What We Do
The ATLAS Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, consists of a large group of scientists concerned with the effects of global warming and climate change on the Arctic regions of the world. The two teams at Council are concerned specifically with the effect of climate change on snowpack levels and characteristics, as well as its effect on spring break-up. Spring break-up - that period of time when the winter ice on streams and rivers breaks up and peak flows of water generally occur due to snowmelt and saturated ground - is a critical time in the hydrologic cycle. This begins the storing of groundwater for the season, and in dry years, may comprise a large portion of the total water stored that year. Changes in groundwater storage, as well as other key aspects of the hydrologic cycle - such as total snowpack for the winter, summer precipitation, air temperature, and radiation - can significantly affect soil and vegetation properties, which in turn affect wildlife food sources and habitat.
Climate change may affect humans not only through changes in fish, caribou, or moose populations, but also through changes in permafrost stability under structures, road integrity, navigatable river and stream levels, and fire frequency. The job of ATLAS scientists is to look at historical and current data at representative sites throughout the Arctic to determine the effects of climate change on Arctic ecosystems thus far, as well as use of mathematical models to forecast what the effects may be in the next 50 to 200 years. This information is currently being used by other scientists and policy makers to prepare and make decisions for the potential changes to come.
The Council area was chosen as a research site due to its representation of subarctic transitional regions where boreal forests give way to tundra regions located on warm permafrost. This region provides a smooth link to the well-developed tussock tundra region currently being studied at the Kougarok research site, 75 miles northwest of Council.
Two watersheds in the Council area are being studied by the WERC group. Melsing Creek (80.6 sq km) is the primary focus. This watershed is in an area of discontinuous permafrost, and contains a broad variation in substrate and vegetation types. The watershed contains a mix of tussock tundra, small shrubs, and white spruce. This is the warmest watershed included in the ATLAS study, with the largest proportion of discontinuous permafrost. Groundwater processes predominantly influence this watershed as compared to the others. The other watershed of interest, Guy Rowe Creek (6.65 sq km), is approximately 12 miles west of Council. Guy Rowe Creek is similar to Melsing Creek, but also has upland characteristics such as steeper slopes, less vegetation and increased orographic weather effects.
In summer 1999, three ATLAS weather stations were installed - one 3 meter tower (C1) in lowland tussock tundra that appears to be heavily thermokarsting, one 10 meter tower (C2) near the top of a hill ("Blueberry Hill") in the Melsing Creek drainage representing well-drained low shrub vegetation, and one 3 meter tower in the Guy Rowe drainage, representing upland tundra. Additionally, a 1 km x 1 km grid was installed as part of the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) program, which is an effort to monitor changes in the thickness of the active layer above permafrost throughout the world.