UAA researchers awarded $700K from NSF to study white spruce at the arctic treeline

Patrick Sullivan, research scientist with the UAA Environment and Natural Resources Institute (ENRI), and Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson, interim director of ENRI and Professor in the UAA Department of Biological Sciences, have been awarded $680,900 from the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Arctic System Science Program for their "Longitudinal variation in the physiology, growth and reproduction of white spruce at the Arctic treeline in Alaska" research project.

In this three-year study scheduled to begin in September 2012, Sullivan and Sveinbjornsson will examine microclimates in western, central and eastern Brooks Range locations to evaluate factors that affect the advance or regression of the Arctic treeline. The researchers' previous work in the Brooks Range indicated that increases in temperature were sometimes linked to slower expansion and/or regression of the Arctic treeline.

Sullivan and Sveinbjornsson will measure canopy gas exchange throughout the growing seasons to quantify the effects of stressors such as drought and cold soils; will determine the growth of trees at treeline and will correlate their findings with seasonality data; will analyze trees' seed production rates and seed quality; and will assess the establishment and performance of seedlings in longitudinal experimental areas to assess the health of these white spruce forests at the Arctic treeline.