Polar Science Research Laboratory

Today the 18th edition of the Arctic Report Card was released by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco. The report highlights the major environmental changes the Arctic experienced over the past year, including that 2023 was the Arctic’s warmest summer on record.
My contribution to the report (along with my co-authors) was to document the increasing phytoplankton (algae) blooms in the Arctic Ocean owing to warming seawaters and sea ice decline.
The photo is a throwback to the Arctic Report Card release in 2022 when I had the privilege to serve on the press panel at AGU along with NOAA administrator Dr. Rick Spinrad. 📷 Monica Allen (NOAA)

Thrilled to have speak in my undergraduate course The Arctic in the Anthropocene today! So incredibly insightful to hear about ways we can communicate about climate change through photography. And of course always such a treat to see some of the best photos you’ll ever see of science in the polar regions!

And sometimes you get lucky and remember to bring your long lens too. The sea ice edge is a favorite haulout location for herds of Pacific walruses in the Chukchi Sea.

And sometimes the CTD brings up unexpected hitchhikers…

New paper published in the journal PLOS ONE: A comprehensive satellite-based assessment across the Pacific Arctic Distributed Biological Observatory shows widespread late-season sea surface warming and sea ice declines with significant influences on primary productivity

Sail time today!

Sailing along with me on the SWL23 cruise this year are Ph.D. student Anna Zhu and Ph.D. candidate Clare Gaffey. Arctic here we come!

Getting ready to set sail from Victoria, British Columbia on the Canadian Coast Guard Cutter Sir Wilfrid Laurier for our 2023 Distributed Biological Observatory research cruise!

Huge congratulations to Abby Beilman, who just successfully defended their senior honors thesis: “Changes in Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter in the Blackstone River Watershed from Summer to Fall Driven by Hydrological Shifts”. Abby will graduate with their BA degree (Environmental Science (Earth System Science track) major with a Political Science minor) next month in May 2023.
Please join me in congratulating Abby on a fantastic job, they put so much hard work into this project!!

The rich marine life under frozen ice When scientists searched beneath the polar ice, they discovered this freezing environment was home to a surprising amount of life.

Abby Beilman (Earth System Science major/Political Science minor, ‘23) presents first results from their senior thesis research “Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Carbon in the Blackstone River Watershed” today at ClarkFEST, which is the undergraduate research conference at Clark University. Fantastic job today, Abby!

Ph.D. students Clare Gaffey and Anna Zhu joined me on the 2022 Distributed Biological Observatory cruise onboard the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Little Diomede Island (US) and Big Diomede Island (Russia) are in the background as we transit through Bering Strait (the ~85 km/53 mi narrow separation between mainland US and Russia).

Ph.D. student Clare Gaffey has just set sail on the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy (a 420’ icebreaker) as part of the NSF Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) science mission. Overall SAS science questions include investigating how Arctic marine ecosystems and carbon cycles are transforming with climate change.
Clare will be sampling SAS stations across a continental shelf gradient along the Chukchi Shelf into the deep Arctic Ocean basin, with the return southward over the Chukchi Borderlands. A halfway point will be at the North Pole!

New publication in the journal Polar Research: Geospatial fragmentation analyses traditionally used in terrestrial landscapes were newly implemented to characterize icescape environments, giving insight into changing sea ice habitats of Pacific walruses as the climate warms across the Arctic.

Huge thanks to filmmakers Stephen Smith and Diana Kushner for screening their fantastic documentary “Beneath the Polar Sun” at Clark University this week. And what a treat it was to serve on a panel with both of them afterwards! More information on this stunning documentary chronicling a mission to the Arctic’s Last Ice Area in the Nares Strait (between Canada and Greenland) can be found at http://beneaththepolarsun.org).

Standby.

A huge welcome to Abby Beilman who has joined the Polar Science Research Lab! Abby will be investigating the biogeochemistry and carbon cycling of the Blackstone River watershed as part of their senior honors thesis. We are so happy to have you as part of the group, Abby!
Abby says: Hi! My name is Abby Beilman and I am a senior majoring in Environmental Science - Earth System Science and minoring in Political Science, working on my senior honors thesis in the lab. I have a variety of research interests, from paleoclimatology to climate extremes, but I am most drawn to anything involving water - which will be the focus of my thesis. I am really excited to join the lab and spend more time doing research! At Clark, I also work at the writing center and am the president of three clubs - PRISM, Beekeepers, and Arboretum Advocates. In my free time, I like to do puzzles, get outside, read sci-fi, memoir, and nonfiction, and play softball with my (uncoordinated but entertaining) rec league team.