UAA Ph.D. student leads Arctic research expedition down Alaska's Colville River

For the next two weeks, a Ph.D. student with UAA's Environment and Natural Resources Institute (ENRI), Ken Tape, along with ENRI undergraduate research assistant Ty Spaulding and two other colleagues are floating the Colville River from Impnavik to the Colville-Anaktuvuk River confluence.

The purpose of their trip is to survey the landscapes that adjoin the river and to conduct research to examine why large stands of woody shrubs are expanding in some locations but not in others. The group will measure soil chemistry and soil water properties in several expanding and non-expanding shrub islands and will collect soils and vegetation for nutrition and integrative leaf physiology measurements. Read more.