 m altitude. Permafrost monitoring started in 1972 at Kapp Linné, Svalbard, by the Geobiosphere Science Center (CGB), Lund University (Table 5, #23), and was reported for the period 1972 to 2002. Soil moisture and soil temperature were also monitored. The 10 monitoring sites differed in vegetation cover, elevation, substrate, active periglacial processes, and distance to the sea.

The earliest record of lake ice break-up in Sweden is from as early as 1701, when the ice on Torne River at Haparanda melted on May 31st. Since then SMHI has successively extended the ice observation network. By 1900 the network included about 150 sites, and by 1950 it included over 320 sites (Table 6, #2). By 1950, observations had been terminated at only 9 sites. During the following 50 years 72 new sites were added to the network while observations were terminated at 255 sites. The reason for the extensive network during the latter nineteenth century and the early twentieth century was the use of frozen lakes and rivers for transportation, but also the need to know when spring activities, e.g. floating timber, could commence. The ice broke up on Torne River at Haparanda, on average, on May 20th during the eighteenth century, on May 17th during the nineteenth century, and on May 10th during the twentieth century, indicating a long-term trend of earlier lake ice break up.

Mass balance measurements started at Storglaciären in the Kebnekaise massif in 1946 (Table 5, #2.1). At present, the measurements comprise a mass balance of 5 glaciers in the area. In calculating one year’s mass balance, measurements are taken twice per year (in winter and summer) and mass balances are calculated annually by the Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology at Stockholm University (SU-INK). Measurement of glacier fronts is a simpler alternative to mass balance calculations that could be used as an index for mass balance. Stockholm University (SU-INK) performs such front measurements at 18 glaciers every second year (Table 5, #2.2).

at the Institute for Space Physics (IRF) in Kiruna, an automated weather station logging air temperature, humidity, wind, pressure, and UV-radiation has been in operation since 1996

Investigations within many areas of biosciences and geosciences are carried out at the station. The emphasis of staff research is on plant ecology and meteorology. The main objectives of the ecological projects are to study the dynamics of plant populations and to identify the controlling factors at their latitudinal and altitudinal limits. The meteorological projects deal with recent climate changes in the region, and also with local variations of the microclimate in subalpine and alpine ecosystems.

The Faculty of Forestry at SLU has two research stations with experimental forests, two experimental forests with permanent staff, three without permanent staff and a large number of long-term field trials. These facilities are spread over the country.

Coastal Module of GOOS

The project IOANA proposes to better understand the intimate coupling between ozone mixing ratios and particulate nitrate isotopic characteristics. Ozone Depletion Events which occur in Arctic coastal locations shortly after sunrise are a subject of interest per se (scientifically challenging for two decades) but also provide a context in which ozone mixing ratios are highly variable, enabling to characterize the dynamic of correlation and process studies with a resolution of a day. This is a first step towards the use of the isotope tool in reconstructions of the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. This programme is a preparation of the IPY-OASIS project and propose to coodinate a set of collaborations than will be effective duing the International Polar Year.

The Nuuk-Basic project aims to establish a climate monitoring programme on the westcoast of Greenland. During two workshops, one being in Nuuk with field survey, framework for a future climate monitoring programme will be established. The programme builds on the concept and institutions already performing climate monitoring in NE-Greenland through ZERO (Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations).

The ZERO database contains all validated data from the Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations Basic Programmes (ClimateBasis, GeoBasis, BioBasis and MarinBasis). The purpose of the project is to run and update the database with new validated data after each succesfull field season. Data will be available for the public through the Zackenberg homepage linking to the NERI database. The yearly update is dependent on that each Basis programme delivers validated data in the proscribed format.

Marine foodwebs as vector and possibly source of viruses and bacteria patogenic to humans shall be investigated in a compartive north-south study. Effects of sewage from ships traffic and urban settlements, on animals of arctic foodwebs will be studied.