Travel: Support for US graduate students and postdocs to attend the 2022 BEPSII international field school

Sea ice plays a critical role in polar ecosystems and in regional and global climate. Sea ice moderates the exchange of carbon dioxide and other gases between the atmosphere and ocean, supports global ocean circulation through salt drainage, acts as an insulator between the warm ocean and cold atmosphere, and plays a key role in polar food webs. Sea ice remains understudied despite its significance due to the difficulty of accessing and analyzing sea ice samples.

The sea ice environment is dynamic and presents numerous hazards that require considerable expertise to mitigate; also, because ice is a solid, samples often require more complex preparation for biological and chemical measurements than for seawater. These challenges may be considerable barriers for new investigators, who typically learn how to overcome them through one-on-one training by a mentor, supervisor, and advisor.

This award supports travel for US PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to attend an international sea ice field school hosted by the SCAR expert group Biogeochemical Exchange Processes at Sea Ice Interfaces (BEPSII) and SCOR working group Essential Climate Variables in Ice (ECVice). The field school is taking place at the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, a state-of-the-art field station located in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada.

Students at the school receive comprehensive training in field and laboratory best from international and local experts in sea ice physics, biogeochemistry, ecology, and operations, which will help broaden participation within the sea ice community and encourage new investigators to undertake sea ice studies.

Sea ice plays a key role in Arctic and Antarctic biogeochemical cycles. The physical nature of sea ice presents challenges to safe and effective study that serve as a considerable barrier for new investigators. Typically, knowledge of how to safely operate on sea ice, design experiments, and make biogeochemical measurements is transmitted vertically from a mentor, supervisor, or thesis advisor to a student or postdoc.

While effective, this compartmentalizes knowledge and excludes new investigators with different expertise, perspectives, and backgrounds from sea ice biogeochemical studies. To broaden participation within the sea ice biogeochemistry community and encourage new investigators to undertake sea ice studies the Biogeochemical Exchange Processes at Sea Ice Interfaces (BEPSII) SCAR expert group and SCOR working group Essential Climate Variables in Ice (ECVice) is hosting an international field school at the Canadian High Arctic Research Station Campus in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada in May of 2022.

The field school brings together international and local (Iqaluktuurmiut) experts in sea ice physics, biogeochemistry, ecology, and operations to provide a comprehensive training program for early career scientists. The school combines classroom and practical sessions and cover topics including snow and ice sampling, the sea ice carbon cycle, gas flux measurements and theory, nutrient cycles, primary and bacterial production, and biogeochemical modeling.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.