Partner Projects
Collaborative relationships are essential to the BLE LTER program. We currently have ties with over 40 individuals and organizations that support shared research, education, and outreach objectives. These include independently funded projects that leverage the BLE LTER framework to facilitate shorter-term objectives as well as institutional partnerships that have been established to facilitate longer-term objectives. Among these institutional partnerships, strong relationships with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), North Slope Borough School District, the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation, City of Kaktovik, and Hilcorp are particularly important for long-term sustainability of the BLE LTER project.
We always welcome ideas or proposals regarding potential collaborations with BLE LTER. Feel free to contact the relevant BLE team member, or our project leads Ken Dunton and James McClelland.
Featured Partner Projects
Hilcorp Energy Company
A Texas-based company with strong relationships to The University of Texas at Austin, where BLE LTER is based, Hilcorp has greatly facilitated our researchers' work and access to multiple locations in the Greater Prudhoe Bay area. Their generous support has provided crucial logistic assistance, as well as lab space, food, fuel, and a safety net for BLE scientists.
Alaska Ocean Observing System
In fall 2020, BLE LTER began a partnership with the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) as an affiliate in AOOS's next 5-year Integrated Ocean Observing System plan. This partnership is of key importance in maintaining and expanding our network of moorings across the Beaufort Sea coast. Funding from AOOS goes to instruments recording time series observations of key ecosystems measurements such as pH, temperature, photosynthetically active radiation, and more. See BLE's time series pH data featured on AOOS's website.
Coastal and Offshore Permafrost RRA
BLE investigator Craig Tweedie contributed information from the Utqiaġvik area to a Rapid Response Assessment (RRA) in collaboration with the United Nations describing coastal and offshore permafrost in the Arctic. The Coastal and Offshore Permafrost in a Changing Arctic website includes interactive maps that guide the reader through the story of this phenomenon.
ACCES-ARCTIC
An international collaboration funded under the Belmont Forum/Biodiversa initiative, with sites in the US, Canada, Greenland, and Norway (Svalbard), the goal of the ACCES project is to better understand how loss of sea ice in Arctic coastal regions will influence coastal biodiversity and ecosystem function. The project covers different coastscapes (fjords, lagoons, shelf, etc.) under different sea ice cover regimes and aims to synthesize information across these gradients. BLE LTER is leading one of the synthesis efforts on a pan-arctic metanalysis of trophic structure of key taxa, using stable isotope analysis. BLE investigators Ken Dunton and Katrin Iken along with project manager Nathan McTigue are leading the analysis of BLE data, along with ACCES collaborators.
More Partner Projects
| Collaborators | BLE Contact | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska Fisheries Science Center (Mark Zimmermann) | Kasper, Tweedie | Research collaboration; data exchange |
| Alaska Ocean Observing System (Sheyna Wisdom; Carol Janzen) | Dunton, Kasper | BLE LTER mooring and sensor network; Data exchange |
| Amanda Kelley (University of Alaska-Fairbanks) | Dunton | Data exchange; Training |
| Amanda Poste (The Arctic University of Norway) | Dunton, McClelland | International Research collaboration |
| Antonio Mannino (NASA- pre COLORS) | McClelland | Research collaboration |
| ARCUS (Janet Warburton) | Dunton, Lougheed, Tweedie | Education & Outreach |
| Bayani Cardenas, Matt Charette (UT-Geosciences, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) | McClelland | Research collaboration |
| Ben Abbott (Brigham Young University) | McClelland | Data exchange; Sampling support |
| Blane De St Croix (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) | Tweedie | Outreach |
| BOEM (Catherine Coon) | Dunton | K-12 Education & Outreach at Kaktovik |
| City of Kaktovik (Mayor Amanda Kaleak) | Dunton | Logistic support; Outreach |
| Claire Griffin, Howie Epstein (University of Virginia) | Lougheed, Tweedie, McClelland | Research collaboration |
| Claudine Hauri (University of Alaska Fairbanks) | McClelland | Data exchange; Model development |
| Department of Homeland Security – Arctic Domain Awareness Center – Long Range Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (Randy Kee, Anna Kukulya) | Tweedie | Research collaboration |
| Department of Homeland Security – Arctic Domain Awareness Center – Arctic Summer Internship Program (Randy Kee) | Tweedie | Research collaboration |
| Diana Bull (Sandia National Laboratories) | McClelland, Kasper | Research collaboration; Graduate education |
| Ed Rastetter (Marine Biological Laboratory) | Crump, McClelland | Research collaboration |
| Friends of Cooper Island (George Divoky) | Tweedie | Research collaboration |
| Hilcorp (Samantha Beaman) | Dunton | Logistic support (Prudhoe Bay node) |
| International Tundra Experiment (Robert Hollister) | Tweedie | Research collaboration |
| Janne Søreide (The University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS) | Dunton, Iken | International Research collaboration |
| Karl Huemmrich (NASA- ABoVE) | Tweedie, Rawlins | Research collaboration |
| Li Erikson, Ann Gibbs (USGS) | Tweedie, Kasper | Research collaboration |
| Maria Tzortziou (NASA- pre COLORS) | McClelland, Tweedie | Research collaboration |
| Market Road Films (Tony Gerber) | Tweedie | Outreach |
| Matthew Burtner (Coastal Futures Conservancy) | Dunton | Research collaboration; Outreach |
| National Coastal Mapping Program (Jennifer Wozencraft) | Kasper | Logistic support; Data exchange |
| NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies (Reza Khanbilvardi) | Tweedie | Education & Outreach; Research collaboration |
| Nora Jane Burns/Carla SimsKayotuk (Village of Kaktovik) | Dunton, Iken | Citizen Scientists |
| North Slope Borough School District (Todd Washburn) | Dunton | Education & Outreach |
| North Slope Borough Wildlife (Todd Sformo) | Tweedie, Iken | Data exchange |
| Paul Morin (NSF Polar Geospatial Center) | Tweedie | Provision of imagery; Training |
| Permafrost Coastal Systems Network (Ben Jones) | Tweedie, McClelland | Data exchange |
| Scott Dallimore (United Nations Environment Program) | Tweedie | Research collaboration |
| Sergio Vargas (University of Texas at El Paso) | Tweedie | Research collaboration, Data exchange |
| Tom Douglas (US Army Corps of Engineers – Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab) | Kasper | Research collaboration |
| Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation Science (Nagruk Harcharek) | Lougheed, Tweedie | Education & Outreach |
| University NAVSTAR Consortium (Joe Petit) | Tweedie | Provision of equipment; Training |
| USFWS (Joanna Fox, Allyssa Morris) | Dunton | Logistic support; Outreach; Education (Kaktovik Oceanography Program) |
| USGS (Vanessa von Biela) | Dunton | Research collaboration; Education & Outreach at Kaktovik |
| Wesley Moses (Naval Research Laboratory) | McClelland | Research collaboration |