Kronstal and Cullen
By Christine Roulston
Two University of Victoria scientists have received federal funding to conduct cutting-edge research in the Arctic.
Dr. Jay Cullen, faculty member in earth and ocean sciences, and Alana Kronstal, master’s student in the Studies in Policy and Practice program, will be contributing research towards the International Polar Year (IPY), a large scientific program focused on examining physical, biological and social issues in the Arctic and the Antarctic.
IPY is organized from March 2007 to March 2009 through the International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization and involves over 200 projects, with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations.
“IPY takes place only every 50 years, and this year, as climate change has moved to the forefront it’s exciting to be a part of this,” says Cullen. “Nowhere are the effects of climate change more pronounced than in the polar regions.”
Cullen is part of an 11-member research team from six institutions that will study climate change and its effect on Arctic sea ice cover.
Sea ice plays an important role in the biological productivity of the Arctic. The growth of marine algae is highest at the ice edge during the brief summer period. Algae provide the main source of nourishment for fish—algae can also serve to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
“Will the Arctic be as productive as the climate warms?” asks Cullen. “That is what we want to determine. We know as sea ice melts more light reaches the water, spurring the growth of algae. We also know that more productivity in the ocean means less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But we’re not sure if, on the whole, ice melting will enhance this carbon dioxide exchange or have the opposite effect.”
Specifically, Cullen will look at how melting ice cover may affect the distribution of iron in the ocean, an element that all organisms, including algae, need to survive.
On the social side of life in the Arctic, Alana Kronstal is part of a team looking into how rapid industrial development and climate change in the North impacts residents’ health and well-being.
Growing up in Yellowknife, Kronstal witnessed first-hand the impacts of new development.
“I wondered why certain groups benefit while others do so poorly in the face of wealth and development,” she says.
After completing a BSc in health promotion, she returned to the North to work in community-based research in the Northwest Territories and Yukon.
Before beginning her master’s at UVic, Krontal began to look into how she could get involved with an IPY project. She is now a co-investigator on a multidisciplinary project led by a Canadian-Norwegian research team studying the risks and benefits of oil and gas activity on people in the Arctic using a multiple securities perspective.
“Multiple securities means looking at human security in a broad context,” says Kronstal. “Instead of just focusing on things like national security, it takes into account various faces of security, such as human health and environmental security.”
Kronstal’s contribution to the project involves examining how changes in the Arctic are affecting front-line community health practitioners. “They are the people who are witnessing the effects of this first-hand,” says Kronstal. “They have a tremendous expertise that needs to be shared.”
For more on IPY, visit http://www.ipy.org/
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