Teleconference and Webinar Archives for Monthly Alaska Climate Change Presentations: Alaska Center for Climate Assessment & Policy:

Tuesday, January 25, 2011;
ALASKA'S PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Mike Coffey, Statewide Maintenance and Operations Chief, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
Alaska’s public transportation system lies within one of the most inhospitable and challenging environments on the entire planet. With approximately 80 percent of the state underlain by ice-rich permafrost, 6640 miles of coastline (more than the other 49 states combined), and roughly 47,300 miles of tidally affected shoreline, Alaska is at the forefront of climate change impacts. In addition, a significant percentage of the state’s transportation system is constructed over permafrost and adjacent to or in close proximity to the coast and other water bodies including rivers, streams, and lakes. For these reasons, Alaska’s transportation system is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOTPF) is responsible for managing the state’s transportation infrastructure in this challenging environment. Mike Coffey will discuss climate change impacts on Alaska’s transportation infrastructure and discuss how the department is adapting to the changing environment. Mike will also discuss the State’s efforts to assist the community of Newtok in their relocation to Mertarvik.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010
REGIONAL VARIATIONS IN SEA LEVEL CHANGE IN ALASKA
Jeff Freymueller, Geophysical Institute and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Projections of global average sea level predict significant sea level rise over the next century, due mainly to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. But the effects of changing sea level in any one place are not determined by the global average, but by the local change in relative sea level -- the level of the sea relative to the level of the land. Transporting water to the ocean from melting glaciers and ice sheets changes Earth's gravity field and causes uplift of the surface due to removal of the ice load. Both of these effects cause regional variations in relative sea level, which can be larger in magnitude than the global average rise. In addition, vertical tectonic motions along large regions of the Alaska coast are more rapid than sea level change. As a result, different parts of the Alaska coast experience both relative sea level rise and fall. In this talk, Dr Freymueller will discuss regional variations in sea level change in Alaska.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010
WAYS TO HELP AND HINDER: CLIMATE, POLICY, AND ADAPTABILITY
Philip Loring, Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Dr. Loring will present a component of his dissertation research that compares case-studies from Interior Alaska (subsistence hunting) and the Bering Sea (Commercial Fishing) to explore how policy helps or hinders people's ability to respond effectively to climatic variability and change. The lessons speak both to community needs and to how natural resource policy might be better structured to support sustainability and community livelihoods.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010
U.S. AND ALASKA PLANNING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
Terry Chapin, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Ongoing rapid climate change requires planning that makes choices appropriate to future rather than past conditions. From his perspective as a member of climate adaptation task forces for Alaska, the United States, and the European Union, Dr. Terry Chapin will summarize the major recommendations for policy makers and the factors that explain why a few climate-change adaptation planning efforts have been so much more successful than others.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010
ALASKA CLIMATE DISPATCH: A STATE-WIDE SEASONAL SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK
John Walsh, International Arctic Research Center; Sarah Trainor, ACCAP; and Gerd Wendler, Alaska Climate Research Center
The Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy is developing a prototype climate information tool in partnership with the Alaska Climate Research Center, SEARCH Sea Ice Outlook, National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and the National Weather Service. The quarterly Alaska Climate Dispatch will provide seasonal weather and climate summaries as well as Alaska weather, wildfire, and sea ice outlooks in one easily accessible document. It will be distributed electronically and made available on the ACCAP website. Please join us for a preview of this new tool and discussion about how it can best serve your seasonal weather and climate information needs to be most useful to you.

View the webinar video (42 MB MP4)
Listen to the webinar podcast

Tuesday, June 15, 2010
WEATHER FORECASTS AND SEA ICE INFORMATION FOR BERING STRAITS COMMUNITIES: THE SEA ICE FOR WALRUS OUTLOOK PROJECT
Hajo Eicken, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Gary Hufford, National Weather Service, Alaska Region; Vera Metcalf, Eskimo Walrus Commission, Kawerak, Inc.
The Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO), an activity of the SEARCH Sea Ice Outlook, is a new resource for Alaska Native subsistence hunters, coastal communities, and others interested in sea ice and walrus. The SIWO is updated weekly with information on sea ice conditions relevant to walrus in the Northern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea regions of Alaska. SIWO reports include: an assessment of current ice conditions relevant to distribution and access of walrus; a 10-day outlook of wind conditions; up-to-date satellite imagery for the Bering Strait and St. Lawrence Island; written observations of ice development from Alaska Native hunters, sea-ice experts, or NOAA and university researchers; and additional comments provided by local experts and other contributors. Please join us to learn how the SIWO is created, how to contribute to the outlook, and for discussion about how it can serve your sea ice information needs and be most useful to you.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010
METHANE EMISSIONS FROM THERMOKARST LAKES
Katey Walter Anthony, Assistant Professor, Water & Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas released from millions of lakes in the Arctic. The largest methane emissions come from lakes where organic-rich permafrost is thawing. Permafrost organic matter released into the bottoms of lakes fuels methane production, and methane escapes lakes largely by bubbling. Given the huge quantity of organic carbon in permafrost (>1500 Gt C, which is more than twice the atmospheric C content), and projections of permafrost warming and thawing, the fate of carbon and greenhouse gas release is important for understanding climate change feedbacks.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010
THE SKY IS NOT FALLING, BUT THE OCEAN IS RISING; A skeptic’s view of sea ice loss and marine mammals
Brendan P. Kelly, Research Scientist National Marine Mammal Laboratory, NOAA and Professor, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Over the past 12 million years, a diversity of mammals evolved specializations for exploiting Arctic sea ice. Other marine mammals—lacking adaptations to ice—have been isolated from one another by sea ice and have evolved along separate paths in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. For the past 10,000 years, Arctic people have developed cultures around the seasonal availability of Arctic marine mammals. Today, 11 ice-associated marine mammal species face unprecedented rapid loss of a continent-sized habitat as Arctic sea ice diminishes. A skeptical analysis (a first principal of science) of ecological and evolutionary data indicate that rapid changes in food resources, predation, competition, and interbreeding threaten many species as well as traditional ways of life among Arctic people. Responding to these changes will require sound analyses, mitigation, and adaptation.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION: WHAT IT MEANS TO ALASKA
Jeremy Mathis, Professor, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Since the Industrial Revolution approximately 1/3 of all human CO2 emissions have been absorbed by the ocean. While this process has mitigated global temperature increases it has had a profound effect on the chemistry of the surface ocean, making the water more acidic. This phenomenon is exacerbated in the cold, highly productive waters in the continental shelf seas surrounding Alaska. Recent observations have shown that the bottom waters over the shelves of the Chukchi and Bering Seas, as well has the Gulf of Alaska become undersaturated with respect to aragonite in late summer and fall. These undersaturated waters could be corrosive to shell building organisms such as clams, oysters, and crabs. Here, the controls and seasonal distribution of ocean acidification around Alaska will be discussed in the context of the import commercial fisheries.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010
HYDROPOWER PLANNING IN ALASKA: DOES CLIMATE CHANGE MATTER?
Jessie Ellen Cherry, International Arctic Research Center & Institute of Northern Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks
The supply, demand, and price for hydroelectric power can be strongly influenced by climatic factors such as temperature, precipitation, and water storage by the environment. The climate, in turn, is driven by both natural variability (on a variety of timescales) and anthropogenic forcing. For planning water resource management here in Alaska, particularly for long-lived, large infrastructure projects, it is useful to understand the sources of uncertainty in climate projections and how they influence long-term and short-term decision-making. A case study in Southeast Alaska is described, where most of Alaska’s hydropower facilities are concentrated. Challenges to assessing the regional impacts of climate change here are discussed, as well as our interpretation of the historical record of climate variability. Our analysis concludes that understanding and accounting for natural modes of variability may be as important as planning for long-term climate change when it comes to managing existing hydropower facilities and planning new infrastructure.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
DECISION-MAKING FOR AT-RISK COMMUNITIES IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
Dan White, Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy
Many communities in Alaska are faced with multiple threats to infrastructure and quality of life due, in part, to projected changes in precipitation, temperature, and related incidences of flooding and erosion. Decision-makers must determine how best to manage their community's vulnerability with the knowledge that future environmental change is uncertain. This webinar will discuss a newly released report "Decision-making for at-risk communities in a changing climate" prepared by the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. The report is intended to inform decision-makers relating to climate change and uncertainty, risk management, and relocation planning. Issues addressed regarding the planning process for relocation focus on the steps from planning through execution, perspectives on community engagement, partial relocation, site development costs, and timing. Sustainability recommendations focus on defining sustainability, future energy planning, planning for a changing cost of living, and available transportation corridors. Join this webinar to learn more about decision-making for at-risk communities in a changing climate.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009
CONNECTING ALASKA LANDSCAPES INTO THE FUTURE
Nancy Fresco, Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning, and Karen Murphy, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Understanding how climate change will affect biodiversity and traditional subsistence is a common challenge faced by Federal, State, Native, and private land managers. The Connecting Alaska Landscapes into the Future project (Connectivity Project) was a consensus-based effort that included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and University of Alaska researchers as well as state and federal agency and non-profit partners. The project’s goal was to develop the methodology and thought processes to identify a network of lands that support ecosystem functions to ensure landscape-level connectivity within Alaska given climate change using data that are available today.
In order to model projected changes in statewide biomes and in potential habitat for key species, we gathered data on existing conditions and linked these to models of future conditions, using climate projection data from SNAP, input from project participants, and complex statistical models. With feedback from participants, we refined these models and used them as basis for creating maps of potential future statewide connectivity.
The proof-of-concept results presented in this report are preliminary and are not intended to be proscriptive, but rather to serve as a guide for planning and as a jumping-off point for synergy and further research.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009
CHANGES TO PERMAFROST IN ALASKA: OBSERVATIONS AND MODELING
Vladimir Romanovsky, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Observed and predicted climatic changes will inevitably change the energy and mass fluxes at the land surface and, as a result, the near-surface and subsurface physical conditions in the Alaskan Arctic and Sub-Arctic. This will trigger changes in ecosystems and infrastructure because the stability of these systems in the north relies on the stability of ice that, so far, holds these systems together. If recent warming trends in the Arctic continue, it will take several centuries to millennia for permafrost to disappear completely in the areas where it is now actively warming and thawing. In losing permafrost, we are losing the stability of these systems. Negative consequences of this degradation will be pronounced from the very beginning because the highest ice content in permafrost is usually found in the upper few tens of meters. In this presentation we will discuss possible effects of degrading permafrost in the Alaskan Arctic and Sub-Arctic on hydrology, ecosystems, infrastructure, and the carbon cycle.

Read the Anchorage KTUU Channel 2 TV transcript or view the newscast (7:20-8:00)

The Alaska Ocean Observing System and the North Pacific Research Board are collaborating to develop the Alaska Marine Information System (AMIS) to catalog and display project information and data. The AMIS Project Browser allows users to search for projects and data by geography, time, funding agency, principal investigator, and data types. AMIS also provides visualization tools for displaying past, current and future projects with their geographic areas and sampling locations displayed on a map. AMIS provides users with data and the project metadata to download. AMIS enhances coordination and efficient use of funding resources by linking visually and through text the status of projects across Alaska. Join us in this webinar to learn how to use and contribute to the AMIS project.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
CLIMATE CHANGE AND TOURISM IN ALASKA
John Walsh, University of Alaska
Recent research at the Universities of Illinois and Alaska has investigated the links between climate warming and tourism demand. A tourism climate index was created to capture weather information relevant to tourist activity at a particular location. Join us to learn about trends in the season length and frequency of weather conducive to sight seeing and skiing in southcentral and southwest Alaska and to learn how this climate index for tourism can be applied in other tourist activities and locations in Alaska.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008;
GOOGLE EARTH MAPS OF PROJECTED CLIMATE CHANGE IN ALASKA,
Now Available from the Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning
Michael Sfraga, T. Scott Rupp, Katie Kennedy, University of Alaska
The Scenario Network for Alaska Planning (SNAP), housed within the University of Alaska Geography Program, now has Alaska climate change projections available for download in Google Earth Format. These maps show projected changes in temperature, precipitation, growing season length, freeze-up date and thaw date, and include documentation of uncertainties. Join us for a demonstration of these newly available maps and a discussion of how SNAP's continued work can be most useful to you.

Listen to the webinar Podcast

Presentation/Slides: Google Earth Maps of Projected Climate Change in Alaska, University of Alaska SNAP Program

Instructions for downloading the SNAP maps: SNAP Google Earth Download Tutorial

Fairbanks Daily News Miner story about the Google Earth Maps webinar:. Mapping 21st Century Climate Change in Alaska

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
INCREASING INSECT REACTIONS IN ALASKA: IS THIS RELATED TO CHANGING CLIMATE?
Jeffrey G Demain, MD, FAAP, FAAAAI
Director, Allergy Asthma & Immunology Center of Alaska
Associate Clinical Professor, University of Washington

This webinar will discuss changes in distribution of venomous insects in Alaska over the past decade including two recent sting deaths. We will explore the six regions in Alaska to determine how each area has been impacted and will look at possible causes such as increases in average annual and winter temperatures.

Listen to the webinar Podcast

Download Presentation: Increasing Insect Reactions in Alaska: Is this Related to Changing Climate?

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE OCEAN: ACIDIFICATION BY ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE
Dr. Jeff Short, Auke Bay Laboratory,
National Marine Fisheries Service
The surface layer of the world's oceans have been acidified by 30% in the last 60 years due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Continued unconstrained CO2 emissions may triple ocean acidity by 2100. Such a fundamental and abrupt geochemical shift has significant impacts on marine life, including possible mass extinctions. Cool temperatures and upwelling make Alaskan coastal waters among the most vulnerable to acidification effects, which already threaten shellfish and corals. Many additional, more subtle effects are likely but difficult to predict. Join us for this webinar to learn more about the implications of ocean acidification for Alaska.

Listen to the webinar Podcast

Download Presentation: Climate Change in the Ocean: Acidification by Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Listen to radio coverage of this teleconferece:
Ocean acidity threatens Alaska waters. Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock. KCAW Raven Radio, aired Sept 23, 2008.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008
UNCERTAINTY IN THE ARCTIC WATER CYCLE
Jessie Cherry , University of Alaska
There are large uncertainties regarding not only the future of the hydrologic cycle and water resources but also their spatial and temporal variability in the present. Many components of the water cycle are difficult to measure accurately, creating one source of uncertainty. Sparse observing networks in the Arctic create another type of uncertainty in that sampling may not be spatially representative. Water-related resource managers must take these uncertainties into account while facing other unknown factors such as the timing of supply and demand and the reliability of infrastructure. This talk will discuss techniques for identifying and where possible quantifying various types of uncertainty.

Listen to the webinar Podcast

Presentation/Slides: Uncertainty in the Arctic Water Cycle

Read the article by Christi Hang in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner about this webinar: Data gaps bedevil research into Arctic water cycle

Tuesday, June 10, 2008
WATER AVAILABILITY IN ALASKA: USING AND UNDERSTANDING NOAA's DROUGHT MONITOR AND DROUGHT OUTLOOK
Doug LeComte, NOAA Climate Prediction Center
Water is important to communities, industry and ecosystems in Alaska. What are NOAA's Drought Monitor and Drought Outlook? How can we use them in planning and decision-making? Join us to address these questions and explore ways that these tools can be more useful to Alaskans.

Listen to the webinar Podcast

Presentation/Slides: Water Availability in Alaska: Using and Understanding NOAA's Drought Monitor and Drough Outlook

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY IN ALASKA
Gwen Holdmann, Alaska Center for Energy and Power
With rising fuel costs, tapping local renewable resources for energy as an alternative to fossil fuels is gaining more and more attention throughout the state. Projected increases in temperature and precipitation from climate change may have consequences for the long term health of renewable energy projects, such as reduced water availability and increased sedimentation for hydroelectric and geothermal projects, changes in available biomass, and shifting wind, wave, and tidal patterns. Join us for a discussion of how climate change is likely to impact renewable energy production in Alaska.

Listen to the webinar Podcast

Presentation/Slides: Climate Change Impacts on Renewable Energy in Alaska
Webinar Summary:Summary - Climate Change Impacts on Renewable Energy in Alaska

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
THE IMPACTS OF CHANGES IN WATER RESOURCES ON NORTHERN SOCIETIES
Dan White, University of Alaska
Water is critical in Northern Alaska for drinking and residential use in villages, for the construction of ice roads and pads in oil and gas exploration and drilling, and as habitat for migratory birds and water fowl. Join us to find out more about how climate change has and will continue to impact availability of water in Northern Alaska

Listen to the webinar Podcast

Presentation/Slides: The Impacts of Changes in Water Resources on Northern Societies
Webinar Summary:The Impacts of Changes in Water Resources on Northern Societies
Related References: Journal of American Water Resources Association on Water Use from Arctic Lakes: Identification, Impacts and Decision Support

Tuesday, March 4, 2008
PERMAFROST DEGRADATION AND MONITORING IN ALASKA
Kenji Yoshikawa, University of Alaska
Dr. Yoshikawa is installing permafrost monitoring projects in schools across Alaska. Join us to learn about mechanisms of permafrost thaw, areas in Alaska that are most susceptible to permafrost degradation with climate change, and how this school-based monitoring project is helping us understand permafrost degradation in Alaska.

Listen to the webinar Podcast

Presentation/Slides: Permafrost Degradation and Monitoring in Alaska
Presentation Handouts (3 slides/page with lines for notes): Permafrost Degradation and Monitoring in Alaska

Tuesday, February 19, 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE SCENARIOS FOR YUKON FLATS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, ALASKA
Anna Springsteen, University of Alaska and The Wilderness Society
Dr. Wendy Loya, The Wilderness Society
In conjunction with the University of Alaska, Scenario Network for Alaska Planning, we analyzed predictions from the 5 climate models that perform best in Alaska to understand how climate change may affect Yukon Flats NWR over the next ~80 years. Join us to learn more about projected changes in temperature and precipitation and the resulting possible impacts on growing season, fire regimes, permafrost stability, and river and lake hydrology.

Listen to the webinar Podcast

Presentation/Slides: Climate Change Scenarios for Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
Presentation Summary (2-page written summary):Climate Change Scenarios for Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
SEA ICE CHANGE AROUND ALASKA AND IMPACTS ON HUMAN ACTIVITIES
Hajo Eicken, University of Alaska
The Arctic sea-ice cover is rapidly transforming, with sustained northward retreat of the summer ice edge and thinning of the pack ice. The seas around Alaska have experienced some of the largest changes anywhere in the Arctic. The talk will discuss some of the causes of such change and what this may mean for coastal communities, marine ecosystems and industrial activities.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007
LAST ICE: THE FATE OF BERING SEA MAMMALS IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Gary Hufford, National Weather Service
Sea ice in the Bering Sea is beginning to recede apparently in response to climate change. Walrus and Ribbon Seals seek ice floes as habitat where they breed, give birth and haulout to rest. This makes the walrus and ribbon seal vulnerable to and an indicator of climate change. There is also evidence that the walrus may play a role in the productivity of the Bering Sea by releasing nutrients trapped in pore waters of the bottom sediment when they feed. Join us for this webinar to learn more and and discuss the potential implications of loss of these species.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007
ESTIMATING FUTURE VALUE OF ALASKA PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AT RISK TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Peter Larsen, The Nature Conservancy
Alaska's public infrastructure is disigned for a cold climate. We can expect 10-20% higher costs for infrastructure replacement due to climate change. Join us for a discussion of work conducted at the Institute of Social and Economic Research to update a public infrastructure database and estimate future costs to infrastructure replacement due to climate change.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007
UNDERSTANDING COASTAL EROSION IN ALASKA
David Atkinson, University of Alaska
What are the physical mechanisms for erosion in the coastal regions of Alaska? How does permafrost thaw influence erosion? Join us to explore these questions and discuss what information you need to understand and prepare for coastal erosion in Alaska.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS IN ALASKA: THE WEATHER PERSPECTIVE
James Partain, National Weather Service
This webinar will highlight many of the impacts from climate change on Alaska's weather. These impacts span the range of National Weather Service program areas from Aviation to Volcanic Ash and everything in between. The presentation and discussion period will provide information and develop a shared understanding about links between climate change and weather and how these links drive the services, decision-support, research & development, and policy of the National Weather Service.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007
FIRE AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN ALASKA
Paul Duffy & T. Scott Rupp, University of Alaska
2004 and 2005 were two of the three most extreme fire seasons in Alaska's fifty year fire record. Models project more frequent occurence of extreme fire seasons with climate change. Join us in this discussion of how climate change can be expected to impact the fire regime in Alaska, what information gaps still exist, and what implications this might have for communities in Alaska.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
ALASKA STORM TRACKS: Monitoring, Outlook and Assessment
Jon Gottshalk, NOAA Climate Prediction Center
Join us for a brief overview and tutorial of information about Alaska storm tracks that is currently available on the world-wide-web. Discussion to follow will focus on how the storm tracks website can be modified to meet your needs. Click here to view the NOAA, Alaska Storm Tracks website.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
CHANGES IN SEASONALITY: IMPACTS ON RURAL COMMUNITIES IN THE ALASKAN INTERIOR
Craig Gerlach & John Walsh, University of Alaska
Extreme high or low precipitation and/or temperatures and the timing of freeze-up and spring melt, all affect river and air transportation and subsistence harvest in Alaska. This webinar focuses on how changes in seasonality impact residents and businesses that operate in the interior. The goal of the discussion will be to identify specific climate information needs in the interior and to brainstorm ways to meet those needs.
Presentations/Slides:
Interior Alaska: Bellweather of Global Warming - John Walsh
Examples of Climate Products from Arizona - Colin West

Archive of Past Webinars