Witness the Arctic | Volume 15, Number 3 - Fall

Witness the Arctic (WTA) had the opportunity to talk with Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC; http://nsidc.org/) and Jim Moore of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR; http://ncar.ucar.edu/) who lead the Advanced Cooperative Arctic Data and Information Service (ACADIS) team. We asked each of them a few questions about the new data management service. Here are excerpts from those conversations.
(Further information about ACADIS is available in this issue of Witness.)

Building on the Cooperative Arctic Data and Information Service (CADIS; http://www.aoncadis.org/), the NSF- funded Advanced CADIS (ACADIS) system is being developed to address the growing and increasingly diverse data management needs of the NSF arctic research community. In July 2011, NSF awarded a four-year continuing grant to the team of ACADIS investigators from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and the [National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)](http://ncar.ucar.edu

The SEARCH Science Steering Committee (SSC) met in August 2011 in Denver, Colorado to continue its strategic planning activities. The SSC made significant progress on five-year priority science goals to guide future SEARCH activities.

The Arctic is home to over 40 indigenous languages from at least six unrelated language families: Uralic, Altaic, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Eskimo-Aleut, Dene-Yeniseian, Yukagir, and Nivkh. Rapid change in the Arctic has led to the endangerment or extinction of these indigenous languages and the relative geographic isolation of the Arctic makes it difficult to track the languages and their changes.

ISAC, in partnership with SEARCH and supported by International Arctic Research Center UAF, held a meeting 30 May-1 June focused on international collaboration and cooperation in arctic environmental change programs.

The Obama Administration's fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget request, released on 14 February 2011, would provide $7.8 billion for NSF, an increase of 13% above the 2010 enacted level. This request includes $477.41 million for NSF's Office of Polar Programs and $112.94 million for the Arctic Sciences Division, 5.8% and 6.2% increases respectively over the level enacted for FY 2010. (Note: a full-year continuing appropriations act, enacted on 15 April 2011, funded NSF at $6.8 billion for FY 2011, a 1.5% reduction from the FY 2010 enacted spending level. FY 2011 ended on 30 September 2011.)

On 28 September 2011, NSF awarded CH2M HILL Constructors the Arctic Research Support and Logistics Contract to provide research support and logistics services for NSF-sponsored research in the Arctic. Since 1999, CH2M HILL has teamed with subcontractors Polar Field Services and SRI International to form CH2M HILL Polar Services (CPS). A new partner, UMIAQ, will join the CPS team for the contract period beginning in October 2011.

In May 2011, the Polar Research Board (PRB) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences issued a workshop report that identifies a set of frontier research questions intended to help scientists better understand the impacts of climate change on polar ecosystems. The report, Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems, illustrates many of the observable impacts of climate change already occurring in the polar regions and builds on this knowledge to highlight the major topics in polar ecosystem science to be addressed in the coming decades.

Mobilization of carbon from permafrost soils and a reduction in sea-ice cover are two major manifestations of a warming Arctic. Both have the potential to perturb the Arctic Ocean carbon cycle, with attendant ramifications for the marine ecosystems and human populations that depend on them. Despite evidence that rapid changes are underway, our understanding of current biogeochemical processes within the central Arctic Ocean, and when and how they will respond in the future, remains limited. This lack of understanding hinders our ability to predict whether the Arctic will serve as a net carbon dioxide (CO₂) source or sink for atmospheric carbon as well as how coastal and pelagic ecosystems will be perturbed in response to climate change.

In July 2010 the National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, our Coasts, and the Great Lakes was established by President Obama through Executive Order to improve coordination of federal efforts and communication with state, local, and tribal governments in the management of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources. Also known as the National Ocean Policy (NOP), it provides stewardship principles to guide resource management and establishes a flexible framework for effective coastal and marine spatial planning. The NOP identifies nine priority objectives to address the most pressing

There now exists abundant evidence that pervasive changes are underway in the patterns of seasonality in the Arctic. Shifts in the timing, length, and pattern of individual seasonal events are occurring throughout the arctic system, including physical events (e.g., ocean and atmospheric circulation and fluxes, precipitation, sudden thaws, presence of ice and snow), biological events (e.g., plant phenology, animal life history events) and human activities (e.g., resource use, industrial activities).

In September 2011 Sarah Crowley joined the ARCUS staff as Education Project Manager. Sarah replaces Kristin Timm, who received a fellowship to pursue her graduate studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

In March 2011, I was appointed Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC), which is a great honor and an opportunity to help achieve the goals of the Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984—to advise both the President and Congress on national research policy and priorities for the Arctic. The Commission also offers recommendations to the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) and assists in developing agency plans to achieve improved arctic research programs. The Commission has identified five research goals, which are now evolving into a five-year Arctic Research