UA awarded $20 million

We’re pleased to announce that the National Science Foundation has awarded $20 million to the University of Alaska to investigate climate change effects on culturally and commercially important marine species in the Gulf of Alaska.

Juneau, Alaska

Date of Press Release: April 18, 2024

We’re pleased to announce that the National Science Foundation has awarded $20 million to the University of Alaska to investigate climate change effects on culturally and commercially important marine species in the Gulf of Alaska.

Jason Fellman, director of the Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center and UAS Environmental Science faculty, is one of five principal investigators on the UA wide project. Including UAS researchers Eran Hood, Sonia Nagorski, and Julie Schram, the project will unite researchers from UAF, UAA and UAS in a five-year, multimillion dollar project directed by the Alaska Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, a statewide program administered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks since 2001 and funded by the NSF.

As climate change warms temperatures, increasing glacial melt flushes large amounts of freshwater, sediment and nutrients into the Gulf of Alaska, altering the conditions of the nearshore coastal environment. We will study the effects of these changes on coastal species and the well-being of people and economies who rely on them.

Project goals stem from conversations with local community members, tribal entities, shellfish and kelp farmers, and government agency representatives that took place over two years with the help of an NSF planning grant. Community input focused the project on red seaweeds, kelp, oysters, clams, mussels, salmon and eulachon (commonly called hooligan or candlefish).

Time spent in eight Gulf of Alaska communities (Seldovia, Halibut Cove, Homer, Cordova, Valdez, Juneau, Haines and Klukwan) yielded several key community collaborators from each region of the Gulf of Alaska who contributed to project planning and who will continue to guide the Interface of Change project’s direction.

In southeast Alaska, our research efforts will center around the impacts that increasing glacial runoff and atmospheric rivers may have on coastal ecosystems and habitat for marine species such as red seaweed.

Our focus is looking at the impact of extreme hydrologic forces, understanding glacial runoff, and how these factors influence land to ocean fluxes. In particular, we’re looking at sediment turbidity and freshwater impact to nearshore marine habitat where mariculture occurs. As the frequency of these extreme events increases, we can assess how mariculture will be impacted and where the ideal places to focus efforts will be.

People interested in project updates will be able to browse online dashboards and databases that will make project data and results publicly available.

Jason Fellman
Associate Research Professor and Interim Director
Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center
University of Alaska Southeast
Juneau, AK 99801