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Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Report of a Workshop (2011)

Chapter: Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Report of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13132.
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Appendix D
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

Jacqueline M. Grebmeier (Co-chair) is a research professor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Her research interests include: pelagic-benthic coupling, benthic carbon cycling, and benthic faunal population structure in the marine environment; understanding how water column processes influence biological productivity in Arctic waters and sediments, how materials are exchanged between the sea bed and overlying waters, and documenting longer-term trends in ecosystem health of Arctic continental shelves. Some of her research includes analyses of the importance of benthic organisms to higher levels of the Arctic food web, including walruses, gray whale, and diving sea ducks, and studies of radionuclide distributions of sediments and within the water column in the Arctic as a whole. Dr. Grebmeier earned her Ph.D. in biological oceanography in 1987 from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She is the current U.S. Delegate and Vice-President of the International Arctic Science Committee and a past U.S. Presidential appointee to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission.


John C. Priscu (Co-chair) is a professor of ecology at Montana State University at Bozeman. His research interests are microbial biogeochemistry in polar aquatic systems emphasizing the roles of nitrogen and phosphorus in microbial growth, as well as life associated with Antarctic ice and its relationship to global change and astrobiology. He studies the biogeophysics of ice-covered lakes and ice cores in northern and southern polar regions. He is a former U.S. representative to the Scientific Committee on

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Report of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13132.
×

Antarctic Research (SCAR) and convened the Scientific Research Program on Sub-glacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE). Dr. Priscu earned his Ph.D. in microbial ecology in 1982 from the University of California at Davis.


Rosanne D’Arrigo is a Lamont Research Professor at the Tree-Ring Laboratory of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) in Palisades, New York. She is also the Associate Director of the Biology and Paleoenvironment Division at LDEO. Her field of study is dendrochronology, specifically the development and analysis of paleoclimatic reconstructions based on tree-ring data. Her research interests include the generation of large-scale reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere temperatures, analysis of the “divergence problem” in tree-ring records from northern latitudes, and the reconstruction of the climate dynamics of Monsoon Asia. Dr. D’Arrigo received her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from Columbia University in 1989.


Hugh W. Ducklow is the Director of the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Dr. Ducklow is a biological oceanographer and has been studying the dynamics of plankton foodwebs in estuaries, the coastal ocean, and the open sea since 1980. He and his students have worked principally on microbial foodwebs and the role of heterotrophic bacteria in the marine carbon cycle. Dr. Ducklow has participated in oceanographic cruises in Chesapeake Bay, the western North Atlantic Ocean, the Bermuda and Hawaii Time Series stations, the Black Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Ross Sea, the Southern Ocean, the Equatorial Pacific, and the Great Barrier Reef. Much of the work was done in the decade-long Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), which he led in the late 1990s. He has been working on various projects in Antarctica since 1994. Currently, Dr. Ducklow leads the Palmer Antarctica Long Term Ecological Research Project on the west Antarctic Peninsula, where he is investigating the responses of the marine ecosystem to rapid climate warming. Although his research is primarily experimental and observational, he utilizes mathematical models and collaborates with modelers to gain deeper understanding and derive maximum benefit from the data we collect. Dr. Ducklow received his PhD from Harvard University in 1977.


Craig Fleener is the Director of the Division of Subsistence in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and a lifelong Alaskan from Fort Yukon. He has worked as an environmental manager, project coordinator, wildlife biologist, natural resources director and Executive Director of the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments. Fleener has served in the military for more than 21 years and is currently an Intelligence Officer in the Alaska

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Report of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13132.
×

Air National Guard. He has served on numerous boards and committees, including Gwich’in Council International, the Alaska Native Health Board, and the Eastern Interior Subsistence Federal Regional Advisory Committee. He served as deputy mayor of Fort Yukon, and is a member of the Alaska Board of Game. Fleener holds a Bachelor of Science degree in natural resource management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and has completed substantial graduate work in resource management at the University of Calgary. Mr. Fleener recently received an MS from the Resources and Environment Program at the University of Calgary.


Karen Frey is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University (Worcester, MA). Karen earned a B.A. (1998) in Geological Sciences from Cornell University, as well as an M.A. (2000) and a Ph.D. (2005) from the Department of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests involve the combined use of field measurements, satellite remote sensing, and GIS to study large-scale linkages between land, atmosphere, ocean, and ice in polar environments. Over the past decade, she has conducted field-based research in West Siberia and East Siberia, as well as in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas. Her most recent work focuses on impacts of permafrost thaw on river biogeochemistry and impacts of sea ice decline on biological productivity in polar shelf environments.


Cheryl Rosa currently serves as Deputy Director and Anchorage-based Alaska Director of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. In this position, she assists the seven-member, presidentially appointed Commission in its efforts to strengthen Arctic research and ties to the State of Alaska and international partners. Dr. Rosa received a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Tufts University and a Doctorate in Biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is a Research Biologist and Wildlife Veterinarian for the North Slope Borough (NSB) Department of Wildlife Management in Barrow, Alaska. Her term appointment to the USARC, from the NSB, is through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program. Dr. Rosa has been active on the North Slope in a wide range of studies, including wildlife health and zoonotic disease, marine mammal stranding response, subsistence food safety, and oil spill/offshore discharge research. Her fieldwork includes marine and terrestrial mammal research in both the United States and Russia. Dr. Rosa has been active on many different local, state, and federal committees. She has served as an advisor to the North Slope Borough Fish and Game Management Committee, the Joint Commissions of the Inuvialuit Game Commission and the North Slope Borough, and the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. She is also a member of the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Report of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13132.
×

the Science Advisory Panel of the North Pacific Research Board, and the Polar Bear Technical Committee (past). Dr. Rosa has worked and lived in the Arctic for almost a decade. Her background and experience provide a strong connection between the people of the North and Arctic researchers.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Report of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13132.
×
Page 73
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Report of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13132.
×
Page 74
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Report of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13132.
×
Page 75
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Report of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13132.
×
Page 76
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The polar regions are experiencing rapid changes in climate. These changes are causing observable ecological impacts of various types and degrees of severity at all ecosystem levels, including society. Even larger changes and more significant impacts are anticipated. As species respond to changing environments over time, their interactions with the physical world and other organisms can also change. This chain of interactions can trigger cascades of impacts throughout entire ecosystems. Evaluating the interrelated physical, chemical, biological, and societal components of polar ecosystems is essential to understanding their vulnerability and resilience to climate forcing.

The Polar Research Board (PRB) organized a workshop to address these issues. Experts gathered from a variety of disciplines with knowledge of both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Participants were challenged to consider what is currently known about climate change and polar ecosystems and to identify the next big questions in the field. A set of interdisciplinary "frontier questions" emerged from the workshop discussions as important topics to be addressed in the coming decades. To begin to address these questions, workshop participants discussed the need for holistic, interdisciplinary systems approach to understanding polar ecosystem responses to climate change. As an outcome of the workshop, participants brainstormed methods and technologies that are crucial to advance the understanding of polar ecosystems and to promote the next generation of polar research. These include new and emerging technologies, sustained long-term observations, data synthesis and management, and data dissemination and outreach.

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