Craig Tweedie - US grants

A 5-day symposium will be convened to explore how biocomplexity controls the sensitivity and stability of tundra systems over decadal time scales. Experts in the field will be invited to give keynote presentations and participate in appraising existing knowledge and prepare a science plan to identify avenues of research examining the complexity, function and dynamics of tundra systems. Five themes and primary questions related to climate and the tundra will be addressed across multiple spatial and temporal scales. This includes drivers of change; patterns of change; sensitivity to change; responses to change; and implication of change. This symposium will bring together scientists involved in the North American tundra Experiment (NATEX) that is part of a larger network of scientists known as the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX). The ARCSS program supports ITEX work as part of the Land-Atmosphere-Ice Interactions (LAII) component. To enhance international and student participation, real time video web casting and teleconferencing will take place. These broadcasts will be forwarded to the Joint Office of Scientific Support for ultimate inclusion in the ARCSS Data Coordination Center. A synthesis report will be prepared and circulated. Key personnel identified during the symposium will draft a science plan similar to the LAII science plan and will include an outline for biocomplexity related research in Arctic terrestrial systems. A manuscript for publication in an appropriate internationally recognized journal is planned.

This projects will create and release of three suites of spatial data products. The first is high-resolution, orthorectified radar imagery (ORRI, with 1.25 m grid cell spacing) and a co-registered, high-resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM; 5 m grid cell spacing; 1 m vertical accuracy). The second suite is satellite imagery purchased through AeroMap U.S., specifically orthorectified panchromatic (0.7 m grid cells) and multispectral (2.8 m grid cells) imagery acquired by DigitalGlobe with the new QuickBird satellite. Third is a time-series set of orthorectified air-photo mosaics. After processing, the DEM and imagery would be made available to all NSF-funded researchers through the ARCSS Data Coordination Center.

In the vicinity of Barrow, Alaska including the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) there are more than 35 currently funded NSF research projects. These multi- and interdisciplinary studies primarily address local to global effects of environmental sensitivity and climate change. Many of the projects utilize quantitative spatial analysis through remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Others would utilize high-resolution spatial datasets if they were available. On a project by project basis, research groups work piecemeal with spatial data for their own, small, disconnected field areas. Sharing datasets is difficult due to differences in map projection, datum, data format, extent, and distribution channels. This new activity will provide the research community high-resolution data and images resulting in tangible scientific benefits across numerous disciplines, increasing the efficiency and significance of current and future research.

On-going projects that would benefit are research on ecosystem dynamics, terrestrial-atmospheric fluxes of greenhouse gases, landscape dynamics, coastal flooding and erosion, permafrost melting, other environmental responses to unprecedented arctic warming, and other topics. These environmentally and societally relevant scientific problems can be addressed in new ways and with greater success using digital topography and imagery. By orders of magnitude, the spatial datasets would be more precise, accurate, and useful than existing data layers. They would permit state-of-the-art analysis for years to come, and would establish a temporal baseline for decades of change-detection studies. This vision is shared by this proposal's twelve collaborators from eight research institutions. With shared needs for high quality spatial information, a modest effort now would leverage results and promote interdisciplinary collaboration.

Funds are provided to develop and verify a technique to rapidly assess decadal-scale change in land cover and carbon balance in arctic tundra. Recent and persistent changes in climate in the Arctic are amongst the most dramatic on the globe. Understanding how changes in ecosystem productivity interact and potentially offset the balance and stability of the Arctic soil carbon reservoir is of utmost importance to global change science. Subtle changes in plant species and communities, which underlie land cover change, have increasingly been related to dramatic shifts in ecosystem function, such as the exchange of carbon across the land-atmosphere boundary. Land cover change represents a time-integrated response and shift in the competitive interaction between species responding to an altered biological, chemical and/or physical state. This project will utilize newly acquired satellite imagery to derive extant land cover maps and retrospectively construct land cover maps from historical air photos and declassified military spy imagery. Empirical spatially, and land cover, explicit models of ecosystem carbon balance will be run over the time series of land cover maps to indicate probable decadal-scale changes in carbon balance. Ground truth for derived products will result from observations at the former site of the International Biological Program near Barrow, which remains relatively intact and where an extensive research history of decadal-scale changes in ecosystem structure and function exists.

This research examines how biological and physical processes interact to control carbon uptake, storage and release in Arctic tundra ecosystems and how the self-organizing nature of these interactions varies across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Approximately 25% of the world's soil organic carbon reservoir is stored at high northern latitudes in permafrost and seasonally-thawed soils in the Arctic, a region that is currently undergoing unprecedented warming and drying, as well as dramatic changes in human land use. Understanding how changes in annual and inter-annual ecosystem productivity interact and potentially offset the balance and stability of the Arctic soil carbon reservoir is of utmost importance to global climate change science. If there is a net loss of soil carbon to the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gases (namely CO2 and CH4), greenhouse warming could be enhanced. This non-linear, potentially positive feedback response could very quickly cause Arctic terrestrial ecosystems to function in a manner not known to us from the late Holocene and with globally significant implications.

The activities in this research benefit from a foundation and wealth of international and national carbon cycle research undertaken in northern Alaska and other Arctic regions over the past three decades. The group will initiate a comprehensive study involving an integrated framework of multi-scale aircraft and satellite remote sensing, micrometeorological and CO2 and CH4 flux measurements and hydro-ecological process model simulations over a 350km North-South transect spanning the dominant Arctic topographic and land cover units of northern Alaska. The study region encompasses many long-term measurement sites that have been in place for 5 to 10 years. They will expand these observations to include an extensive soil moisture manipulation involving a 60 hectare tundra flooding/draining experiment near Barrow Alaska on the Arctic Coastal Plain. The objective of this study is to quantify linkages between soil moisture and carbon uptake, storage and release over multiple spatial (microbial to landscape) and temporal (minutes to decades) scales. Only by increasing the spatial extent of our experimental manipulations and the duration of our observational time series can we better understand and predict the effect of scale on the complex coupling within Arctic ecosystems; namely, how small scale processes participate as components of higher scale phenomenon and how higher scale phenomenon constrain the former lower scale processes. This knowledge will improve our understanding of the current behavior and potential response of arctic tundra to global change, resulting in better predictions of feedbacks to climate and the global carbon cycle.

Funds are provided to develop and test a methodology for the rapid assessment of the patterns of decadal time scale land cover change at multiple sites throughout the Beringia region and to gauge the probable impact these changes have had on ecosystem carbon balance. The project is made possible by participation in the Swedish Beringia 2005 Expedition. Land cover change will be assessed at the plot level in collaboration with a Russian colleague who established marked plots throughout the region between 1984 and 1986. At the landscape level, land cover change will be assessed using modern high-spatial resolution satellite imagery to derive supervised land cover classifications that will be compared to land cover maps derived from newly archived historical air photos and/or recently declassified military spy imagery. Component land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and methane will be measured in collaboration with a Swedish colleague in multiple land cover types at each site visited. Component fluxes will be extrapolated to the landscape level for each multi-temporal land cover assessment and the probable changes in carbon balance over time and space will be estimated. Monolith, soil, and vegetation samples will be collected for controlled laboratory experiments and analyses that will enable cross-site comparison of a range of biogeochemical processes.

Webber 04-54996

The key objective of this proposal is to maintain, develop and innovate the prototype Barrow Area Information Database and Internet Map Server (BAID-IMS) that we have developed over the past year. BAID-IMS is a user-friendly web-based science, logistic and educational informational portal that allows users to access, view and interact with a wide range of spatial data and remotely sensed imagery focused on the Barrow area in northern most Alaska. The area of interest for BAID-IMS spans 280,000 km2 and extends from 100km offshore and north of the city of Barrow, east to Deadhorse, west to the native village of Point Lay and south to the Brooks Range and the village of Anaktuvuk Pass. The application encompasses over 100 data layers in total and includes a range of air-borne and satellite imagery as well as thematic data. Thematic data includes USGS topographic maps, administrative boundaries, infrastructure such as roads, power lines, and native subsistence cabins, nearly 4000 active and historic research sites, vegetation, topographic and hydrographic maps, and distribution/sensitivity maps for select fauna. Users can employ standard Geographic Information System (GIS) tools to zoom, pan, measure distance, identify waypoints for uploading into Global Positioning Systems (GPS), query a range of attribute data layers and make and print their own maps. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standard metadata has been compiled for most data layers and provides links to data centers where users can obtain copies of BAID-IMS data for more advanced analysis. A help guide is provided for all tools in the application.

This award will increase the longevity and the functional and operational capacity of BAID-IMS. Specifically, the awardee will (1) Continue acquisition of image, thematic and site data to improve the utility of BAID-IMS; (2) Expand the informational technology and server hardware backing BAID-IMS to enhance operational capacity; (3) Continue to train graduate and undergraduate students in the maintenance and development of BAID-IMS, and continue education and outreach activities illustrating the use of BAID-IMS; (4) Publish, present and advertise the functionality and technical underpinning of BAID-IMS and engage community input in the development of BAID-IMS; (5) Encompass new technologies and opportunities as these arise, including the development of wireless technologies for real time access to BAID-IMS in the field, improved cross-browser compatibility and data export capabilities to hand-held GPSs.

This proposal actively involves minority undergraduates, graduate students and K-12 teachers in hands-on research in Antarctica and provides a comprehensive mentoring program for the participants. Key drivers of the project are: 1) Remote hands-on field-based instructional and research experiences provide students and teachers with proven and transformational life and educational experiences. 2) Minority groups are severely under-represented in engineering and science and most university study abroad programs -- especially in the polar sciences. 3) The International Polar Year (IPY) provides a unique opportunity to educate the next generation of scientists and the general public about the Polar Regions and their importance to the global system. The principal objectives of this proposal are to 1) increase the number of underrepresented minorities continuing on to higher degrees or careers in science and 2) increase public awareness and knowledge about the Polar Regions. Both will be stimulated through a novel and life-changing opportunity for students and teachers to travel to Antarctica and acquire first-hand experience in Antarctic field-based research and system science.
Proposed activities include:
1. Building on an established Antarctic study abroad field course initiated by the Investigatory team that promotes inquiry and problem based learning using a systems science approach.
2. Recruiting 15 undergraduate and 5 graduate students from multiple disciplines, plus 5 high school science teachers (25 participants in total) from primarily underrepresented minorities across the U.S to participate in the program for course credit.
3. Web-casting of preparatory lectures plus a field trip to Washington DC, where participants will meet with a range of experts in the polar sciences and organizations affiliated with international policy and tourism in Antarctica. Participants will also explore concepts relating to the importance of advancing the representation of minorities in science and engineering.
4. A capstone 3-week field trip aboard an Antarctic tourist vessel from Tierra del Fuego to the Antarctic Peninsula where participants will be mentored in the design, implementation, documentation and dissemination of hands-on field based research including data archiving. Because over 20,000 tourists now visit Antarctica annually, this experience provides a unique educational opportunity for examining the activities and impacts of the growing Antarctic ecotourism industry.
5. Community outreach from Antarctica including live satellite feeds to public radio, a project web site with question/answer interactivity and journals from students and teachers, as well as the production of legacies such as curriculum products and an educational documentary of the Antarctic field experience.
6. Evaluating formal and informal education activities using quantitative and qualitative methods.
7. Publishing and archiving at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), course materials, field data, and evaluations related to the formal assessment of the success of the project.
The proposed activities will celebrate the IPY through the establishment of data and educational legacies that will improve scientific capacities and public awareness of the Polar Regions and the recruitment of minorities to polar science.The proposed activities will have significant intellectual merit: data gathering will include data rescue as well as generation of new data; development of K-12 curricula, an extensive web site and film documentary; a formal evaluation of the educational impact of the proposed activities will also be completed. All activities will focus on educational and professional development and will be underpinned by a systems science approach to ensure adequate linkage between physical, biological, social components of the Antarctic System and how these relate to the global system. The most significant contribution of this project will be the advancement of underrepresented students and teachers in science and engineering. All data and curricula will be made publicly available where appropriate and archived at NSIDC.

he key objective of this three-year award is to further the international and multidisciplinary development of the terrestrial Circumarctic Environmental Observatories Network (CEON, www.ceoninfo.org). CEON's mission is to strengthen the capacity for emerging monitoring, research and policy needs at high northern latitudes by making data available that is adequate and suitable for addressing a series of well defined key scientific questions and uncertainties. As a priority, this award aims to satisfy the immediate developmental needs identified by the CEON stakeholder community and, where relevant, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). This award will also support several other initiatives with a strong Arctic and environmental observation focus, including the second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP II), the US National Academy of Sciences blue ribbon panel designing an Arctic Observation Network (AON), and the International Polar Year (IPY).

Specifically, this award will:
1. Establish a joint US-Swedish CEON Science Coordination Office (SCO). This is critical for CEONs transition to becoming a fully implemented and multi-laterally funded international network.
2. Convene annual CEON stakeholder and working group meetings to foster the community-based decision making necessary for the development of CEON. Annual stakeholder meetings are likely to attract up to 150 arctic and non-arctic specialists and will encourage CEON partners to convene meetings before or after the CEON meeting and hold and/or participate in workshops that will be used, for example, to offer instruction on standardized sampling protocols and technologies.
3. Continue the development of novel web-based information portals and visualization tools that improve the capacity for transferring scientific, logistic, and educational knowledge and information both within and outside of CEON. These include a CEON email list, the CEON-Internet Map Server (CEON-IMS - www.ceonims.org), the capacity to build regionalized IMS applications centered on focal observatory platforms partnered to CEON, a methodological and standards database, and novel visualization tools that enhance education, outreach and information interactivity.

Craig Tweedie of the University of Texas at El Paso will determine how key structural and functional characteristics of high latitude terrestrial ecosystems in the Arctic have changed over the past 25 or more years and predict whether such changes are likely to continue. The PI will play a leading role in the international Back to the Future project (IPY project #214). He will establish a focused international Back to the Future coordination and invormation web portal; rescue data and re-establish and re-sample four princicpal ecological study sites including the International Biological Program (IBP) site near Barrow, Alaska, the Research in Arctic Terrestrial Ecosystems (RATE) site near Atqasuk, Alaska, and the PhD dissertation sites of two well known and respected Arctic plant ecologists, Pat Webber (Central Baffin Island) and Terry Callaghan, Disko Island (West Greenland); and coordinate two international Back to the Future synthesis meetings. Date will be archived for open access at the National Scnow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC). Studenst will assist in re-sampling historical research sites and gain hands-on research experience under the mentorship of Webber and Callaghan as the latter re-sample sites of their own Ph.D. research approximately 40 years after they were established.

The project will elucidate decadal scale ecosystem changes in multiple land cover types across the Arctic; validate and improve models of environmental change based on remote sensing; assess the impact of global change on ecosystem structure and function including arctic plant biodiversity; and improve our knowledge feedback mechanisms between land and atmospheric subsystems of the arctic.

Undergratuate students, a graduate student, and a postdoctoral fellow will be trained and mentored at a leading minority serving institution. The students will be mentored by pioneering and accomplished Arctic researchers.

The Cyber-ShARE Center will bring together experts in computer science, computational mathematics, education, earth science, and environmental science to address the challenge of providing information to scientists and other users of cyber-infrastructure (CI) that allows them to make informed decisions about the resources that they retrieve and to have confidence in using results from CI-based applications. The Cyber-ShARE team will conduct innovative research to facilitate the development of CI-based applications and increase their use by scientists by enhancing CI results with provenance information, trust recommendations, and uncertainty levels (areas that are recognized as essential for the success of CI); by creating scientist-centered tools and artifacts; and by contributing CI resources to appropriate CI portals. In addition, the synergistic and multi-disciplinary subprojects will advance knowledge in i) provenance to capture knowledge about uncertainty and trust using results from discipline experts; ii) the physical properties of the Earth by studying CI-based techniques and approaches for integrating data with varying accuracy and sensitivity; iii) optimization of data streams and sensor arrays in ecological and environmental networks by targeting improved characterization of environmental phenomena and processes.

Earth Systems Science (40). SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) is promoting polar science and education among Native American and other underrepresented minority (URM) communities by adding a polar science dimension to its annual conferences. The 2008-2010 IPY-themed national conferences are using polar scientists as keynote speakers, guides for scientific symposia, and structured mentors for students. URM participation in the conferences is being encouraged by targeted travel grant programs. Minority students are being: exposed to role models with similar backgrounds who are leaders in polar science and can advise on career options; alerted to internship opportunities; connected to URM student social networks; and advised on effective leadership skills to navigate the scientific enterprise. A host of supporting activities includes the use of SACNAS' Minority Postdoctoral Community as an online resource for peer-to-peer mentoring. The project is using ongoing assessment and evaluation to improve its effectiveness in recruiting URM into polar science as well as in creating a bridge between the scientific community and the traditional knowledge and values of Tribal leaders. The broader impact of this project includes increased URM participation in polar science, educating URM on the issues of polar science and climate change on human communities, and improving URM understanding of the role of the Polar Regions in global processes.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

The goal of this project is to maintain the existing ITEX AON and increase the applicability of the data collected to the greater scientific community. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) network has collected data on phenology, plant growth, community composition and ecosystem properties as part of a greater effort to study environmental arctic change. The network, started in early 1990?s, has played a key role in advancing knowledge related to the likely impacts of a warmer arctic through the use of experimentally warmed and un-manipulated plots (i.e., the controls) across a range of sites and ecosystems that span the major vegetation types of the Arctic. While of great value, most ITEX measurements are labor intensive and time consuming, which limit the frequency and spatial extent of sampling. Recent advances in sensor technology hold the promise to allow sampling of surrogates of these manual measurements rapidly and over larger areas. This work will continue the ITEX AON observations and initiate a suite of related, non-intrusive measurements using robotic sensor platforms (networked infomechanical systems, NIMS). These new measurements will enable scaling of measurements to the regional level by linking to existing 1 km2 sample grids and satellite imagery. These data are urgently needed to improve our capacity to monitor the impacts of changing tundra vegetation on the arctic system. This work should improve our understanding of the exchange of carbon and water across the land atmosphere interface and provide information on forage quality for herbivores.

History: The Chihuahuan Desert, which may be the least studied North American desert but with possibly the highest biodiversity of any desert, has few areas with unrestricted access to locations for field research and education. Indio Mountains Research Station (IMRS) is a 40,000 acre research and educational facility operated by the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The station is located in the Chihuahuan Desert of west Texas, adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border. Examples of current research activities at IMRS include rattlesnake and lizard ecology, arthropod ecology in ephemeral pools, systematics of scorpions, spiders and centipedes and structural geology studies of the Chihuahuan Desert. A new laboratory dedicated to wireless communication, computer technology, and laboratory operations would increase the value of this station. The remote locality of IMRS makes this technology vital for current operations and future research initiatives. Usage of IMRS has increased during the last five years, primarily because of NSF-funded improvements, but a modern center to house essential items for technological and logistic support is needed.

Project plan: This award to University of Texas-El Paso is to build a laboratory and technology building with clean space dedicated to computer resources, including wireless access to remote stations on IMRS, to the UTEP campus, and the internet. It will also contain space for laboratory activities associated with field studies and a wet lab. The present electrical and water systems will also be expanded to sustain the additional infrastructure.

UTEP, with IMRS as its major field investigation facility, is a foremost educator of underrepresented Hispanic students in science and technology. Enrollment at UTEP is about 21,000 and includes over 72% Hispanic students, with a majority of these students female. UTEP also educates most of the K-12 teachers in the El Paso area (schools are close to 80% Hispanic). Thus, students, teachers and future teachers involved in IMRS activities will have a significant impact on the scientific competence of K-12 students and should increase interest of minority students in science and scientific disciplines. In addition, future partnering with long term observatory network groups will advance the value of IMRS as a field site.

Sustainability on the Border: Water, Climate and Social Change in a Fragile Landscape
(Hargrove, Borrok, Ferregut, Heyman, and Tweedie, The University of Texas at El Paso)

Scope This planning project is developing a research plan to analyze the resilience, adaptability, and transformability of the ecological/social system along the Middle Rio Grande River in response to climate and social change on the U.S./Mexico border. Key threats to water sustainability in the region include: 1) increasing salinization of surface and ground water; 2) increasing water demand from a growing population in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez area; 3) water quality impacts from agricultural, municipal, and industrial discharges to the river; 4) changing regional climate that portends increased frequency and intensity of droughts interspersed with more intensive rainfall events; and 5) disparate water planning and management systems between the U.S. and Mexico. The region presents unique challenges in an ecologically fragile landscape, complicated by violence, migration, and social inequities. This region represents one of the most challenged border regions of the world. The objectives and associated activities of the project include:
1. Identify, collect, and summarize existing data, knowledge, and models. This is being accomplished by advertising and hosting an international workshop/conference and inviting key scientists to present results and discuss issues
2. Develop a process for integrating existing data, knowledge, and models into an overall model of the landscape/lifescape on the border, through the work of thematic teams.
3. Identify gaps in information, knowledge, and understanding, in relation to defining resilience, adaptability, and transformability, through the work of thematic teams.
4. Develop a research strategy for identifying and evaluating the determinants of resilience, adaptability, and transformability in response to the drivers of change and for assessing water sustainability on the border, based on the coupled human and natural dimensions of the landscape/lifescape, through a research planning workshop.
The project is developing a process for integrating known and new information into predictive models of resilience, adaptability, and transformability of the "landscape/lifescape" on the border. The innovative aspect of this project is the focus on the coupled biophysical and human dimensions of water sustainability in the face of climate and social change. This project is producing an example of how to integrate science and policy aimed at water sustainability in complex river systems. Students will be encouraged to participate in the workshops and conference.

Significance Drawing on published and new research, an integrated understanding of the landscape and hydrological processes coupled with socioeconomic and political frameworks on the U.S./Mexico border can lead to predictive capabilities and improved strategies for protecting and managing important water resources in a fragile and threatened environment. The results can be used by a number of action agencies to better manage natural resources and to develop and implement improved policies to achieve sustainability on the border. Not only is the project contributing to a better understanding of sustainability on the border, but is contributing in fundamental ways to sustainability science. The results are applicable to many major river systems and international border areas throughout the world. Additionally, the project is building a consortium of universities and other research and action agencies in the region to become a regional 'think tank' on sustainability on the border. Since UTEP is a Hispanic Serving Institution, this project provides an unprecedented opportunity for training and engagement of Hispanic students and young professionals in cutting edge interdisciplinary research and education aimed at sustainability. The project is providing sustainability science education and research opportunities for 'the 21st Century Demographic'.

The Cyber-ShARE ("Cyberinfrastructure for Sharing resources to Advance Research and Education") Center of Excellence at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was established in 2007 with a mission to advance education and research through cyberinfrastructures that support information exchange and integration, as well as collaborative interdisciplinary research. The Center conducts research and prepares a workforce that can tackle some of the most challenging problems confronting society. The interdisciplinary research at the Center has resulted in tools and approaches that support scholarly interdisciplinary collaboration by facilitating the ability to share knowledge, concepts, approaches, and perspectives. As national leaders in the study of collaborative science and engineering, the Center has developed and applied models of team-based, cooperative learning, interdisciplinary teamwork, and knowledge integration. Areas of advancement in cyberinfrastructure (CI) have been in data management, data analysis, and virtual organizations in support of collaboration. In particular, CI research has focused on scientists' ability to document data collection and product development in ways that enable sharing and reuse of scientific results by enhancing results with provenance and other critical information.

The Center's crosscutting expertise is in collaboration and collaborative environments, semantic-based approaches to knowledge synthesis and representation (ontologies and provenance), and propagation of uncertainty in integrated analyses. The subprojects through which this expertise will transcend are as follows:

(1) Knowledge Representation, Negotiation and Integration: Linking Human and Machine Knowledge Models through Semantics

(2) Advancing Understanding of Ecosystem Processes Using Cyberinfrastructure

(3) Integrated Analysis for Development of 3-D Models of Earth Structure

Cyber-ShARE's research in analysis of climate change impacts on the environment and the modeling of Earth's structure has advanced through the Center's interdisciplinary approaches supported by CI. Our environmental science group is advancing understanding of carbon flux in extreme desert and arctic environments through innovative multi-scale data collection and analysis, along with novel methods for minimizing error propagation and ensuring data quality. Our geophysics research group is developing more accurate models of the Rio Grande Rift System through computational approaches to data integration and model fusion. The Center has developed novel tools that allow researchers to more effectively analyze the large amounts of data being collected through environmental and seismic sensor networks in these projects and around our nation. Sensor data are critical for understanding short and long term global change, enabling better understanding of the effects of climate change on water and energy, and the effects of earth structure on earthquake risk.

In the next phase of funding, the Cyber-ShARE Center will continue to conduct innovative, synergistic STEM research supported by CI in the areas of environmental science and geosciences. Among a large number of research questions to be investigated as part of the three subprojects are the following:

How can we create a machine understandable representation of individual mental models and integrated conceptual frameworks for interdisciplinary research, facilitated by advanced cyber-infrastructure?

What factors control land-atmosphere exchange of carbon, water and energy in desert and arctic terrestrial ecosystems and over what spatial and time scales?

How can Semantic Web technologies be used to enhance open access environmental data sharing, discovery, retrieval, integration, analysis, and visualization?

What is the evolution of the Rio Grande Rift and how does this relate to other active rifts, for example, the East Africa Rift System?

Can scientists understand, believe and accept new insights in the tectonic evolution of the southwest (and other regions) that were produced through the development of CI and CI-based applications that can seamlessly integrate and optimally fuse existing information sources?

The Center is critical to broadening training and education of interdisciplinary, CI-knowledgeable citizens, including STEM students who receive advanced degrees and represent the 21st century demographics. Compared to the national averages for graduate students in geology and environmental and computer science (NSF 2008), Cyber-ShARE students are 82.7% Hispanic while the national average is 4.7%, and 36.5% female while the national average is 30.8%. The Center aims to reach even higher levels of involvement of citizens from underrepresented groups during Phase II. The Center will extend the network of Cyber-ShARE collaborations to include other major CI projects, international collaborators, and industry partners.

The Barrow Area Information Database (BAID, http://baid.utep.edu) is a regional cyberinfrastructure that offers users access to geospatial information about more than 9,600 research sites in the area. The BAID is an online geospatial information tool used by scientists, land managers, educators, students, subsistence hunters and the general public. The services provide information about scientific research in the region from Barrow to Atqasuk with a suite of online, interative maps and services, including searchable fields and more than 150 data layers describing vegetation, topography, land ownership, ground control points and infrastructure. This proposal will update and upgrade the current services offered via web servers. In addition, a wireless sensor network will provide near real-time meteorological data for the region. Data available through BAID will be made more interoperable and will link to the data archives at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Detailed climate data with spatial coverage for the region will benefit a broad group of researchers. The project will also develop students who can program, develop, and maintain cyberinfrastructure tools and infrastructure for basic researcher, land managers and land users.

The Antarctic & Arctic Data Consortium (a2dc) was established in spring 2013 as a grass-roots initiative to help improve the visibility of data resources for the polar geoscience community through a modest joint marketing effort at national meetings and on the web. Out of this self-organizing effort came the recognition that while each data facility serves a different segment of the polar community, improved coordination and better integration of our data resources would significantly benefit the broad and multi-disciplinary community engaged in polar science. Up to date, there has been little interaction or coordination between polar data facilities, yet much is to be gained by sharing experiences, technological approaches and leveraging existing solutions. The project aims at formalizing and enhancing the coordination of a2dc members through the coordination of a network that will bring the data facilities together on an annual basis. This will support new coordinated outreach to the science community to help researchers identify and use the services that are available to them and for the centers to ensure they are more effectively serving the widest possible audience, including international stakeholders.

Few undergraduate programs appear to be adequately designed to prepare students with data analysis skills, especially as these pertain to Arctic Science. In order to address urgent challenges and needs in both student training and global-change science, the overarching goal of this project is to train students at this Hispanic-serving institution to be leading data professionals capable in cross-disciplinary collaboration, team science, and scientific communication. The program will center on the infusion of quantitative skills development in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) spanning an undergraduate curriculum that addresses data intensive challenges in Arctic ecosystem ecology. Using legacy and recent Arctic data resources for the Barrow area in northernmost Alaska, together with field experiences and lab-based manipulations, the PIs will orchestrate authentic, collaborative research experiences, where students will develop research questions, collect, analyze, and synthesize data, and communicate results in scientifically valid venues on topics that have yet to be investigated. This proposal builds on the PIs prior success with both International Polar Year funding for a program that took underserved students to Antarctica (PLR 0632360), funding for undergraduate cyberinfrastructure training (DUE 0733055), and funding for a GK-12 program (DGE 0947993).

A series of novel and vertically integrated CUREs will be designed that are: i) implemented in both lower and upper-division courses; b) focused in the area of data-intensive ecosystem ecology; and c) constructed in a manner intended to enhance students' cognitive and non-cognitive attributes. Arctic ecologists and a specialist in education research will collaborate to design the CUREs and complete a formal evaluation of the educational impact of the proposed activities. Tutorials implemented across the curriculum, as well as web-based resources, will facilitate skills development and transfer of knowledge and data.

Nearly 200 students will be impacted directly by this program, which will serve to reinforce a pipeline of students, especially Hispanic students, into UTEP graduate programs. Existing archived Arctic data resources will be applied in a training environment; new complementary data will be collected, integrated, analyzed, published and archived using standardized format and best practice. Through contributions to CUREnet and other online media, the PIs will also support adoption by other institutions. Presentations of results will occur at local to national scales and be published in peer-reviewed journals, and additional outreach activities in El Paso and Barrow will also impact high school and community college students.

Arctic ecosystems are changing in response to arctic warming, which is proceeding more than twice as fast as the global average. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) was established in the early 1990s to understand the effects of warming and environmental variability on tundra vegetation properties and ecosystem function. The ITEX program has been extremely valuable for detection of changes in tundra plant and ecosystem responses to experimental warming and to background climate change across sites that span the major ecosystems of the Arctic. In 2007, the Alaskan and Greenland ITEX sites were combined into an Arctic Observatory Network (AON). The current ITEX AON project will continue to document and understand Arctic terrestrial vegetation change and its ecosystem consequences by maintaining the long-term datasets of the ITEX-AON. The warming experiment of ITEX-AON allows us to assign the cause for observed changes in response to warming instead of relying on simple correlations. This project provides urgently needed data on changes in vegetation and the importance of these changes for ecosystem services from a variety of Arctic ecosystems. This project will provide training for postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students in the emerging fields of remote sensing, cybertechnology and big-data analysis. The project will include outreach activities through strong relationships with the CLEO Institute in Miami; the Grand Valley State University Regional Math and Science Center; and K-12 school systems in Miami, Anchorage, Grand Rapids and El Paso. All data from this project are and will be freely available at the NSF Arctic Data Center.

The core datasets of the proposed research include manual observations of phenology, vegetation structure and composition, and ecosystem function (carbon flux and nutrient cycling) on long-term ITEX control and experimental warming plots, repeat measurement of vegetation plots on the long-term 1 km2 vegetation grids, and a multifactor warming/moisture experiment in Greenland. In 2009, the sampling scheme was expanded to include a larger spatial component to amplify the value of the measurements collected. This expansion included the addition of phenocams, automated mobile sensor platforms, and medium-scale aerial imagery. The automated platforms measure a suite of vegetation surface properties with minimal effort across focal transects spanning strong moisture and microtopographic gradients at a near-daily frequency. These measurements capture the fine-scale changes in vegetation over the growing season that are missed by lower frequency manual measurements and provide a bridge between manual measurements and aerial imagery. Medium-scale aerial imagery, using Kite Aerial or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, is acquired throughout the growing season for scaling of manual and automated measurements; satellite imagery is referenced to medium-scale aerial imagery to aid scaling of responses to the regional level. In the newest phase of AON ITEX, we are particularly focused on understanding the relationship between landscape subsidence as a result of permafrost thaw and vegetation structure and function because of the potential for significant positive feedbacks to climate change.

The overarching goal of the project is to understand tundra ecosystem change across landscape types and enable realistic forecasts of change across the Arctic. The power of the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX)- Arctic Observatory Network (AON) is founded on a capacity to synthesize and compare results across sites that use standardized sampling protocols. Specifically, this project will (1) maintain the data-streams at ITEX-AON sites in Alaska near Toolik Lake, Imnavait Creek, Utqiagvik (Barrow), and Atqasuk; (2) lead two new ITEX network syntheses focused on soil carbon and phenocam imagery; (3) increase scientific literacy; and, (4) expand citizen science opportunities across communities in northern Alaska. The project will sustain an array of large and publicly available data-streams documenting ecosystem change occurring across the Arctic and will team up with citizen scientists to expand the monitoring footprint of the network and the societal relevance of this work to communities across the North Slope of Alaska.

The ITEX network was chartered in 1990 to document and understand the ecological impacts of a warming Arctic. The US-led ITEX projects expanded their monitoring efforts across a larger spatial area with the use of automated sampling to form an Arctic Observatory Network (AON) in 2009. The ITEX-AON currently includes traditional ITEX measurements (phenology, cover, carbon flux and nutrient cycling), as well as phenocams, automated mobile sensor platforms (MISP) and mid-scale aerial imagery of 1 km2 ARCSS (Arctic System Science) grids established in the 1990s. In this phase of the project, collection of core data sets will be sustained and new data sets will be added with the aim of identifying and understanding patterns of change and feedbacks. Specifically, ITEX-AON will expand its collection of vegetation functional traits to better understand ecosystem response and predict future change. ITEX-AON will also further expand automated measurements to link plot level change (sampled by hand or with hand-held equipment) with landscape level observations (sampled by phenocams or drones) and high resolution regional imagery (sampled by aircraft or satellite). The new phase of ITEX-AON will include two synthesis efforts: (1) an examination of soil carbon dynamics across the ITEX network, and (2) a multi-scale phenological analysis using phenocam and high resolution satellite imagery to determine fine-scale spatiotemporal patterns of seasonal greening trends across the Arctic. Mentoring of postdocs, and training of graduate and undergraduate students are some of the primary broader impacts of this project. The project will continue to provide a test bed for engineering and software development that will be shared freely among the ITEX network and broader science community and will expand outreach activities aimed at improving science literacy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

1927553 (Jones) 1927137 (Xiao) 1927373 (Tweedie) Permafrost coastal systems are one of the most rapidly changing components of the Earth's systems. The Permafrost Coastal Systems Network (PerCS-Net) project will fill fundamental knowledge gaps in science, engineering, and societal issues associated with permafrost-affected coasts in the Arctic by linking over ten existing national and international networks. PerCS-Net will position our nation alongside international collaborators to empower new research communities, diversify Arctic researchers, engage in the co-production of knowledge, and promote long-lasting team science required to face the known and emerging challenges of the changing Arctic. This network of networks will develop internationally recognized protocols for quantifying and synthesizing information on the impacts occurring in coastal permafrost systems. It will also provide a framework to assess risks to local and global economies and to transfer knowledge that will lead to adaptation strategies across Arctic regions. PerCS-Net will promote synergy across networks to foster the next generation of students, postdoctoral scholars, and early-career researchers charged with identifying potential solutions to changes occurring in the Arctic system.

There is no place more representative of the challenges faced at the intersection of natural, social, and built systems than the Arctic. PerCS-Net will develop a transdisciplinary umbrella network to synergize existing datasets, expand observations in space and time, integrate in-situ sensing techniques, coordinate goals among networks, and engage in synthesis efforts. The new knowledge will inform intergovernmental agencies as well as international research and outreach programs to make science-based decisions and policies in adapting to permafrost coastal system dynamics. Network activities include annual in-person meetings at national and international venues, monthly webinar meetings, outreach in Arctic coastal communities, synthesis publications, and student and early-career researcher personnel exchanges. Expected outcomes of PerCS-Net will integrate into a framework for transformative knowledge sharing from individuals and organizations cooperating across political, cultural, and disciplinary borders to address critical science, engineering, and social issues in response to permafrost coastal systems in the changing Arctic.

The Accelerating Research through International Network-to-Network Collaborations (AccelNet) program is designed to accelerate the process of scientific discovery and prepare the next generation of U.S. researchers for multiteam international collaborations. The AccelNet program supports strategic linkages among U.S. research networks and complementary networks abroad that will leverage research and educational resources to tackle grand scientific challenges that require significant coordinated international efforts. This project was co-funded by the Arctic System Science Program in the Office of Polar Programs.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The causes and consequences of Arctic change are so complex that it takes a community-focused effort to understand the current pressures on Arctic social-ecological systems. This award supports a multi-disciplinary, inter-generational, cross-cultural, and forward-looking conference that brings together participants to focus on enhancing arctic science and engineering (EASE) in conjunction with the 75th Anniversary of the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. The EASE workshop serves the interest of the nation by bringing together agencies, universities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, local officials, students, and Indigenous knowledge holders to demonstrate the achievements of collaborative and community-based research in Utqiaġvik and the greater North Slope region of Alaska, while envisioning future research efforts in the Arctic. The EASE workshop will provide a forum to exchange past research successes and challenges that can guide the advancement of future research and knowledge co-production in Utqiaġvik, across the North Slope, and in the Arctic for the next generation. Broader impacts of the workshop are grounded in a legacy of promoting sustainable Arctic science in Utqiaġvik, as a model for the circumpolar north, being guided by the important role of Iñupiat peoples in furthering scientific understanding of climatic and social-ecological change in the rapidly changing Arctic. The event includes several opportunities for facilitated dialog with business and industry representatives and local government with the aim of aligning future capacity-building investment in science infrastructure with the needs of the science community in collaboration with the local Indigenous community. With the inclusion of tribal, regional and state planners, including Indigenous leaders and students, the workshop will broaden participation from underrepresented groups and diverse institutions in scientific dialog and knowledge sharing to build capacity for further contributions to science and engineering.<br/><br/>This is an unprecedented time to study changes occurring in the Arctic. The impacts of melting sea ice, melting ice sheets, thawing permafrost, ecosystem reorganization, and associated human interactions represent complex issues requiring a reflection on the past, a focus on the current state, and a coordinated and collaborative discussion about priorities for future research and capacity-building investments in Arctic science and engineering. The EASE Workshop is a 5-day, single-session workshop focusing on a summary of science and engineering in Utqiaġvik and the greater North Slope region over the last 75 years, an assessment of the current state of the science and engineering, and a prospectus on science and engineering in the Arctic over the next 25 years. Specific topics or themes of the workshop include marine and coastal research, terrestrial and freshwater research, atmospheric research, social science research, co-production of knowledge, convergent research, and education and outreach opportunities. The outcome of the EASE workshop will provide a roadmap that can be used to guide future research endeavors and investments in Arctic science and engineering that span several disciplines and knowledge frameworks that align with the mission and vision of the NSF Office of Polar Programs. The EASE workshop will contribute to six of the NSF’s 10 Big Ideas: Navigating the New Arctic (NNA), Growing Convergence Research, NSF INCLUDES, Harnessing the Data Revolution, Mid-scale Research Infrastructure, and NSF 2026. The workshop will also build on the policy drivers, priority areas, and foundational activities to enhance societal outcomes outlined in the 2022-2026 Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee Arctic Research Plan.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.