Impacts of wildfire and landscape factors on organic soil properties in Arctic tussock tundra

Tundra ecosystems contain some of the largest stores of soil organic carbon among all biomes worldwide. Wildfire, the primary disturbance agent in Arctic tundra, is likely to impact soil properties in ways that enable carbon release and modify ecosystem functioning more broadly through impacts on organic soils, based on evidence from a recent extreme Anaktuvuk River Fire (ARF). However, comparatively little is known about the long-term impacts of typical tundra fires that are short-lived and transient. Here we quantitatively investigated how these transient tundra fires and other landscape factors affected organic soil properties, including soil organic layer (SOL) thickness, soil temperature, and soil moisture, in the tussock tundra. We examined extensive field observations collected from nearly 200 plots across a wide range of fire-impacted tundra regions in AK within the scope of NASA\u27s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment. We found an overall shallower SOL in our field regions (∼15 cm on average) compared to areas with no known fire record or the ARF (∼20 cm or thicker), suggesting that estimations based on evidence from the extreme ARF event could result in gross overestimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock and fire impacts across the tundra. Typical tundra fires could be too short-lived to result in substantial SOL consumption and yield less robust results of SOL and carbon storage. Yet, repeated fires may amount to a larger amount of SOC loss than one single severe burning. As expected, our study showed that wildfire could affect soil moisture and temperature in the tussock tundra over decades after the fire, with drier and warmer soils found to be associated with more frequent and severe burnings. Soil temperature was also associated with vegetation cover and air temperature

Fire disturbance effects on land surface albedo in Alaskan tundra

The study uses satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer albedo products (MCD43A3) to assess changes in albedo at two sites in the treeless tundra region of Alaska, both within the foothills region of the Brooks Range, the 2007 Anaktuvuk River Fire (ARF) and 2012 Kucher Creek Fire (KCF). Results are compared to each other and other studies to assess the magnitude of albedo change and the longevity of impact of fire on land surface albedo. In both sites there was a marked decrease of albedo in the year following the fire. In the ARF, albedo slowly increased until 4 years after the fire, when it returned to albedo values prior to the fire. For the year immediately after the fire, a threefold difference in the shortwave albedo decrease was found between the two sites. ARF showed a 45.3% decrease, while the KCF showed a 14.1% decrease in shortwave albedo, and albedo is more variable in the KCF site than ARF site 1 year after the fire. These differences are possibly the result of differences in burn severity of the two fires, wherein the ARF burned more completely with more contiguous patches of complete burn than KCF. The impact of fire on average growing season (April–September) surface shortwave forcing in the year following fire is estimated to be 13.24 ± 6.52 W m−2 at the ARF site, a forcing comparable to studies in other treeless ecosystems. Comparison to boreal studies and the implications to energy flux are discussed in the context of future increases in fire occurrence and severity in a warming climate

Assessing Boreal Peat Fire Severity and Vulnerability of Peatlands to Early Season Wildland Fire

Globally peatlands store large amounts of carbon belowground with 80% distributed in boreal regions of the northern hemisphere. Climate warming and drying of the boreal region has been documented as affecting fire regimes, with increased fire frequency, severity and extent. While much research is dedicated to assessing changes in boreal uplands, few research efforts are focused on the vulnerability of boreal peatlands to wildfire. In this case study, an integration of field data collection, land cover mapping of peatland types and Landsat-based fire severity mapping was conducted for four early season (May to mid-June) wildfires where peatlands are abundant in northeastern Alberta Canada. The goal was to better understand if peatlands burn more or less preferentially than uplands in fires and how severely the organic soil layers (peat) of different peatland ecotypes burn. The focus was on early season wildfires because they dominated the research area in the decade of study. To do this, a novel Landsat-5 metric was developed to retrieve fire severity of the organic surface layer. Spatial comparisons and statistical analysis showed that proportionally bogs are more likely to burn in early season Alberta wildfires than other ecosystem types, even fire-prone upland conifer. Although for a small sample, we found that when fire weather conditions for the duff layers are severe, the fens of this study appear to become more susceptible to burning. In addition, overall bogs experienced greater severity of burn to the peat layers than fens. Due to the small sample size of peat loss from fire in uplands and limited geographic area of this case study, we were unable to assess if bogs are burning more severely than uplands. Further analysis and Landsat algorithm development for organic soil fire severity in peatlands and uplands are needed to more fully understand trends in belowground consumption for wildfires of all seasons and boreal ecotypes

BathyBoat: An Autonomous Surface Vessel for Stand-alone Survey and Underwater Vehicle Network Supervision

Exploration of remote environments, once the domain of intrepid adventurers, can now be conducted in relative safety using unmanned vehicles. This article describes the joint University of Michigan (UMich) and Michigan Tech Research Institute’s project to design and to build a new autonomous surface vessel (ASV) for use in research, education, and resource management as well as in the commercial sector. Originally designed to assist with bathymetric surveys in the wilderness of northern Alaska, the BathyBoat has become a test-bed platform for new research in collaborative heterogeneous underwater robotic search and survey missions in ports, harbors, lakes, and rivers. The UMich Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories are actively researching autonomous technologies such as cooperative navigation, surface vessel control, and multivehicle search and survey using the BathyBoat and the UMich Perceptual Robotics Laboratory’s Iver2 autonomous underwater vehicles. This article presents an overview of these research topics and highlights relevant real-world testing and recent missions involving the BathyBoat ASV on Alaska’s North Slope, the harbors of Illinois, and various riverine environments in Michigan.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83223/1/2010e_MTS_Journal.pd

BathyBoat: Autonomous surface command and control for underwater vehicle networks

This paper reports the preparation of two modified Ocean-Server AUV systems and the construction of a new autonomous surface vessel (ASV) for cooperative simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) research at the University of Michigan (UMich). The Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories (MHL) has designed and fabricated the new ASV BathyBoat to serve as a targeted remote sensing platform and a mobile command and control center for underwater search and survey activities performed by UMich Perceptual Robotics Laboratory (PeRL) AUVs. The ASV is outfitted with a suite of sensors including a RadarSonics 250 acoustic depth sensor, Garmin WAAS-enabled GPS, Honeywell HMR3300 digital compass and accelerometer, Vernier CON-BTA conductivity probe, a WHOI Micro-Modem for two-way communication with the AUVs, and other sensors discussed subsequently. Wireless data transmission from the surface offers the ability to monitor, in real-time, the state of the AUVs. In addition, updated mission objectives can be relayed, from ship or shore, through the ASV for mid- mission adjustments. Ongoing scientific and engineering research objectives are discussed, along with an overview of the new autonomous surface vessel and a summary of field trials on the North Slope of Alaska.NSF #IIS 0746455ONR #N00014-07-1-0791Michigan Tech Research Institutehttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65070/1/UI2010_Final.pd

Advancing socioecological mental health promotion intervention: A mixed methods exploration of Phase 1 Agenda Gap findings

Introduction: Protecting and promoting the mental health of youth under 30 years of age is a priority, globally. Yet investment in mental health promotion, which seeks to strengthen the determinants of positive mental health and wellbeing, remains limited relative to prevention, treatment, and recovery. The aim of this paper is to contribute empirical evidence to guide innovation in youth mental health promotion, detailing the early outcomes of Agenda Gap, an intervention centering youth-led policy advocacy to influence positive mental health for individuals, families, communities and society.Methods: Leveraging a convergent mixed methods design, this study draws on data from n = 18 youth (ages 15 to 17) in British Columbia, Canada, who contributed to pre- and post-intervention surveys and post-intervention qualitative interviews following their participation in Agenda Gap from 2020-2021. These data are supplemented by qualitative interviews with n = 4 policy and other adult allies. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed in parallel, using descriptive statistics and reflexive thematic analysis, and then merged for interpretation.Results: Quantitative findings suggest Agenda Gap contributes to improvements in mental health promotion literacy as well as several core positive mental health constructs, such as peer and adult attachment and critical consciousness. However, these findings also point to the need for further scale development, as many of the available measures lack sensitivity to change and are unable to distinguish between higher and lower levels of the underlying construct. Qualitative findings provided nuanced insights into the shifts that resulted from Agenda Gap at the individual, family, and community level, including reconceptualization of mental health, expanded social awareness and agency, and increased capacity for influencing systems change to promote positive mental health and wellbeing.Discussion: Together, these findings illustrate the promise and utility of mental health promotion for generating positive mental health impacts across socioecological domains. Using Agenda Gap as an exemplar, this study underscores that mental health promotion programming can contribute to gains in positive mental health for individual intervention participants whilst also enhancing collective capacity to advance mental health and equity, particularly through policy advocacy and responsive action on the social and structural determinants of mental health

Identifying mechanisms of youth mental health promotion:A realist evaluation of the Agenda Gap programme

Promoting youth mental health is a critical public health priority and merits robust policy and practice responses, inclusive of youth-centred and upstream interventions that address the root factors contributing to mental health outcomes. To that end, non-familial youth-adult relationships can powerfully impact youths’ healthy development, mental health and well-being, and capacities for enacting change within home, school, and policy contexts. Agenda Gap is a youth mental health promotion programme based on this principle, in which adult facilitators support youth (aged 15–24) in co-exploring activities focused on mental health promotion and policy advocacy, while fostering supportive, trusting intergenerational relationships. This study presents a realist evaluation of Agenda Gap, drawing on realist qualitative interviews with youth participants (n = 18) and adult collaborators (n = 4). We constructed 15 initial programme theories in four theoretical areas that we subsequently explored via analysis of the realist interview data. The analysis used the middle-range theories of ‘Third Space’ and ‘Third Place’ to conceptualize and articulate how causal mechanisms were produced from the non-familial youth-adult relationships that are foundational to the programme. Results are presented across 10 context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations in three sections: (1) Agenda Gap Facilitation Activates ‘Third-Space/Third-Place’ Mechanisms; (2) Youth Enhance Personal Mental Health while also Supporting Mental Health of Friends and Family; (3) Youth Become Inspired and Informed to Act as Advocates and Policy Change Agents. Taken together, these findings provide insights into the important mechanisms of non-familial intergenerational trust building and demonstrate how a strengths-based conceptualization of youth mental health supports mental health maintenance, promotion, and advocacy for this population

Identifying mechanisms of youth mental health promotion:A realist evaluation of the Agenda Gap programme

Promoting youth mental health is a critical public health priority and merits robust policy and practice responses, inclusive of youth-centred and upstream interventions that address the root factors contributing to mental health outcomes. To that end, non-familial youth-adult relationships can powerfully impact youths’ healthy development, mental health and well-being, and capacities for enacting change within home, school, and policy contexts. Agenda Gap is a youth mental health promotion programme based on this principle, in which adult facilitators support youth (aged 15–24) in co-exploring activities focused on mental health promotion and policy advocacy, while fostering supportive, trusting intergenerational relationships. This study presents a realist evaluation of Agenda Gap, drawing on realist qualitative interviews with youth participants (n = 18) and adult collaborators (n = 4). We constructed 15 initial programme theories in four theoretical areas that we subsequently explored via analysis of the realist interview data. The analysis used the middle-range theories of ‘Third Space’ and ‘Third Place’ to conceptualize and articulate how causal mechanisms were produced from the non-familial youth-adult relationships that are foundational to the programme. Results are presented across 10 context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations in three sections: (1) Agenda Gap Facilitation Activates ‘Third-Space/Third-Place’ Mechanisms; (2) Youth Enhance Personal Mental Health while also Supporting Mental Health of Friends and Family; (3) Youth Become Inspired and Informed to Act as Advocates and Policy Change Agents. Taken together, these findings provide insights into the important mechanisms of non-familial intergenerational trust building and demonstrate how a strengths-based conceptualization of youth mental health supports mental health maintenance, promotion, and advocacy for this population

Melt water input from the Bering Glacier watershed into the Gulf of Alaska

The annual runoff from the melting of large glaciers and snow fields along the northern perimeter of the Gulf of Alaska is a critical component of marine physical and biological systems; yet, most of this freshwater is not measured. Here we show estimates of melt for the watershed that contains the largest and longest glacier in North America, the Bering Glacier. The procedure combines in situ observations of snow and ice melt acquired by a long-term monitoring program, multispectral satellite observations, and nearby temperature measurements. The estimated melt is 40 km3 per melt season, ± 3.0 km3, observed over the decadal period, 2002–2012. As a result of climate change, these estimates could increase to 60 km3/yr by 2050. This technique and the derived melt coefficients can be applied to estimate melt from Alaska to Washington glaciers

Modeling regional-scale wildland fire emissions with the wildland fire emissions information system

As carbon modeling tools become more comprehensive, spatial data are needed to improve quantitative maps of carbon emissions from fire. The Wildland Fire Emissions Information System (WFEIS) provides mapped estimates of carbon emissions from historical forest fires in the United States through a web browser. WFEIS improves access to data and provides a consistent approach to estimating emissions at landscape, regional, and continental scales. The system taps into data and tools developed by the U.S. Forest Service to describe fuels, fuel loadings, and fuel consumption and merges information from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration on fire location and timing. Currently, WFEIS provides web access to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) burned area for North America and U.S. fire-perimeter maps from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity products from the USGS, overlays them on 1-km fuel maps for the United States, and calculates fuel consumption and emissions with an open-source version of the Consume model. Mapped fuel moisture is derived from daily meteorological data from remote automated weather stations. In addition to tabular output results, WFEIS produces multiple vector and raster formats. This paper provides an overview of the WFEIS system, including the web-based system functionality and datasets used for emissions estimates. WFEIS operates on the web and is built using open-source software components that work with open international standards such as keyhole markup language (KML). Examples of emissions outputs from WFEIS are presented showing that the system provides results that vary widely across the many ecosystems of North America and are consistent with previous emissions modeling estimates and products