ENRI's Isotope Hydrology Program featured at NSF workshop in Colorado

The UAA Environment and Natural Resources Institute (ENRI) contributed three talks at the internationally attended "The role of stable isotopes in water cycle research" workshop in Keystone, Colorado in late March.

The Biosphere-Atmosphere Stable Isotope Network (BASIN), a National Science Foundation-funded Research Coordination Network, hosted the event March 29-31, 2011. The workshop explored the changing water cycle of the globe and the use of sophisticated tools at multiple scales to understand the processes governing the water cycle from arctic to desert systems.

ENRI presenters included postdoctoral scientists Jessica Cable (ENRI-IARC joint appointment) and Camille Risi (CU Boulder collaborator with David Noone), and ENRI Director Jeff Welker and colleagues.

Highlights include discoveries that: a) there is evidence for permafrost melt water use by woody plants in Alaska tundra; b) that boreal forest tree water tracks the isotope traits of precipitation and; c) the patterns of Alaska isotopes in precipitation are now being integrated into a spatially explicit format as part of Alaska Water Isotope Network (AKWIN). AKWIN can be applied to migratory bird forensics, understanding linkages between stream/river water and precipitation isotope characteristics as well as climate reconstructions using ice cores and tree rings and understanding the role of changing climates on the Alaska water cycle.

To read more about ENRI's Stable Isotope Laboratory and the AKWIN and USNIP networks, visit the ENRI website: www.uaa.alaska.edu/enri/.

Mount Blackburn in Wrangle St. Elias National Park is one of many sites where the new Alaska Water Isotope Network will collect precipitation, river and lake water samples as part of ENRI's statewide study of the isotope geochemistry of the hydrological cycle.