Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Abstracts: 23

Climate Variability on the North Slope

Amanda Lynch, Ron Brunner, Judy Curry, Anne Jensen, Jim Maslanik, Linda Meams, Glen Sheehan, and James Syvitsky

CIRES researchers collaborate across traditional disciplinary, institutional, and programmatic boundaries in support of interdisciplinary assessments with significance for both research and policy. The first scientific assessment poster describes a project that a team of CIRES researchers and their partners have undertaken on the North Slope of Alaska. The purpose of this project is to enable the people of the North Slope coastal region to make more informed decisions in response to climate variability. Climate variability includes changes in average temperatures, the extent of sea ice, and the level of the permafrost over years and decades. It also includes big storms - when they happen, how often they happen, and how severe they are. Researchers are now collecting data about what is already known by residents and scientists about climate changes and big storms in the region, their impacts on people, animals, and plants, and responses by individuals, groups, and communities. Later researchers will estimate what is likely to happen in these areas. At each stage of the project, researchers will report on what they have learned, ask people on the North Slope to correct and add to that report, and ask their advice on future research. The primary goal is to help stakeholders clarify and secure their common interest by exchanging information and knowledge concerning climate and environmental variability.