Community and Citizen Science Projects

Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub (AAOKH)

We provide resources and scientific information for sharing expertise and observations of Alaska sea ice, wildlife, and coastal waters.
How our network benefits science and communities:
--As a whole, these observations from Indigenous Knowledge holders across northern Alaska coastal communities provide local perspectives of changing coastal conditions—and ultimately impacts—at the community scale.
--We weave connections among Indigenous and scientific perspectives by putting local observations in the context of scientific measurements of ice, ocean and weather conditions.

Alaska Bee Atlas

The Alaska Bee Atlas is a collaborative program to collect bees and associated habitat data across Alaska. The program primarily uses the support of federal and state biologists who are already in the field collecting data for other projects. To date the data have provided significant understanding of the biodiversity of bees in Alaska and have documented over a dozen new species to the state. The Alaska Bee Atlas is managed by the Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS) at the University of Alaska Anchorage. THe AK Bee Atlas was developed by ACCS and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

Alaska Invasive Species Partnership

Vision Statement:
Alaska’s diverse environmental, cultural, and economic resources are free from the impacts of invasive species.

Mission Statement:
We provide statewide leadership to prevent, detect and manage invasive species in Alaska by facilitating and fostering invasive species awareness, knowledge and information sharing, and collaboration among diverse stakeholders.

During the 1990s, invasive species in Alaska were increasing their footprint, leading to concerns for agricultural production, and management of natural resources. Hearing these concerns from public and private

Community collective action to respond to climate change influencing the environment-health nexus

How are communities and individual organizations responding to the health impacts of climate change? A global research team from University College London, University of Norway, and University of West Indies have partnered with the Sitka Sound Science Center and the RAND cooperation to learn about the successes and failures organizations face when tackling the health related impacts of climate change. Through a series of community interviews researchers will study topics related to food security, food sovereignty, and more!

The objective of this three-year project is to understand how

Flora of Alaska Project

A flora is a compilation of information about the plant taxa that occur in a region. Information in a flora includes taxonomic names, histories of name usage, descriptive materials of the characteristics of taxa (e.g. keys, descriptions, illustrations, and photographs), spatial extent of taxa, specimen lists, and other relevant data. Because taxonomic information constantly changes as the result of exploration and research, the usefulness of floras decreases with time. The last comprehensive floras for Alaska were published by Eric Hultén in 1968 and Stanley Welsh in 1974. A new Flora of

Fresh Eyes on Ice

Winter is a rapidly changing season in the Arctic, causing widespread responses in freshwater ice and the ecosystems and communities that rely on frozen lakes and rivers.

Currently focused on Alaskan lake and rivers, observations relies on field studies, remote sensing, cameras and buoys, historic data, community-based monitoring, and citizen science.

With support from the National Science Foundation’s Arctic Observing Network and Navigating the New Arctic programs, we are working to improve observations and understanding of freshwater ice including public participation in this process.

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Alaska

GLOBE is an international science and education program that provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to participate in data collection and the scientific process, and contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the Earth system and global environment.

GLOBE Alaska, based in the International Arctic Research Center Education and Outreach Office, has been engaging rural and urban Alaskan teachers and students in citizen science learning since 1996, and has trained more than 1400 teachers and engaged over 20,000 students.

Vision: A worldwide community of students

Hearts in the Ice

Hearts in the Ice was created to deepen our understanding of how powerful individual action can be, to add to our knowledge around climate change and what we each can do!

With a Global network of diverse partners, Hearts in the Ice is a platform that inspires, connects, educates, and ignites action on pressing Climate Change issues.

Together, we are navigating towards a more thoughtful and sustainable way forward that will impact all of us, our children, and our natural world. We are citizen scientists serving as a bridge between climate science and people young and old to help them

Indigenous Sentinels Network

The Indigenous Sentinels Network is a tool for recording and communicating significant environmental and ecological events in order to empower remote communities dealing with the effects of climate change (i.e., environmental declines, economic disruptions for both subsistence and cash economies, loss of cultural knowledge, etc.). ISN uses the approach of an internet-based system (i.e., online database, smartphone or template apps, etc.) that enables communities across Alaska and beyond to implement rigorous monitoring programs while utilizing ISN’s well-refined environmental database.

The

Listen Up: Northern Soundscapes

The Arctic has its own distinct rhythms. Up here, the sounds of natural forces, animals, and humans come together to create their own kind of music— soundscapes that murmur and boom, throb and hum, crack and cry, rustle and sing. Listening closely to the sounds and silences of the North opens up an intimate and resonant understanding of place.

The central experience of Listen Up is delivered through five sound “cubes” broadcasting recordings of natural and environmental sounds emanating from five locations around Alaska. Visitors can listen to these soundscapes along with new works of sound

Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO)

The Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO) is a resource for Alaska Native subsistence hunters, coastal communities, and others interested in sea ice and walrus. The SIWO provides weekly reports during the spring sea ice season with information on weather and sea ice conditions relevant to walrus in the northern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea regions of Alaska.

SIWO is managed by the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS), in partnership with the Eskimo Walrus Commission, the National Weather Service, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and local observers.

SIKU: The Indigineous Knowledge Social Network

SIKU is a mobile app and web platform by and for Inuit which provides tools and services for ice safety, language preservation and weather.