HIGHLIGHTS
» Alaska Climate Webinars
Upcoming Webinars:
Tuesday, June 11, 2013; 10-11 AM AKDT
Observed and Anticipated Responses of Marine Mammals to Environmental Changes in the Arctic
Kathy Huntington, Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services (AVPS)
Climate variability and change pose several threats to marine mammals across the Arctic. Potential impacts include alterations in pathogen pathways, effects on body condition due to shifts in the food web, and changes in toxicant exposures. The lack of integrated long-term data on health, diseases, and toxicant effects in Arctic marine mammals severely limits our ability to predict the effects of climate change on marine mammal health. During this presentation, the observed and anticipated impacts to marine mammals to environmental changes will be discussed, including the unusual mortality event that occurred in seals and walrus in northern Alaska in 2011. Data and information needs to understand existing and potential marine mammal health in the Arctic will also be discussed.
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Integrated Arctic Management Report to the President
The report, titled
Managing for the Future in a Rapidly Changing Arctic was put out by an interagency working group headed by Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes. Many of the folks at ACCAP and
SNAP contributed to the report, released on April 4, 2013. The report calls for an integrated strategy for the northern region and chronicles how Arctic residents are dealing with rapid, climate change-induced impacts on their resources and traditional ways of life at the same time that new economic activity and opportunities are emerging — notably oil and gas, marine transportation, tourism and mining. The strategy includes reducing redundancies and streamlining federal efforts as wesafely and responsibly explore and develop Alaska’s vast resources while preserving the region’s rich ecosystems that will sustain future generations.
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2013 Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO) Released
The
Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO), an activity of the SEARCH Sea Ice Outlook started in 2010, is a resource for Alaska Native subsistence hunters, coastal communities, and others interested in sea ice and walrus. The SIWO provides weekly reports from April through June with information on sea ice conditions relevant to walrus in the Northern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea regions of Alaska.
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Inaugural Issue of Changing Ice: A newsletter of Cryosphere Research in Alaska
Cryosphere changes in the Alaska region in the last decade have been dramatic. Widespread glacier retreat, reduction of summer sea ice, decreased snow season, thawing permafrost, and thinner and less durable freshwater ice are among the clearest signs of worldwide climate change. Everyone who lives, works, or does business in Alaska will need to adapt to changes in the cryosphere. In this Newsletter we highlight projects and discoveries led by Alaskan scientists engaged in cryosphere research with the hope to create a tool that allows efficient communication between scientists and
stakeholders.
Download the newsletter here
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The National Climate Assessment Alaska Technical Report is now available! The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is produced every four years by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). This report details trends and potential outcomes resulting from a changing climate in Alaska. In addition, authors describe new science leadership activities that have been initiated to address and provide guidance toward conducting research aimed at making available information for policy makers and land management agencies to better understand, address, and plan for changes to the local and regional environment.
Download the report here
View the ACCAP NCA project page here
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2012 Arctic Report Card Released
Highlights include record low snow extent and low sea ice extent occurred in June and September, respectively; growing season length is increasing along with tundra greenness and above-ground biomass; massive phytoplankton blooms below summer sea ice suggest previous estimates of ocean primary productivity might be ten times too low; severe weather events included extreme cold and snowfall in Eurasia, and two major storms with deep central pressure and strong winds offshore of western and northern Alaska.
View the 2012 Arctic Report Card
Interpretive graphics developed by the Climate.gov team
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New report on Seasonal-to-Decadal Predictions of Arctic Sea Ice: Challenges and Strategies . ACCAP Co-Investigator John Walsh is Co-Chair to the NRC Committee on the Future of Arctic Sea Ice Research in Support of Seasonal-to-Decadal Predictions.
Download the report here
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Conservation Biology journal article from ACCAP Co-Investigator Philip Loring
Loring expresses concern for long-term food security and the disenfranchisement of subsistence rights for Native Alaska fishermen. He provides three examples that suggest that the purported sustainability of these fisheries may be an illusion. With challenges like rising food insecurity in rural Alaska, and recent king salmon failures across the state, he highlights the need to examine management approachs.
Download the PDF: Alternative Perspectives on the Sustainability of Alaska's Commercial Fisheries
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The 2012 Autumn Alaska Climate Dispatch is available on-line
Contents include an overview of the Alaska-Canada Cliomes Project, results of the Alaska Climate Research Center's solar radiation experiments, summer weather summary, sea ice update, and upcoming ACCAP events.
Download the Dispatch
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Announcing a new Alaska Cryosphere Newsletter from ACCAP, DGGS, UAF, and the DOI-CSC
We need your contributions! As follow up to the June 2011
Cryosphere Hazards workshop hosted by ACCAP, DGGS, and UAF we invite you to contribute to a new bi-annual newsletter focused on cryosphere research in Alaska: snow, floating ice (sea and river), lake ice, glaciers and permafrost. We aim to build a cryosphere research and stakeholder community of practice in Alaska, encourage research collaboration, and disseminate information among interested parties. Do you have any newsworthy items such as major field projects, up-coming workshops, etc? Do you have a particular interest or information need that you would like to read or learn more about? Please send questions, pictures or contributions of interest to
Alessio Gusmeroli by Wednesday October 3, 2013. Please keep contributions under 200 words. If you want to be added to the listserve to receive the bi-annual cryosphere newsletter, please e-mail
Brook Gamble.
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Final report from the Alaska Cliomes Project and the Canada Cliomes Project
This Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning (SNAP) led collaborative project offers the public, including land managers, government agencies, communities, businesses, academics and nonprofits, a new perspective on how climate change affects northern ecosystems. Project results suggest some major changes in these cliomes and the ecosystems associated with them.
Download the report here
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New Arctic pages available on the Alaska Ocean Observing Systems website, including:
Development of a new Arctic sea ice atlas (in collaboration with ACCAP)
Spatial Tools for Arctic Mapping and Planning (STAMP, in collaboration with ACCAP)
Ocean acidification monitoring (in collaboration with ACCAP Scientist Jeremy Mathis)
The Arctic Research Assets Map
Access Arctic data portals
