University Of Alaska Anchorage: Arctic Expedition

Press release from the University of Alaska Anchorage:

September 8, 2021

On Aug. 25, Jeffery Welker, Ph.D. and professor in UAA’s Department of Biological
Sciences, University of the Arctic research chair and affiliated with the University
of Oulu, Finland (UOulu), embarked on a scientific research mission with a team representing
UAA and UOulu to investigate the dramatic changes the Arctic is experiencing due to
climate change. His research is co-funded by a National Science Foundation Arctic
Observing Network RAPID award and UOulu’s Arctic Interaction High-Risk-High-Reward
program. It is supported in part by the Academy of Finland, Profile 4 award to UOulu.

With colleagues from numerous Arctic nations, the U.S., Finland, Norway, Canada, Denmark
and Greenland, Welker boarded the U.S. Coast Guard’s Healy Icebreaker and departed
from Seward. The international research team plans to spend 60 days or more at sea
traveling along the western coast of Alaska, through the Canadian Northwest Passage
and into and throughout Baffin Bay, researching what he describes as the “freshening
of the Arctic.” 

“It’s an opportunity for us to transit through some really important regions of the
Arctic and take some important measurements along the way,” said Welker. “This will
help us better understand what it means to lose all this sea ice.” 

Welker said as this region continues to experience an injection of new moisture into
its atmosphere, the result has been a rapid decline of sea ice and large expanses
of exposed ocean water. He said the freshening of the Arctic’s atmosphere is one of
the most dramatic changes occurring in the north with significant impacts on weather,
precipitation patterns throughout the northern hemisphere and the delivery of freshwater
in the form of snow and rain necessary for habitat and community health.   

In addition to the "freshening" of the Arctic, Welker said a congruent issue is the
elevated presence of dissolved organic C, an ancient carbon derived from thawing permafrost
landscapes. The carbon is transported by glaciers, ice caps and thawing permafrost
landscapes and the Greenland Ice Sheet into the bays, fjords and coastal environments
of the Arctic Ocean. Welker said they have yet to determine the impacts of the additional
nutrients introduced into the Arctic Ocean, but says the consequences will affect
both human and animal food systems relying on the dependable sustainability of these
northern fisheries. 

“These fundamental changes are really beginning to happen, and we have the opportunity
to take quite a few measurements and document some of these really big changes happening
throughout the Arctic,” said Welker.

This press release was produced by the University of Alaska Anchorage. The views expressed here are the author’s own.