Tag Archives: Canadian Arctic

Café Scientifique (Vancouver, Canada) November 29, 2016 talk: Climate change and moving mountains

Vancouver (Canada) Café Scientifique’s next talk is at Yagger’s Downtown (433 W. Pender). From the November 19, 2016 notice received via email,

Our next café will happen on Tuesday November 29th, 7:30pm in the back room at Yagger’s Downtown (433 W Pender). Our speaker for the evening will be Dr. Michèle Koppes, from the Department of Geography at UBC. The title of her talk is:

Can climate change move mountains?

Climate change is causing more than warmer oceans and erratic weather. It can also change the shape of the planet. Glaciers are a fundamental link between climate and the tectonic and surface processes that create topography. Mountain ranges worldwide have undergone large-scale modification due the erosive action of ice, yet the mechanisms that control the timing of this modification and the rate by which ice erodes remain poorly understood. We find a wide range of erosion rates from individual ice masses over varying timescales, suggesting that modern erosion rates exceed long-term averages by two to three orders of magnitude. We also see that glaciers in Patagonia erode 1000 times faster than they do in Antarctica today. These modern rates are likely due to the dynamic acceleration of these ice masses as air and ocean temperatures warmed and they retreated over the past few decades. The repercussions of this erosion add to the already complex effects of climate change in polar and high mountain regions. Shrinking and accelerating glaciers destabilize slopes upstream, increasing the risk of landslides, and deposit more sediment in downstream basins, potentially impacting fisheries, dams and access to clean freshwater in mountain communities. And the dramatic increase in modern erosion rates suggest that glaciers in the Canadian Arctic, one of the most rapidly warming regions in the world, are on the brink of a major shift that will see them speeding up and eroding faster as temperatures warm above 0ºC.

Michele Koppes is an Assistant Professor in Geography at UBC, a Canada Research Chair Tier II in Landscapes of Climate Change, a faculty affiliate at IRES and a Senior TED Fellow. Her passion is forensic geomorphology: the art of reading landscapes to decipher the forces that shaped them.  Her particular expertise is in glaciers, and their impact in shaping mountains and polar regions at a variety of time scales, from last year to the last million years. Her research focus is two-fold: to determine the efficacy of glaciers as agents of erosion, and to determine the climatic and oceanic drivers of glaciations in high mountains and coastal settings. She has current field projects in high places all over the world, from BC to Patagonia, Alaska, the Himalayas, Greenland and Antarctica, where her team combines detailed field observations with numerical modeling of ice-ocean dynamics and glacier mass balance.

Have fun!

Apply for Scientist-in-Residence program with Adventure Canada

This opportunity looks exciting and I’m happy to see the broad range of sciences included (social sciences!) in this call for proposals. Adventure Canada, a company that specializes in outdoor adventure, wildlife viewing, eco-photography and native culture trips across Canada, sent me an August 27, 2015 announcement about their new Scientist-in-Residence program,

Adventure Canada’s new Scientist-in-Residence program marks the expedition company’s venture into the exciting scientourism trend. For their 2016 season, Adventure Canada is inviting scientists across the spectrum—from social science experiments, to ethnobiology, climatology, geology, oceanography, and beyond—to travel aboard the Ocean Endeavour, the company’s expedition vessel, for the sole purpose of scientific study.

The expedition company is welcoming scientists aboard each of their nine expeditions in 2016, which encompass Sable Island, the St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, Labrador, the Canadian Arctic, and Greenland. Historically, members of the science community have joined Adventure Canada expeditions, but in a hospitality capacity and as members of the expedition team. Through the Scientist-in-Residence program, Adventure Canada will be helping leading researchers conduct their own research in parallel with the company’s operation. Passengers themselves will also have opportunities to participate in the Scientist-in-Residence research during their trip. Hands-on research activities may include things like helping conduct Arctic sea bird counts, documenting ancient Inuit artifacts, and harvesting lichen samples. Specific research will depend on successful Scientist-in-Residence applicants, who must go through an rfp [request for proposal] process before being invited aboard.

This announcement seems to be a soft launch prior to the big announcement in September 2015,

Adventure Canada will kick off the program through their key partnership with Beakerhead, Canada’s premier science festival, from September 16–20, 2016. Co-founded by Adventure Canada friend Jay Ingram, Calgary-based Beakerhead is a hands-on, citywide celebration of science. As in-kind sponsors Adventure Canada will announce the Scientist-in-Residence program to a captive audience of Canada’a top scientists across all fields, encouraging those interested to apply to be a part.

Now on to application details, from an August 27, 2015 posting by Mike Strizic on the Adventure Canada blog,

Adventure Canada is keenly interested in expanding world knowledge of the areas to which we travel. We believe that only though better knowledge and understanding, will we be able to protect these areas and inspire the general public to take an actionable interest.

To that end, starting with our 2016 expeditions, Adventure Canada will be providing one cabin—two berths—aboard each of our voyages, for the purpose of scientific study. The cruise itself, as well as any charter flights will be provided. Transport to and from the point of embarkation will be the responsibility of the applicants. We would like to offer the scientist-in-residence an opportunity to observe the environments and communities visited by the cruise and interact with individuals on the ship with and interest in the research area.

Please note that Adventure Canada is interested in all types of science—from social science experiments, to ethnobiology, climatology, geological, oceanography, and beyond.

Here’s how to apply (from Strizic’s posting),

Proposals must take into account our proposed itineraries and the constraints that come along with the need to move along a predetermined—but sometime changing —sailing schedule.

Proposals will be judged on the basis of:

Passenger Participation — does the proposal involve our passengers?
Community participation — does the proposal involve the stakeholders in the regions we visit?
Perceived interest to the public at large.

Adventure Canada would also like to be able to promote the type of science and the specific projects that are taking place onboard the vessel though its website, social media, and any other outlets it deems appropriate.

We would also like to be notified on studies or reports published so that we can share the results with our passengers and constituents, to help promote the knowledge base we are helping to build.

Should there be insufficient interest, or should the applications not be deemed to have enough merit, the spaces will not be allocated, but Adventure Canada will endeavour to source as many proposals as possible.

A board comprised of Adventure Canada’s executives and the scientists they currently employ on board will judge proposals. They will meet twice yearly to evaluate proposals.

Guidelines for Applications

Proposals should be short and succinct: less than 1000 words, yet including enough information for Adventure Canada to make a decision with the information below. An existing research program or funding proposal with a cover letter briefly outlining the below is also acceptable.

Problem Statement — How their research would be supported by participation on an Adventure Canada trip.

Research Project Participants

Anticipated Results and Benefits

Proposed Activities during trip

Equipment Needed

Timetable of Activities

Proposed Passenger Participation (if relevant)

Proposed Community Consultation or Participation (if relevant)

You can send your queries and proposals to:

science@adventurecanada.com, Attention: Clayton Anderson

They don’t specify so I’m assuming this is an open, international competition but I did try to find out about deadlines. It turns out the Scientist-in-Residence program manager is currently on an expedition!

For anyone interested in Beakerhead, you can find out more here.

Bravo Adventure Canada and good luck to all the applicants.