New Alaska research projects focus on climate change, mercury and workforce development
Description
A portion of the Delta River that has special protection as a designated wild and scenic waterway is seen on June 19, 2014. The Delta River flows out of the Alaska Range. One of the four projects that won funding from a University of Alaska Anchorage endowment seeks to create a statewide database of river chemistry and streamflow that will help show how climate change is affecting freshwater systems. (Photo by Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management)
Four new research projects selected for funding in a University of Alaska Anchorage program will address some of the most pressing problems facing the state: climate change, marine ecosystem health and losses in the labor force.
The projects, each designed to run for two years, were winners in an annual competition that uses an endowment created from a $15 million donation ConocoPhillips made in 2008 to UAA, the university said.
In all, more than $500,000 was awarded from the ConocoPhillips Arctic Science and Engineering endowment to the four projects’ researchers, the university said.
The winning projects were celebrated at a ceremony held last week at UAA.
They were chosen on both their scientific merit and the degree to which they added diversity to the suite of projects previously funded through the program, said Aaron Dotson, UAA’s vice chancellor for research. Dotson was a member of the panel that made the final selections.
One project will examine how loss of Arctic and subarctic ice in a rapidly warming climate is affecting Alaskan water resources. That project, led by UAA postdoctoral researcher Jordan Jenckes, seeks to create a single database of Alaska river water chemistry and streamflow, UAA said.
Another project, led by Utpal Dutta, a civil engineering professor at UAA, will use a microgravity survey to identify places where thawing, unstable permafrost may threaten buildings or infrastructure, the university said. Such surveys detect very small differences in the force of gravity within the ground and are sometimes used to monitor oil and gas reservoirs.
A project led by UAA Assistant Professor Amy Bishop, will investigate the accumulation of mercury in Alaska pinnipeds — the animals that include walruses, seals and sea lions — gathering more information about whether coastal communities that rely on marine ecosystems for food might be stressed, the university said.
The grant-winning project on workforce development, with UAA Associate Professor Patrick Tomco as principal investigator, aims to set up a long-term student and researcher exchange program between UAA and the University of Lyon 1 Claude Bernard in France, the university said.
The selected projects each have multiple researchers and participants, Dotson said. “Most of the projects include undergraduate and graduate students,” he said. There are co-principal investigators involved in three of the projects.
Not including the new projects funded for 2024, 52 projects have received over $4.2 million from the ConocoPhillips Arctic Science and Engineering endowment, UAA said.
Other projects that are still underway or were recently completed include studies of changes in streams and lakes on the North Slope, tracking of nutrients that flow out of melting glaciers into Kachemak Bay and a pair of studies investigating the effects of tire rubber contamination on Alaska salmon.
The $15 million donation to UAA from ConocoPhillips in 2008 was the company’s largest single donation in Alaska, Dotson said. Of that, $4 million went to construct an on-campus science building and the remainder went into the endowment, he said.
Juneau
