Interdisciplinary Research Symposium

Monday, 29 October 2012, 5-7:30 PM

University of Alaska Fairbanks Wood Center Ballroom

Please join the University of Alaska Fairbanks Resilience and Adaptation Program for our first Interdisciplinary Research Symposium! The event is free and open to UAF students, faculty, the public, or anyone interested in interdisciplinary research and Arctic issues. The event includes a student poster session, keynote speaker with extended question and answer session, and light food and drinks.

5:00-6:00 PM                        Student Poster Session

 

6:00-6:45 PM            Keynote Presentation: Oran R. Young, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara

Governance in Turbulent Times: Where is the Arctic going, and what should we do about it?

 

6:45-7:30 PM                        Panel Discussion and Question & Answer Session

Interdisciplinary Poster Session: 

UAF undergraduate or graduate students with interdisciplinary research projects or work that focuses on the topics of human-environmental relationships, conservation, sustainability, resilience, adaptation, vulnerability, and transformation are encouraged to bring a poster to share! Work from any stage in the research process is invited, and posters from previous conferences are welcome. Poster printing support is available to a limited number of students, and a $500 conference travel grant will be awarded to one participating student! 

To sign up for the poster session, please e-mail rap.students@gmail.com with your name, department, title of your poster and 1-2 sentence description. Let us know if you would like support for printing your poster. Someone will follow up with you with further information, but Posters must be hung between 4:30 and 5 PM on Monday. The travel grant will be awarded at the end of the keynote presentation (must be present to win). 

Keynote Presentation Description:

From Dr. Young: In this lecture, I argue that the Arctic treated as a socio-ecological system will experience increased volatility during the foreseeable future and that this development will heighten the need for governance to maintain the resilience of the system. I then turn to the development of a toolkit for those responsible for governance in turbulent times. In the process, I discuss the need for enhanced monitoring and reporting systems, the uses of simulation and scenarios to increase understanding of emergent properties in complex systems, the prospects for devising early warning indicators, approaches to decision making under uncertainty, and procedures to improve adaptiveness in volatile settings. What is needed to integrate these measures into a coherent package is a discourse that articulates the rationale for governance in turbulent times and provides guidance for those seeking to bring these tools to bear in addressing specific problems.

More information:

For questions or more information, please email rap.students@gmail.com.

This symposium is possible due to the generous support of the UAF Resilience and Adaptation Program, the UAF Graduate School, and the Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity program.  

Human Impacts on the Oceans

Antarctic seas in the balance: Plans to protect swathes of ocean face tough test.

By Daniel Cressey

October 17, 2012

http://www.nature.com/news/antarctic-seas-in-the-balance-1.11600

"Rich in fish, minerals and scientific potential, the seas around Antarctica are among the planet’s most pristine waters — but fishing vessels are already moving in. Next week, negotiators at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR, pronounced ‘cam-lar’) may try to contain the accelerating rush to access the region’s natural resources. At stake is one of the planet’s last great wildernesses — as well as the credibility of the international body set up to protect Antarctica’s marine life."

The Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS)

Source: http://www.scar.org/soos/

 

The Southern Ocean provides the principal connection between the Earth's ocean basins and between the upper and lower layers of the global ocean circulation. As a result, the Southern Ocean strongly influences climate patterns and the cycling of carbon and nutrients. Changes in the Southern Ocean would therefore have global ramifications. However, the short and incomplete nature of existing time series makes the causes and consequences of observed changes difficult to assess. Sustained, multi-disciplinary observations are required to detect, interpret and respond to change.

The Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) plan outlines the scientific rationale and strategy for the SOOS; identifies the variables to be observed; presents a draft plan for an integrated multi-disciplinary observing system for the Southern Ocean; and identifies the next steps required for implementation.

A final version of the SOOS plan is currently being formatted for printing. It will also be available online as a pdf.

News

• A SOOS website is currently being developed. For further details, please contact the SOOS Executive Officer, Louise Newman (email: Louise.Newman (at) utas.edu.au)
• A SOOS International Project Office (IPO) is being established in Australia, supported by the new Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania in Hobart (www.imas.utas.edu.au). The SOOS IPO will be co-located with Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) (www.imos.org.au). Louise Newman was appointed as Executive Officer from August 2011.
• The SCAR/SCOR Expert Group on Oceanography will act as a Scientific Steering Committee for SOOS.