University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-12

Changes to Arctic vegetation, caused by natural and human-caused drivers, are key indicators of alterations to many components of Arctic systems, including landforms, soils, hydrology, permafrost, trace-gas fluxes, species diversity, wildlife habitat, and Indigenous lands. U.S. and international Arctic research during the next ten years, especially during the intense sampling period of the 5th International Polar Year (2032–2033), will require ground-based Arctic plant-community data and vegetation maps across spatial scales, from plant scales to circumpolar scales. Arctic vegetation data have been collected in the form of plot data and maps over a period of nearly 80 years. These data provide a framework and historical references for classification, observing, and modeling of changing Arctic systems. However, there still are not consistent, cohesive, standardized, international approaches to describe, classify, and map Arctic vegetation. The Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Science Initiative (CAVSI) will address these needs during the Fourth International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP IV). A three-day workshop will finalize a CAVSI white paper, a CAVSI Science plan for the 2026–2035 decade, and inform NSF's Arctic Observing Network Program Strategy Development. The initiative will be structured around four overarching topics that include 1) Creation of an Arctic Vegetation Observing Network (AVON); 2) Development of protocols for field sampling and data archives for vegetation-plot and map data; and 3) Updated Arctic vegetation species checklists, habitat-type and plant-community checklists, and map legends at different spatial scales; and 4) Application of the products of CAVSI to priority U.S. and ICARP IV Arctic terrestrial research topics. Important aspects of CAVSI include an international network of permanent vegetation plots that are representative of the diversity of climates, floristic provinces, geological substrates, habitats, and disturbance regimes found in the Arctic; inclusion of legacy vegetation plot and map datasets that are valuable references for vegetation change; and the promotion and development of standardized approaches for sampling, describing, classifying, archiving, and mapping plant species, habitat types, and plant communities at Arctic observing stations. Where possible, existing international examples of Arctic vegetation observing efforts will be examined as possible standards for the AVON. Where feasible, standardized methods that already exist will be adopted for development of local floras, field sampling, and classification. The project will also adopt new methods for vegetation mapping, such as those using multi-sensor, drone-based approaches to map vegetation, and new classification approaches using artificial-intelligence. The project will also promote a new generation of Arctic vegetation scientists with strong training in Earth system science, Arctic vegetation sampling methods, Arctic plant taxonomy, vegetation mapping, and remote sensing. Specifically, the project will recruit and provide travel funding for early-career and Indigenous participants to the workshop. Lastly, key CAVSI data products will include a Pan-Arctic Species List, a checklist including vascular plants, mosses, lichens, and liverworts; a circumpolar Arctic Vegetation plot-data Archive (AVA) including site-factor and species composition data from Arctic plot datasets; a checklist of Arctic vegetation types; a new version of the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM v. 2); and an Arctic Vegetation Map Archive (AVMA). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-10

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). UAF is a public land- sea- and space-grant university serving Alaska, a state with the highest percentage of Native American residents, approximately 240 remote rural communities, and an economy driven by natural resource exploration and development. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 40 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in geoscience. In most cases, first-year students will receive up to four years of scholarship support and returning students will receive up to three years of support. The project aims to increase degree persistence and graduation rates by embedding scholarship recipients in the Geo Learning Community (GeoLC). Launched in the fall of 2020 by the UAF Department of Geosciences, the GeoLC promotes the success of underrepresented students through cohort building, supplemental instruction, near-peer mentoring, and social activities. To increase retention of first- and second-year students, the project will also support their participation in an introductory field course designed to build students’ skills and confidence through hands-on projects early in the degree program. A high proportion of prospective UAF students from rural Alaskan communities are low-income, and a majority are Alaska Native. Annual recruiting of scholarship recipients from rural Alaskan high schools is therefore expected to significantly increase the number of low-income and underrepresented Freshmen entering UAF, pursuing geoscience majors, and entering the exploration workforce. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. To this end, the project will: 1) provide financial support for current GeoLC participants with unmet need; 2) increase financial, academic, and social support available to low-income undergraduate students majoring in geoscience; and 3) increase retention rates by supporting low-income students’ participation in an introductory, field-based geoscience course. Alaska Native students with a degree in geoscience will bring valuable perspectives to decisions regarding management of cultural and natural resources and help build resilient Arctic communities. Project outcomes will add to the knowledge base of research on how to recruit, engage, and prepare a diverse, talented student population who can navigate the landscape of Western science while maintaining traditional values. Results will be disseminated through presentations at local, state, and national meetings. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Magnetospheres are cavities carved out in space by a magnetic field. In the case of Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, the cavity is generated by the planet's intrinsic magnetic field. One of the grand challenge problems in magnetospheric physics and space weather-related studies is the transport of plasma (i.e., ionized gas) into or out of a magnetosphere. At Earth, the solar wind (supersonic plasma) enters and fills the magnetosphere. At Jupiter and Saturn, sources of plasma from Io and Enceladus, and their respective moons must be transported outward from the inner magnetosphere and into the solar wind. Whether transport operates "inside out" or "outside in," the problem is ubiquitous in planetary magnetospheres. This study will compare the fundamental transport physics at Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn and will advance the field of magnetospheric physics by studying basic physical processes over a broad range of conditions to better understand the terrestrial space environment, which is critical for understanding space weather and the protection of, e.g., space-based assets. The project will support a graduate student and provide research opportunities for undergraduate students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The team will also support public outreach through UAF's planetarium project, providing scientific content on the aurora at Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. Giant planet magnetospheres (e.g., Jupiter and Saturn), due to their size, multi-body nature and rotational dynamics are some of the solar system's most complicated and least understood magnetospheres. Yet their internally driven nature makes them an ideal laboratory to study fundamental plasma processes. This proposal aims to compare radial transport at Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. In particular, the team focuses on conditions similar to all three magnetospheres – the transition from dipole to stretched magnetic field topology – emphasizing the fundamental processes that lead to density structure while conserving magnetic flux. The team will conduct high-resolution global simulations (Grid Agnostic MHD for Extended Research Applications: GAMERA) to quantify particle transport throughout the magnetosphere further. Information theory will be used to establish causality pathways to understand global-scale dynamics leading to local time asymmetry. The project outcome will elucidate the basic transport (mass, momentum, energy, and magnetic flux) processes associated with local-time and radially-dependent flows and magnetodisc structure. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Addressing national and global crises taking place at the intersection of society and environmental relations requires innovation and transformative approaches. Current approaches from US research have focused exclusively on western scientific disciplines – what is missing is the breadth and depth of Indigenous knowledge systems. This planning grant convenes a group of university researchers (Indigenous and non-Indigenous scientists) and Tribal leaders and partners to generate a new vision of how universities and Tribal Nations can work together to develop new research protocols and projects to address the social and environmental crises facing not just Tribes, but all communities all across our nation. This Indigenous-led convening uplifts Tribal leadership together with western science expertise to collaboratively vision and co-develop a proposal for the Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Stewardship (CIKS). As Indigenous scholars, social scientists, natural scientists, and Tribal leaders, our team has worked across cultural and disciplinary boundaries over years of collaboration to build relationships and trust necessary to advance the goals of this work in effective and culturally appropriate ways. Our evidence-based approach to transforming research processes includes an elevation of Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies, Indigenous rights and values, Indigenous knowledge, language, stories, protocols, and practices. The Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Stewardship generates a new vision of how universities and Tribes can work together to address the social and environmental crises of our time. There is a growing need for scientists trained in knowledge co-production and for inclusive science to correct the systematic exclusion of Indigenous peoples and knowledge systems from conventional western science research approaches. Our convening and collaboration to co-develop a full proposal for CIKS will itself generate and advance scholarship on knowledge co-production and expand environmental sciences and governance processes to better include western social sciences, Indigenous knowledge systems, and One Health frameworks. CIKS would be a national model for training and research that bridges Indigenous and western sciences to address seemingly intractable social-environmental crises. CIKS’s focus on addressing critical crises facing Indigenous and all communities across the nation will improve health and wellbeing of people and environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

This is a development project for a laser radar or Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) system, which will be installed in proximity to a rocket range facility. The new Lidar will have three different frequency modes, serving distinct purposes from investigating the stratosphere to studying water ice habits in the mesosphere and troposphere. This system is designed to yield measurements at higher accuracy and precision and will provide measurements of the atmosphere between ~30-100 km altitude ranges. The resulting observations will improve understanding of atmospheric processes that influence terrestrial and space weather, enhancing knowledge of the near-Earth environment and its effects on technologies and infrastructure. This project will also facilitate academic growth of three early-career faculty members and provide for training of the next generation of scientists/engineers. The new geospace and middle atmosphere Lidar utilizes a single diode-pumped solid-state Nd: YAG laser transmitter coupled with an upgraded large-aperture telescope receiver. The laser operates at three different frequencies spanning ultra-violet to infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The receiver enables diverse measurements, with three operation modes: Mode 1 for Rayleigh-Mie-Raman measurements of atmospheric density, aerosols, nitrogen, and water vapor; Mode 2 for Rayleigh-Mie measurements of atmospheric density, aerosols, and polarized light; and Mode 3 for similar measurements at different wavelengths. This new lidar will support several innovative research topics that will strengthen inter-disciplinary collaborations. The topics include (a) simultaneous observations during active water release experiments (with temperature and aerosol measurements) that will address atmospheric thermodynamics and societal impacts due to space traffic, (b) studies of atmospheric waves, wave generation and dynamic instabilities (with measurements of temperature and density), (c) dynamic coupling between the lower, middle and upper atmosphere, nonlinear wave-mean flow interactions, and the impact of meteorological processes on space weather, (d) water vapor measurements to advance our knowledge of radiative forcing of the atmosphere, cloud formation, weather patterns, and long-term seasonal trends, (e) studies of clouds (with temperature, density, and aerosol measurements) that address meteorological processes. This project, managed by the Aeronomy program, is jointly funded by the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and MRI program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Volcanoes are the largest primary natural source of mercury into our environment. Volcanoes are thought to release large amounts of mercury during eruptions. However, the total amount of mercury emitted during eruptions is not well known. Mercury in certain forms can pose health risks to humans and wildlife. Mercury is emitted from volcanoes as a gas. This gaseous mercury can travel long distances within a volcanic plume. Alternatively, it can bind to the surface of ash particles and fall rapidly to the ground. This study will investigate ash-bound mercury to estimate the amount of mercury released during volcanic eruptions. It will also determine whether ash-bound mercury is stable on ash or released to the environment. This work will target volcanoes in Alaska, where fish are an important food source and economic resource. Fish in certain regions of Alaska have higher mercury content than from other locations. Results from this project will help clarify the health risks of volcanic mercury for Alaskans. A postdoctoral researcher, undergraduate student, and two high school students from rural Alaska will collaborate on this project and learn about scientific career paths where they can make positive change on local issues. This project will also introduce rural Alaskan students to research relevant to their communities. Six senior researchers will mentor the early career researchers. This project aims to advance our understanding of the source, behavior, output, and fate of volcanic mercury. This project will analyze mercury on existing volcanic ash samples from eruptions of Alaska volcanoes. Current global volcanic mercury emission estimates have large uncertainties and are based primarily on non-eruptive measurements or models. Therefore, this work to estimate eruptive mercury emissions will help fill a significant knowledge gap. This project will use a relatively new method to quickly and affordably analyze high numbers of ash samples for total mercury and will validate this method against established techniques. Additionally, two experiments will be conducted to test the stability of mercury bound to ash in the environment. If acceptable uncertainties in the new method are found, this method will be applied to volcanic ash from 11 volcanoes across Alaska. These results will confirm the presence of low or high mercury emitting volcanoes and provide the first estimates of mercury emissions for many of these volcanoes. If successful, this work will nearly double the current globally available volcanic mercury data, improve global estimates of volcanic mercury emissions, and potentially transform the way in which we sample, analyze, and interpret volcanic mercury. Results from this project will help clarify the health risks of volcanic mercury for Alaskans. Six senior personnel will mentor early career researchers, including a postdoctoral researcher, undergraduate student, and two Alaska Native high school students from rural Alaska. Mentorship will include scientific career paths, ways students can make positive change on local issues, and will introduce rural Alaskan students to research relevant to their communities. This project is jointly funded by NSF GEO EAR, Petrology and Geochemistry and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

It is well-established that outdoor nature experiences, particularly those that generate emotional responses such as feelings of awe, can bring about a sense of nature connectedness. However, the ways that nature connectedness can be brought about by indoor informal learning experiences, such as nature-focused exhibits, are relatively underexplored. Relatedly, awe is an emerging affective learning outcome of high interest in the informal STEM learning field. This project will add to the nascent research literature by studying the relationships between exhibit design elements, nature connectedness, and emotional responses such as awe. Researchers at the University of Alaska and exhibit developers and evaluators from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry will partner with librarians and their communities across Alaska to develop a traveling immersive exhibit on pollination, one which is specifically designed to elicit a sense of awe and nature connectedness. Pollination is a critical aspect of terrestrial ecosystems, with the vast majority of flowering plants requiring a pollinator in order to reproduce; however, many pollinator species are declining or shifting their ranges as the climate and environment changes. General knowledge about pollination remains low, a trend that is evident in Alaska. Yet, in Alaska, these trends have implications for culturally important wild-collected plants. The exhibit will travel to libraries across Alaska, making the immersive experience accessible to everyone visiting host libraries. Grounded in principles of Universal Design for Learning and incorporating components that are derived from known antecedents of awe, this immersive exhibit will feature giant flowers that allow visitors to take the perspective of a pollinator. Augmented reality and multisensory elements will directly engage learners in pollination-related concepts such as interdependent relationships. To deepen connections to localized community interests and experiences, librarians will co-design public programming activities related to the exhibit content. This project builds knowledge in the informal STEM learning community in two ways. First, the project will use an exploratory qualitative design to query the relationships between exhibit design elements and the ways in which nature connectedness and emotions are generated and linked. Two main research questions include 1) What emotions are experienced in an exhibit designed to produce awe among visitors? Which aspects of the exhibit produce which kinds of emotions? 2) What, if any, changes in nature connectedness do visitors describe after experiencing the exhibit? In what ways does nature connectedness intersect with any emotions experienced? Interviews and video data for 40 families will serve as the primary data sources. The project will draw from and build on several existing coding schemes (e.g., the Core Affect/EARL scheme, a Nature Connectedness scheme), supporting methodological advancement in the field as well. The qualitative nature of the research will allow the team to explore whether and how core elements of nature connectedness intersect with the cultural values (e.g., Tlingit), and detail such nuances in the findings. Front end evaluation will engage Alaska communities to form the exhibit content and stories, while summative evaluation will investigate the extent to which participants find the exhibit and programming interesting, engaging, informative, and relevant. The second contribution to informal STEM learning knowledge-base is through summative evaluation queries into lessons learned from participating librarians regarding the development and delivery of programming, and the impacts of the project on participating libraries and librarians. Findings will be widely shared by the University, OMSI, and the libraries to ensure broad impacts in each of these related fields. Dissemination will include social media, journal publications, and presentations at professional meetings. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

This collaborative project aims to determine the characteristic features in all-sky images that correspond to distinct meso-scale auroral forms, including previously unclassified forms, to improve our understanding of multi-scale ionospheric electrodynamics. Aurora is one of the most visually captivating, yet scientifically complicated, processes in space weather. Since auroral forms can significantly perturb the upper atmosphere, which is important for satellite operations and telecommunications, it is important to achieve a more complete understanding of their behavior. Meso-scale auroral forms are known to introduce as much energy as large-scale processes to the Ionosphere-Thermosphere system’s energy budget, causing density and temperature variations, altering the conductivity profiles, and causing ground magnetic perturbations. The increased capabilities and convenience of computer vision techniques can find similarities and differences in large visual data sets more systematically than the human eye. This award will investigate meso-scale auroral forms, striving to discover new morphologies, that will propel our understanding of how M-I-T systems couple. The team will leverage the high accuracy provided by self-/semi-supervised algorithms to exhaustively scan millions of all-sky images to find morphologically distinct representations of auroral forms. The team will use visual auroral representations for K-12 education and public outreach activities. This award will support graduate and undergraduate students and an early-career woman PI. In addition, this award supports research conducted in EPSCoR states. This project will use data from the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar, the optical digital all-sky camera images, and ground-based magnetometers, which are all supported by NSF. The data will be used to find and characterize distinct auroral forms by self-/semi-supervised algorithms, and to generate three distinct databases for the space physics community. The efforts entail the creation of a Space Weather Almanac to be distributed as a part of the UAF Space Weather UnderGround (SWUG) program led by the PI. The Space Weather Almanac will be an online record of observed auroral forms by high school students. Used in combination with measurements from the semi-professional magnetometer kits distributed by the UAF-SWUG program, the space weather Almanac will demonstrate the geomagnetic effects of different auroral forms identified by students and demystify the invisible Space Weather phenomena. The science questions to be addressed are 1) How many morphologically distinct meso-scale auroral forms are there based on optical investigations? 2) What are the electrodynamic properties of morphologically distinct meso-scale auroral forms, i.e. electric field, average energy, energy flux, conductance, overhead currents, etc.? and 3) What are the occurrence sites, rates, and sequences of morphologically distinct meso-scale auroral forms during geomagnetically active periods? The project will curate and disseminate three data sets for meso-scale auroral forms: i. Optically distinct morphology clusters, ii. electrodynamic properties, iii. occurrence rate, site, and sequences. These data sets will provide a powerful resource for the community enabling more rigorous statistical analysis and event-based studies. This project is co-funded by the Magnetospheric Physics Program, the Aeronomy Program, and the Space Weather Research Program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

To better understand how ice sheets will respond to future warming, scientists have been studying time periods in Earth’s past when temperatures were naturally warmer than they are today. This project focuses on the Last Interglacial, a time period approx. 130,000 to 115,000 years ago, which marks the most recent time in Earth’s history when the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets were significantly smaller than they are today. The project aims to better understand when and how much these two major ice sheets melted, as well as what climate conditions and ice dynamical processes drove their mass loss. Understanding the factors that drove ice sheet melt in the past will help improve predictions of future ice sheet change. Project goals will be reached through a combination of fieldwork to obtain new estimates of past sea level, laboratory analyses to reconstruct past climate conditions, and modeling to simulate data-informed sea level, ice sheet, and climate histories. Project results will contribute to international efforts that inform policymakers of climate change through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Fieldwork at multiple locations will connect the project team with local researchers and communities to understand their needs and regional impacts of sea level change. The HISEAS project will use the Earth system model CLIMBER-X coupled with the ice sheet model PISM and sea level model VILMA to simulate ice sheet and sea-level evolution from the penultimate glacial maximum to the end of the Last Interglacial (140 – 115 thousand years ago). The model will be calibrated with a range of existing and new paleoclimatological data. Data products will include (1) a new comprehensive database of terrestrial and sea-surface temperature, iceberg discharge, sea-ice extent, deep ocean circulation, and vegetation data; (2) new paleoclimate records relevant to understanding climate-ice-sheet interactions (e.g., sea surface temperature, iceberg discharge, and sea-ice extent) using existing deep-sea sediment cores as well as fossil corals; and (3) new sea-level records from four locations paired with an existing database of Last Interglacial sea-level proxies. A sea-level fingerprint analysis will complement the Earth system modeling to provide a parallel estimate of ice sheet change during the Last Interglacial. The data-calibrated models will allow the researchers to evaluate the roles of external drivers (e.g., temperatures and precipitation), boundary conditions (e.g., bedrock elevation), and internal ice sheet processes in driving ice sheet change during the Last Interglacial period. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

The western margin of North America formed over hundreds of millions of years through the attachment of numerous crustal blocks. Geologists recognize that the modern-day configuration of western North America fault systems from southern California to Alaska partly reflects the distribution and motions of these blocks. Little is known about how these block-bounding fault systems evolve over the long term after they have formed. The PIs and their team will address long-term fault evolution by focusing on the Denali Fault Zone in Alaska. The Denali Fault Zone is the boundary between North American crust and the Wrangellia Composite Terrane, a crustal block that collided with North America about 90 million years ago. This project will constrain the timescales, physical mechanisms, and pressure/temperature conditions of the continental crust during the transition from collisional to lateral plate motion along the Denali Fault Zone. This project will contribute to an improved understanding of regional seismicity that poses a threat to nearby infrastructure (e.g., Trans-Alaska Pipeline, Richardson Highway, and Denali National Park and Preserve) and the genesis and distribution of mineral endowments (Valdez Creek mining district and the Juneau Gold Belt). The project investigators will also contribute to STEM curriculum development for UAF programs that provide supplemental instruction and cohort formation for marginalized undergraduate students. In addition, the project will support and train three graduate students, at least three undergraduate students, and three early-career scientists. The northern North American Cordillera margin is an archetypal accretionary orogen bisected by numerous margin parallel lithospheric-scale strike-slip fault systems. Collectively, the interplay of accretionary tectonics with major strike-slip margins is a natural consequence of long-lived oblique convergence. The Denali fault is perhaps the best studied owing to its impressive topographic expression and active seismicity. It is 2000 km long, preserves >480 km of net right-lateral displacement over the last 52 million years, and corresponds to a ~10 km offset in the Moho. For a significant portion of its trace, the Denali fault delineates the boundary of North American affinity rocks on the north from Wrangellia Composite Terrane rocks on the south. The strike-slip reactivation of a suture formed by subduction and eventual collision of distinct lithosphere results in a geometric and mechanical conundrum wherein shallowly dipping convergent structures appear to be reactivated and transformed into sub-vertical strike-slip structures. The Maclaren Glacier metamorphic belt (MGmb) is a package of strongly deformed amphibolite-facies para- and orthogneiss exhumed along the south-vergent Valdez Creek shear zone – the exposed suture between the Insular terranes and North America in the northern Cordillera where a continuous zone of inverted Barrovian metamorphism is preserved across a thrust sense ductile shear zone. The northern MGmb is exposed along the Denali fault system, and thus preserves fabrics that formed during terminal suturing of the Insular terranes and development of the modern Denali fault. We will integrate quantitative structural and kinematic analysis with high-resolution P-T-t histories of mid-lower crustal metamorphic rocks in the MGmb and thermochronology of superjacent upper crustal rocks along two transects through the suture zone. The MGmb is ideal for this study as the traverses offer exceptional lateral and vertical exposure providing unprecedented three-dimensional analysis suitable for kinematic studies. Moreover, the bulk lithologies are amenable to detailed petrographic and thermobarometric analysis as well as contain a rich petrochronometer record as demonstrated on MGmb rocks elsewhere. These attributes will facilitate a direct link between structural and kinematic analysis to the P-T-t evolution of the entire transect with minimal extrapolation between separate lithologies. Data from this study will be used to constrain an integrated perspective on how moderately dipping sutures evolve to margin parallel strike-slip faults globally. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Over half the Earth’s soil carbon resides in permafrost soils, defined as ground frozen for two years or longer, that are rapidly thawing at high latitudes. The cascading effects of this thaw include surface changes that threaten infrastructure, wholesale ecological change, and the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, all of which may be irreversible. Understanding potential future changes in these environments requires critical information about the modern variability of sediment, ground-ice, and carbon in permafrost soils, as well as past changes that have influenced their distribution. However, past permafrost changes -- including the effects of hillslope erosion on carbon and ice storage -- are under-explored, especially on upland hillslopes that represent 45% of the permafrost-covered region of Alaska. In this project, researchers will measure the variability of soil, ground-ice, and carbon across selected hillslopes in Interior Alaska to understand how topography, sediment movement, and underlying geology influence permafrost distribution. In addition, this project will use a new combination of cutting-edge geochemical measurements to quantify permafrost evolution, from tens of thousands of years ago to the modern day. This work will shed light on fundamental geologic processes that control the resilience and vulnerability of ground-ice and carbon in permafrost landscapes – knowledge critical to understanding future change. In addition, these research activities will be combined with student training, public engagement, and documentary film to teach, inspire, and engage diverse groups in STEM. Over half the belowground terrestrial organic carbon resides in permafrost soils that are rapidly thawing at high latitudes. Yet, permafrost environments display both vulnerability and resilience to changes, subject to interactions among ground ice, liquid water movement, and plant community succession. These interactions are strongly influenced by geomorphic processes that form and modify the geologic substrate in which permafrost develops. However, few studies explicitly measure these combined controls on permafrost evolution at a hillslope scale or consider them on the long timescales over which soils develop - limiting our understanding of the resilience of ice and carbon under changing environmental and climate conditions. To fill these knowledge gaps, The researchers will quantify how century to millennial-scale hillslope geomorphic processes influence the storage of ice and carbon in permafrost soils. They will target the role of geologic substrate and topography in mediating these processes and quantify their spatiotemporal expression in the subsurface architecture of ice, sediment, and carbon across hillslope systems in central Alaska. This project will study the long-term evolution of permafrost soils using a suite of geochemical tools, including 14C and luminescence to date sediment deposition; meteoric 10Be of sedimentary layers to measure soil residence times; and 234U/238U activity ratios to determine ground ice residence times. Their combined data will quantify spatiotemporal feedbacks among sediment movement, ground ice stability, and carbon storage within these hillslope systems. This research expands on past studies to shed light on fundamental hillslope processes that regulate the resilience and vulnerability of ice and carbon in permafrost landscapes. Research activities are coupled with student training, public engagement, and STEM media in the form of documentary film to support education and expand the representation and belonging of underrepresented students in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Indigenous peoples in Alaska are among our nation’s most vulnerable populations. They are affected cumulatively and disproportionately by structural, societal, and geophysical determinants of health. Alaska Native health and well-being is tied to the land and environment. In rural Alaskan Native communities, for which a subsistence lifestyle is a nutritional imperative as well as a cultural and spiritual anchor. As a result, changes in the environment deeply impact their physical and mental health. This research addresses how climate change has resulted in changes to traditional food intake that has in turn impacted the health and welfare of Alaskan Native people. The impacts of long-term and short-term climate variation on subsistence activity have been well-documented in surveys and interviews with Indigenous communities. This research provides complementary evidence for historical relationships that are otherwise challenging to analyze due to lack of data. The project does this by including geoscience parameters, engaging geoscientists in the research, and examining geoscience principles related to critical climate variables related to subsistence food sources. These parameters include temperature, sea ice extent, precipitation, and others as documented over decades-long time frames. Alaskan Native diet indicators will be determined from data from blood samples of Native Alaskans that reside in Alaskan public health archives. Broader impacts of the work include environmental justice and equity understandings of native Alaskan communities that build on unique data sources and access to new expertise and well developed Alaskan Native community relationships. Results of the research will have implications for health equity in the face of climate change across Alaska. This exploratory study seeks to develop novel, climate change, and human health indicator models demonstrating the longitudinal linkages between climatic variables and traditional food consumption in rural Alaskan Native communities. The research involves an expert interdisciplinary team, based out of the University of Alaska Fairbanks which is an institution in an EPSCoR state. The team expertise covers various fields and has representation from geoscientists, nutrition biologists, and medical/public health professionals. The work integrates western knowledge and approaches with Alaskan Native Indigenous knowledge and interaction with Native Alaskans. Researchers at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy are responsible for modeling climate variables at the regional and subregional scale, including monthly temperature, precipitation, and sea ice extent, as well as the annual timing of river ice break-up. Data, over multiple decades, will be examined (i.e., from the 1970s through the 2010s) for a number of rural Alaskan Native communities. Researchers from the Center for Alaska Native Health Research are responsible for identifying dietary transitions in rural Indigenous communities using natural-abundance, stable isotope, and biomarkers in blood serum samples archived at the Alaska Area Specimen Bank over the time period of investigation. Modeling of longitudinal trends in traditional food intake include comparison with changes in climatic variables and community geography (coastal vs. up-river) and seasonality of traditional diets. The research team, with guidance from Alaskan Native community members, will identify extreme weather and seasonal events with significant historical impact on subsistence harvesting activities. Short-term impacts in traditional food intake will also be examined. Exploring climate drivers of traditional food intake over time could transform our current knowledge, policies, and practices for natural resource management in Alaska by examining the linked aspects of human health impacts to climate change. The research team's long-time engagement with Alaskan Native communities makes it well-positioned to interact effectively with Native communities and able carry out the work proposed. This novel, transdisciplinary approach lays the groundwork for other studies to improve our knowledge of the diet and health of indigenous Alaskan communities and their tie to climate change. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Scientific models can help improve decision-making in various settings, but creating and communicating these models is often limited by a variety of obstacles. More effectively communicating with decision makers, however, might improve and expand the use of scientific models, thus improving the safety and well-being of Americans in a variety of contexts and settings. This study develops and tests a new method for producing useful scientific information for decision makers with a focus on snow avalanche models in Alaska. The research includes virtual and in-person listening sessions, interviews, and surveys with snow avalanche decision makers from different sectors in Alaska, such as transportation, utilities, municipalities, business, recreation, and resource management. The goal is to create a more efficient way to produce actionable science by grouping decision makers with similar perspectives on the use of science. The second goal is to provide actionable future snow avalanche information to aid in decision making. Avalanches are Alaska's deadliest natural hazard, and changes in climate are expected to increase their frequency and intensity, posing risks to lives, homes, infrastructure, and resources. A team of social scientists, avalanche experts, and science communicators develop tailored communication strategies and products for each identified group. Products will be evaluated with an expert elicitation workshop. This research has the potential to establish new links and strengthen existing connections among the disciplines of communication, actionable science, and natural hazards, leading to a deeper understanding of how communication can be isolated and studied within engaged research processes. Though tested with avalanches in Alaska, this model could be applied to other hazards such landslides and wildfires, ultimately helping scientists and organizations improve their communication with decision makers. This project is jointly funded by the Decision, Risk and Management Sciences Program and by the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Wildfires are increasing in severity and frequency as global temperatures rise. This trend is more pronounced in northern ecosystems, where temperatures have risen at twice the rate of the rest of the globe. These ecosystems store vast amounts of carbon (C) in soils and permafrost – more than double the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere. Most of this permafrost is protected from climate-induced thaw by deep organic soils. Severe wildfires that burn deeply into the insulating layer of organic soil can destabilize permafrost soils and lead to the loss of carbon to the atmosphere that has been stored for 100s to 1000s of years. Our research seeks to assess how increasing wildfires affect permafrost carbon in boreal forests and Arctic tundra ecosystems. This information will improve our ability to identify where permafrost carbon is likely to be lost with wildfire. It will also help us understand how increasing wildfires will affect future climate. We will sponsor three Alaskan artists to help engage the public on the impacts of wildfire on boreal and tundra ecosystems via an art-science exhibit, and we will assess the impacts of science-art integration on artists, scientists, and audiences. Historically, boreal forest and tundra ecosystems have acted as a net carbon sink, accumulating carbon from the atmosphere over numerous fire cycles and centuries. Fire-triggered loss of permafrost carbon could shift boreal and tundra ecosystems from net carbon sink to net carbon source to the atmosphere. We will integrate long-term field observations with novel radiocarbon dating methods and earth system modeling to assess the impact of increasing wildfire severity on the loss of permafrost carbon and carbon source-sink dynamics in boreal forest and Arctic tundra ecosystems. This information is critical for predicting where and when high-latitude ecosystems are likely to cross tipping points and undergo state changes, and where current model representations are likely inadequate. Given that boreal and tundra ecosystems soils store approximately 30% of global terrestrial carbon, understanding where and when permafrost soil carbon is lost following wildfire and incorporating these results into models is critical for determining whether these ecosystems will accelerate or mitigate climate change through carbon cycling feedbacks to climate. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

This Major Research Instrumentation Project (MRI) supports the acquisition of a Time-of-Flight Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor with eXtra resolution (TOF-ACSM X) and a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) in order to conduct aerosol research at northern high latitudes. These instruments will enable research in several key areas including urban air pollution under cold and dark conditions, aerosol production from boreal forest fires, biogenic secondary organic aerosol chemistry, and indoor air quality. Major broader impacts include new understanding which could help bring Fairbanks and Alaska into air quality compliance, as well as advancing air quality and climate research for ten University of Alaska faculty members. In addition, the instruments will facilitate the mentoring of undergraduate and graduate research projects, give students training on air quality and mass spectrometry, provide critical information on emission control strategies, and broadly address air quality concerns in Alaska Research projects to be enhanced by this instrument acquisition include new research into urban air pollution in both cold and dark conditions, the response of secondary sulfate formation to primary sulfur emission controls, the main contributions to surface aerosol concentrations following reductions in sulfur and wood smoke, the chemical composition and evolution of boreal forest fire smoke, among other topics. Results will be shared with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB) air quality division and affected communities. Additionally, high school and middle school students will be engaged via the Alaska Statewide High School Science Symposium and Science Fair. Finally, a series of videos will be produced to demonstrate the importance of aerosol and air quality, which will reach affected Alaska tribal communities, among others in Alaska. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-07

Retreating glaciers and warming permafrost in mountainous coastal areas increases the likelihood of landslides and, as a result, landslide-generated tsunamis. These potential landslides and tsunamis become a hazard if they risk impacting areas where people gather for a variety of cultural, recreational, or economic purposes. A number of coastal towns and communities in Alaska are at risk, while both scientific understanding and preparedness options are still in their early stages. This project aims to support initial planning conversations among the people affected by the hazard, emergency response managers, and scientists who study these hazards across the Arctic. Any successful planning and preparedness effort requires useful and accessible data, which research efforts can provide if designed together with the end-users of the information. Accordingly, we hope to bring people with various expertise and knowledge together at in-person and online listening- and conversation spaces to 1) identify and prioritize information needs, and 2) to enable the creation of diverse teams for future collaborations in addressing the specified needs. These conversations will build towards larger efforts to better understand landslide-generated tsunamis, allowing for increased awareness and preparedness to these hazards in coastal Alaska. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-06

The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) requests funds for oceanographic instrumentation that is needed to carry out NSF-supported scientific research on board the R/V Sikuliaq, a vessel operating as part of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet (ARF). The specific suite of instrumentation requested includes a wireless electronic counter block for the vessel's winch that would enhance safety during operations; a networked data storage unit for storing all science-collected data onboard the vessel and ensuring separation between ship's operational and science party IT systems enhancing cybersecurity. In addition, a survey-grade Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is requested for surveying underneath the vessel in instances of damage caused by ice and for scientific operations. Finally, a ceilometer will be purchased to identify the base of the clouds and allow planning of drone flying operations for ice detection. This would also enhance the suite of atmospheric parameters collected by the ship. The principal impact of the present proposal is under Merit Review Criterion 2 of the Proposal Guidelines (NSF 23-525). It provides infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF). The acquisition, maintenance, and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or other organization access to well-maintained, high-quality, calibrated instruments for their research. It ensures the collection of high-quality oceanographic data in support of science, reduces the cost of that research, and expands the base of potential researchers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.