Below is a short list of my active projects and related links.
LAKE METHANE EBULLITION:The goal of this project is to estimate methane emissions from a variety of lake types in Alaska and Russia, with particular attention to the importance of thawing permafrost as a fuel for methane production. We map methane bubbling “hotspots” that come from various sources, not just thawing permafrost, including also decay of modern plants and seepage from geological reservoirs of methane. To date we have mapped over 50 lakes in Alaska and Russia. Using automated bubble traps, we monitor rates of methane bubbling from point sources and hotspots in lakes. Our goal is to understand the origins, magnitude and vulnerability for change of methane emissions from lakes.
REMOTE SENSING METHANE EBULLITION: Our goal is to develop a technique to quantify methane bubbling from lakes by linking remote sensing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to ground surveys of methane bubbles trapped in lake ice for large-scale sampling within images to upscale quantification of regional and pan-arctic lake emissions. This work addresses the NASA Earth Science Enterprise Strategy’s objectives of determining how global (aquatic) ecosystems are changing as permafrost warms and thaws enhancing methane emissions from expanding lands and how ecosystems respond to and affect global environmental change and the carbon cycle.
MODELING IMPACTS OF ICY PERMAFROST DEGRADATION ON GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AND CARBON CYCLING IN THERMOKARST LAKES: This NSF IPY research project integrates field studies in a range of disciplines (geomorphology, geophysics, paleoecology, hydrology, limnology) with process modeling of permafrost thaw, lake formation, carbon cycling, and greenhouse gas emissions to understand how permafrost degradation in the Arctic, particularly thermokarst-lake evolution, affects long-term atmospheric trace gas dynamics by releasing ancient carbon stored in permafrost as carbon dioxide and methane. Intensive study regions are areas of the Yedoma Ice Complex in the Kolyma River Lowlands of Russia and the Seward Peninsula, Alaska.
AON: Fluxes of carbon, water and energy are major regulatory drivers of the Arctic system, and form key linkages and feedbacks between land, ocean, and atmosphere. They are expected to change rapidly as climate warms. The goal of this IPY NSF project is to establish two long-term observatories at Toolik Lake Field Station in Alaska and the Northeast Science Station in Cherskii, Russia for year-round measurements of landscape-level carbon, water, and energy balance and to contribute to a pan-arctic network where coordinated measurements are made available in a unified database.
In partnership with NOAA, we will measure CH4 concentrations on a 5-m tall tower in Siberia and use a gradient technique to calculate CH4 flux. Data generated on the tower will contribute to the Global Monitoring Division of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory as part of a global greenhouse monitoring network that provides the long-term atmospheric observational basis for improving understanding of the global and North American carbon cycle. This work aims to reduce uncertainties on and improve estimates of CH4 emissions from northern high-latitude ecosystems, and to ensure our ability to detect increases in CH4 emissions resulting from climate change.
PALIMMN: During the International Polar Year, Walter is working with a team of scientists, teachers, and enthusiastic citizens to establish a methane bubbling monitoring program, the Pan-Arctic Lake-Ice Methane Monitoring Network (PALIMMN), with an education and outreach component, Student-PALIMMN.
PALIMMN Links: PALIMMN Background, PALIMMN Protocol, PALIMMN Method
POLARIS. The Arctic is central to the global climate change issue, and Russia has by far the largest share of the Arctic. Yet few western scientists, much less students, ever get the chance to work in the Russian Arctic. The NSF POLARIS Project, a joint initiative between the Woods Hole Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Northeast Science Station in the Sakha Republic of Russia, will train future leaders in arctic research and education, and inform the public; both tasks are essential given the rapid and profound changes underway in the Arctic in response to global warming. Polaris Fact Sheet.
