Our Work

Contacts

• Alison York, AFSC Coordinator (primary contact)
• Sarah Trainor, Principal Investigator
• AFSC website

The AFSC strengthens the link between fire science research and on-the-ground application in Alaska by promoting communication between managers and scientists, providing an organized fire science delivery platform, and facilitating collaborative scientist-manager research development.

The area burned each year in Alaska varies widely, ranging from a few hundred thousand to several million acres. The extent and severity of wildland fire in Alaska appear to be increasing with climate change. Models indicate that this increase will continue: fire will feedback to climate by releasing stored carbon as greenhouse gases and black carbon particulates, and by exposing permafrost and speeding its thawing.

A fire burns in the boreal forest near Fairbanks, Alaska.

Why is this work important?

Since 2004, wildfires have burned more than 38,000 square miles in Alaska — an area larger than the state of Indiana. Eighty percent of Alaskans live in the wildland-urban interface and are potentially vulnerable to wildfire. Smoke impacts public health, infrastructure, and transportation.

Alaska’s large proportion of public lands means that many fires are allowed to burn freely and play their natural ecological role. Wildland fire in Alaska is managed on an interagency basis by both federal and state agencies. These agencies are under continual budget pressures, and improved information to guide their decisions is one of the few ways they might increase efficiency.

Contacts

• Scott Rupp, AK CASC University Director
• AK CASC website

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Climate Adaptation Science Centers  (CASCs) provide scientific information, tools, and techniques that those interested in land, water, wildlife, and cultural resources can use to anticipate, monitor and adapt to climate change. The AK CASC is one of eight such centers located throughout the nation.

The AK CASC works to increase our understanding of how Alaska’s ecosystems and resources are responding to a changing climate. This is done by building partnerships between academic scientists, state and federal agency scientists, resource managers, tribal leaders, and decision makers.

We use these partnerships to anticipate, monitor, research, synthesize and communicate, and sustainably manage resources across Alaska’s diverse social-ecological systems.

Green Lake Dam at low water, Sitka, AK. (KCAW Public Radio)

Why is this work important?

Climate change is having—and will continue to have—a significant impact on Alaska’s resources and human populations. Furthermore, almost 90% of Alaska’s land is managed by state and federal agencies.

In order to provide realistic forecasts of potential changes and manage natural resources under future scenarios, collaboration and efficiency between state and federal agencies and the larger scientific community are essential. The AK CASC provides an umbrella under which appropriate research efforts and other strategies can be identified, and they support research in physical, biological, social, and integrated systems that can be applied to issues being faced by resource management agencies.

Contact

• Uma Bhatt — associate CICOES director; Professor & Chair, Department of Atmospheric Sciences

The Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies is led by the University of Washington but housed jointly with Oregon State University and the International Arctic Research Center. The institute allows NOAA to tap the brainpower at universities in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. This will help NOAA meet its research, education and public engagement goals.

CICOES is one of 17 cooperative institutes nationwide. NOAA funds cooperative institutes at universities with strong research programs to extend basic and applied research beyond NOAA’s own capacity.

CICOES focuses on nine research themes:

1. Climate and ocean variability, change and impacts
2. Earth systems and processes
3. Environmental chemistry and ocean carbon
4. Marine ecosystems: observation, analysis and forecasts
5. Ocean and coastal observations
6. Environmental data science
7. Aquaculture science
8. Human dimensions in marine systems
9. Polar studies

Why is this work important?

This is a critical time for the Arctic, where rapid change coincides with shrinking research budgets, making the need for cooperation and coordination of Arctic observations vital in order to address anticipated environmental challenges.

CICOES helps partner key scientists with opportunities at NOAA, contribute to integrating environmental information across Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.