Proceedings 19th International Northern Research Basins Symposium and Workshop Southcentral Alaska, USA – August 11–17, 2013

Preface .......................................................... i Symposium Organizing Committee ................................................ iii List of Participants ........................................................... ix Symposium Papers ............................................................................................1 Hydrologic Connectivity and Dissolved Organic Carbon Fluxes in Low-Gradient High Arctic Wetland Ponds, Polar Bear Pass, Bathurst Island, Canada Abnizova, A., Young, K.L., and Lafrenière, M.J. ........................................................3 Spatial and Temporal Variation in the Spring Freshet of Major Circumpolar Arctic River Systems: A CROCWR Component Ahmed, R., Prowse, T.D., Dibike, Y.B., and Bonsal, B.R. ...............................................15 The Features of Suspended Sediment Yield in Rivers in Kamchatka, Far East Russia Alekseevsky, N.I., and Kuksina, L.V. ...........................................................................25 Kenai Peninsula Precipitation and Air Temperature Trend Analysis Bauret, S., and Stuefer, S.L. ........................................................................................35 An Analysis of Spatial and Temporal Trends and Patterns in Western Canadian Runoff: A CROCWR Component Bawden, A.J., Burn, D.H., and Prowse, T.D. ................................................................45 Historical Changes and Future Projections of Extreme Hydroclimate Events in Interior Alaska Watersheds Bennett, K.E., Cannon, A., and Hinzman, L. ...............................................................57 Linking North Slope Climate, Hydrology, and Fish Migration Betts, E.D., and Kane, D.L. .........................................................................................69 Input of Dissolved Organic Carbon for Typical Lakes in Tundra Based on Field Data of the Expedition Lena – 2012 Bobrova, O., Fedorova, I., Chetverova, A., Runkle, B., and Potapova, T. ...................77 Predicting Snow Density Bruland, O., Færevåg, Å., Steinsland, I., and Sand, K. ............................................83 Arctic Snow Distribution Patterns at the Watershed Scale Homan, J.W., and Kane, D.L. ....................................................................................95 Modeling Groundwater Upwelling as a Control on River Ice Thickness Jones, C., Kielland, K., and Hinzman, L. .......................................................107 Challenges of Precipitation Data Collection in Alaska Kane, D.L., and Stuefer, S.L. ............................................................................. 117 Water Temperature Variations in Two Finnish Lakes (Kallavesi and Inari) in 1981–2010 Korhonen, J. ..........................................................................................................127 Spatiotemporal Trends in Climatic Variables Affecting Streamflow Across Western Canada from 1950–2010: A CROCWR Component Linton, H., Prowse, T., Dibike, Y., and Bonsal, B. ......................................................137 Scaling Runoff from Large to Small Catchments – Comparison of Theoretical Results with Measurements Marchand, W.D., and Vaskinn, K. ................................................................................149 Sediment Transport to the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, West Greenland Mikkelsen, A., and Hasholt, B. ....................................................................................157 Synoptic Climatological Characteristics Associated with Water Availability in Western Canada: A CROCWR Component Newton, B.W., Prowse, T.D., and Bonsal, B.R. ..........................................................167 Winter Streamflow Generation in a Subarctic Precambrian Shield Catchment Spence, C., Kokelj, S.A., Kokelj, S.V., and Hedstrom, N. ...........................................179 Water Balance Calculation over Surface Water Storage in the Dry Interior Climate of the Athabasca River Region in Western Canada: A CROCWR Component Walker, G.S., Prowse, T.D., Dibike, Y.B., and Bonsal, B.R. ..........................................189 Forest Disturbance Effects on Snow and Water Yield in South-Central British Columbia Winkler, R., Spittlehouse, D., Boon, S., and Zimonick, B. .........................................201 Ecohydrology of Boreal Forests: The Role of Water Content Young (formerly Cable), J.M., and Bolton, W.R. ........................................................213 Seasonal Stream Regimes and Water Budgets of Hillslope Catchments, Polar Bear Pass and Cape Bounty, Nunavut Young, K.L., Lafrenière, M.J., Lamoureux, S., Abnizova, A., and Miller, E.A. ............217 Symposium Abstracts ................................................................................................231 River Flow Transformation Processes in the Lena River Delta, Russia Alekseevsky, N.I., Aibulatov, D.N., Kuksina, L.V., and Chetverova, A.A. ..................233 Hydrological Analysis of Catchments in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska Prior to Petroleum Development Arp, C.D., and Whitman, M. ......................................................................................234 Macrodispersion of Groundwater Contaminants in Discontinuous Permafrost Barnes, M.L., and Barnes, D.L. ................................................................................235 Arctic Water Change: Limitations and Opportunities for Its Detection and Predictability Destouni, G. ..............................................................................................................236 Response of Water Bodies in the Northwest Part of Russia to Climate Changes and Anthropogenic Impacts Filatov, N.N., Efremova, T.V., Georgiev, A.P., Nazarova, L.E., Pal’shin, N.I., and Rukhovets, L.A. ......................................................................................................237 The Interaction of Atmospheric, Hydrologic, Geomorphic, and Ecosystem Processes on the Arctic Coastal Plain Hinzman, L.D., Wilson, C.J., Rowland, J.C., Hubbard, S.S., Torn, M.S., Riley, W.J., Wullschleger, S.D., Graham, D.E., Liang, L., Norby, R.J., Thornton, P.E., and Rogers, A. ...............................................................................................238 Sensitivity of Yukon Hydrologic Response to Climate Warming: A Case Study for Community and Sectoral Climate Change Adaptation Janowicz, J.R., Pomeroy, J.W., and Carey, S. ..........................................................240 Thermokarst Lake Change in Western Siberia: From Spatiotemporal Landscape Dynamics to Hydrological Reflections Karlsson, J.M., Lyon, S.W., and Destouni, G. ............................................................241 An Assessment of Suspended Sediment Transport in Arctic Alaska Rivers Lamb, E., Toniolo, H., Kane, D., and Schnabel, W. ....................................................242 Greenland Freshwater Runoff. Part I: A Runoff Routing Model for Glaciated and Nonglaciated Landscapes (HydroFlow) Liston, G.E., and Mernild, S.H. .................................................................................243 Interactions between Vegetation, Snow, and Permafrost Active Layer Marsh, P., Shi, X., Endrizzi, S., Baltzer, J., and Lantz, T. ...........................................244 Greenland Freshwater Runoff. Part II: Distribution and Trends, 1960–2010 Mernild, S.H., and Liston, G.E. ..................................................................................245 Climatic Redistribution of Canada’s Western Water Resources (CROCWR) Prowse, T.D., Bonsal, B.R., Burn, D.H., Dibike, Y.B., Edwards, T., Ahmed, R., Bawden, A.J., Linton, H.C., Newton, B.W., and Walker, G.S. ................................................246 Permafrost Thaw Induced Changes to Surface Water Systems: Implications for Streamflow Quinton, W.L., and Baltzer, J.L. ................................................................................247 The Ecohydrology of Thawing Permafrost Plateaus Quinton, W.L., and Baltzer, J.L. ................................................................................248 Meteorology for Hydropower Production Scheduling Sand, K., and Nordeng, T.E. .....................................................................................249 Delineation of Snow Patterns in Northern Alaska Wagner, A.M., Hiemstra, C.A., and Sturm, M. ............................................................250 Winter Low Flow in the Mackenzie River Basin Woo, M., and Thorne, R. ............................................................................................25

Water and Land-surface Feedbacks in a Polygonal Tundra Environment

The Arctic, including Alaska, is currently experiencing an unprecedented degree of environmental change with increases in both the mean annual surface temperature and precipitation. These observed changes in the climate regime has resulted in a permafrost condition that is particularly sensitive to changes in both Changes in the surface energy balance and water balances and is susceptible to degradation. Thermokarst topography forms whenever ice-rich permafrost thaws and the ground subsides into the resulting voids. Extensive areas of thermokarst activity are currently being observed throughout the arctic and sub-arctic environments. The important processes involved with thermokarsting include surface ponding, surface subsidence, changes in drainage patterns, and related erosion. In this research, we are applying the land-surface evolution model, ERODE (http://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Model:Erode), to an area dominated by low- center, ice-wedge polygons. We are modifying the ERODE model to include land surface subsistence in areas where the maximum active layer depth exceeds the protective layer – the layer of soil above ice-rich soils that acts as a buffer to surface energy processes. The goal of this modeling study is to better understand and quantify the development of thermokarst features in the polygonal tundra environment, emphasizing the resulting feedbacks and connections between hydrologic processes and a dynamic surface topography. Further, we are working on understanding the balance between thermal and mechanical processes with regard to thermokarst processes. This unique application of a landscape evolution model may provide valuable insight related to the rates and spatial extent of thermokarst development and the subsequent hydrologic responses to degrading permafrost in a changing climate.Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Department of Energy Office of Science, Alaska Climate Science Cente

Quantitative mapping of intracardiac blood flow in embryonic zebrafish

Using real-time in vivo imaging and digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) we quantitatively described the intracardiac flow environment of early zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos. Gross cardiac dynamics were defined for two embryonic stages: 4.5 days post fertilization (dpf) and 37 hours post fertilization (hpf) using high-speed transmitted light microscopy with valve dynamics visualized through high-speed laser-scanning microscopy on transgenic embryos expressing GFP

2016 Snow Melt in the NGEE-Arctic Teller Research Watershed

In April 2016, daily transects were made across the Teller Road Basin to begin the several year process of characterizing the largest event in the northern hydrologic year: snow melt. This year was an experiment to see how much could be accomplished (a full suite of time intensive measurements) during this interval.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE Arctic) project is supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science

Conceptualization of Arctic Tundra Landscape Transitions Using the Alaska Thermokarst Model

Thermokarst topography forms whenever ice-rich permafrost thaws and the ground subsides due to the volume loss when excess ice transitions to water. The Alaska Thermokarst Model (ATM) is a large-scale, state-and-transition model designed to simulate landscape transitions between landscape units, or cohorts, due to thermokarst. The ATM uses a frame-based methodology to track transitions and proportion of cohorts within a 1-km2 grid cell. In the arctic tundra environment, the ATM tracks landscape transitions between non-polygonal ground (meadows), low center polygons, coalescent low center polygons, flat center polygons, high center polygons, ponds and lakes. The transition from one terrestrial landscape type to another can take place if the seasonal ground thaw penetrates underlying ice-rich soil layers either due to pulse disturbance events such as a large precipitation event, wildfire, or due to gradual active layer deepening. The protective layer is the distance between the ground surface and ice-rich soil. The protective layer buffers the ice-rich soils from energy processes that take place at the ground surface and is critical to determining how susceptible an area is to thermokarst degradation. The rate of terrain transition in our model is determined by the soil ice-content, the drainage efficiency (or ability of the landscape to store or transport water), and the probability of thermokarst initiation. Using parameterizations derived from small-scale numerical experiments, functional responses of landscape transitions will be developed and integrated into NGEE-Arctic climate-scale (CLM) modeling efforts.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE Arctic) project is supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science. Additional support is provided by the Alaska Climate Science Center, and the Arctic, Northwest Boreal, and Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Conservatives

Conceptualization and Application of Arctic Tundra Landscape Evolution Using the Alaska Thermokarst Model

Thermokarst topography forms whenever ice-rich permafrost thaws and the ground subsides due to the volume loss when excess ice transitions to water. The Alaska Thermokarst Model (ATM) is a large-scale, state-and-transition model designed to simulate transitions between [non-]thermokarst landscape units, or cohorts. The ATM uses a frame-based methodology to track transitions and proportion of cohorts within a 1- km2 grid cell. In the arctic tundra environment, the ATM tracks thermokarst related transitions between wetland tundra, graminoid tundra, shrub tundra, and thermokarst lakes. The transition from one cohort to another due to thermokarst processes can take place if seasonal thaw of the ground reaches ice-rich soil layers either due to pulse disturbance events such as a large precipitation event, wildfire, or due to gradual active layer deepening that eventually reaches ice-rich soil. The protective layer is the distance between the ground surface and ice-rich soil. The protective layer buffers the ice-rich soils from energy processes that take place at the ground surface and is critical to determining how susceptible an area is to thermokarst degradation. The rate of terrain transition in our model is determined by the soil ice-content, the drainage efficiency (or ability of the landscape to store or transport water), and the probability of thermokarst initiation. Tundra types are allowed to transition from one type to another (i.e. a wetland tundra to a graminoid tundra) under favorable climatic conditions. In this study, we present our conceptualization and initial simulation results of the ATM for an 1792 km2 area on the Barrow Peninsula, Alaska. The area selected for simulation is located in a polygonal tundra landscape under varying degrees of thermokarst degradation. The goal of this modeling study is to simulate landscape evolution in response to thermokarst disturbance as a result of climate change.Alaska Climate Science Center, Arctic Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Western Alaska LCC, Northwest Boreal Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic Systems Understandin

Conceptualization and Application of the Alaska Thermokarst Model

Thermokarst topography forms whenever ice-rich permafrost thaws and the ground subsides due to the volume loss when ground ice transitions to water. The Alaska Thermokarst Model (ATM) is a large- scale, state-and-transition model designed to simulate transitions between landscape units affected by thermokarst disturbance. The ATM uses a frame-based methodology to track transitions and proportion of cohorts within a 1-km2 grid cell. In the arctic tundra environment, the ATM tracks thermokarst-related transitions among wetland tundra, graminoid tundra, shrub tundra, and thermokarst lakes. In the boreal forest environment, the ATM tracks transitions among forested permafrost plateau, thermokarst lakes, collapse scar fens and bogs. The spatial distribution of cohorts [landcover] is required to initialize and run the ATM. The initial landcover distribution is based upon analysis of compiled remote sensing data sets (SPOT-5, Inferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, and LandSat8 OLI) at 30-m resolution. Remote sensing analysis and field measurements from previous and ongoing studies are used to determine the ice-content of the soil, the drainage efficiency (or the ability of the landscape to store or transport water), the cumulative probability of thermokarst initiation, distance from rivers, lake dynamics (increasing, decreasing, or stable), and other factors which help determine landscape transition rates. Tundra types are allowed to transition from one type to another (for example, wetland tundra to graminoid tundra) under favorable climatic conditions.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE Arctic) project is supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science. Additional support is provided by the Alaska Climate Science Center, and the Arctic, Northwest Boreal, and Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Conservatives

Hepatic and adipose phenotype in Alström syndrome

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Alström syndrome (AS) is a recessive monogenic syndrome characterized by obesity, extreme insulin resistance and multi-organ fibrosis. Despite phenotypically being high risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), there is a lack of data on the extent of fibrosis in the liver and its close links to adipose in patients with AS. Our aim was to characterize the hepatic and adipose phenotype in patients with AS. METHODS: Observational cohort study with comprehensive assessment of metabolic liver phenotype including liver elastography (Fibroscan® ), serum Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) Panel and liver histology. In addition, abdominal adipose histology and gene expression was assessed. We recruited 30 patients from the UK national AS clinic. A subset of six patients underwent adipose biopsies which was compared with control tissue from nine healthy participants. RESULTS: Patients were overweight/obese (BMI 29.3 (25.95-34.05) kg/m2 ). A total of 80% (24/30) were diabetic; 74% (20/27) had liver ultrasound scanning suggestive of NAFLD. As judged by the ELF panel, 96% (24/25) were categorized as having fibrosis and 10/21 (48%) had liver elastography consistent with advanced liver fibrosis/cirrhosis. In 7/8 selected cases, there was evidence of advanced NAFLD on liver histology. Adipose tissue histology showed marked fibrosis as well as disordered pro-inflammatory and fibrotic gene expression profiles. CONCLUSIONS: NAFLD and adipose dysfunction are common in patients with AS. The severity of liver disease in our cohort supports the need for screening of liver fibrosis in AS.Alström UKThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/liv.1316

Reflecting on loss in Papua New Guinea

This article takes up the conundrum of conducting anthropological fieldwork with people who claim that they have 'lost their culture,' as is the case with Suau people in the Massim region of Papua New Guinea. But rather than claiming culture loss as a process of dispossession, Suau claim it as a consequence of their own attempts to engage with colonial interests. Suau appear to have responded to missionization and their close proximity to the colonial-era capital by jettisoning many of the practices characteristic of Massim societies, now identified as 'kastom.' The rejection of kastom in order to facilitate their relations with Europeans during colonialism, followed by the mourning for kastom after independence, both invite consideration of a kind of reflexivity that requires action based on the presumed perspective of another

The Multi-Object, Fiber-Fed Spectrographs for SDSS and the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

We present the design and performance of the multi-object fiber spectrographs for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and their upgrade for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Originally commissioned in Fall 1999 on the 2.5-m aperture Sloan Telescope at Apache Point Observatory, the spectrographs produced more than 1.5 million spectra for the SDSS and SDSS-II surveys, enabling a wide variety of Galactic and extra-galactic science including the first observation of baryon acoustic oscillations in 2005. The spectrographs were upgraded in 2009 and are currently in use for BOSS, the flagship survey of the third-generation SDSS-III project. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.35 million massive galaxies to redshift 0.7 and Lyman-alpha absorption of 160,000 high redshift quasars over 10,000 square degrees of sky, making percent level measurements of the absolute cosmic distance scale of the Universe and placing tight constraints on the equation of state of dark energy. The twin multi-object fiber spectrographs utilize a simple optical layout with reflective collimators, gratings, all-refractive cameras, and state-of-the-art CCD detectors to produce hundreds of spectra simultaneously in two channels over a bandpass covering the near ultraviolet to the near infrared, with a resolving power R = \lambda/FWHM ~ 2000. Building on proven heritage, the spectrographs were upgraded for BOSS with volume-phase holographic gratings and modern CCD detectors, improving the peak throughput by nearly a factor of two, extending the bandpass to cover 360 < \lambda < 1000 nm, and increasing the number of fibers from 640 to 1000 per exposure. In this paper we describe the original SDSS spectrograph design and the upgrades implemented for BOSS, and document the predicted and measured performances.Comment: 43 pages, 42 figures, revised according to referee report and accepted by AJ. Provides background for the instrument responsible for SDSS and BOSS spectra. 4th in a series of survey technical papers released in Summer 2012, including arXiv:1207.7137 (DR9), arXiv:1207.7326 (Spectral Classification), and arXiv:1208.0022 (BOSS Overview