NASA research announcement award. The multi-disciplinary work proposed here integrates remote-sensing, field-based, and sociological approaches to address environmental change and socio-ecological…

This is a firm-fixed-price contract awarded by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to ABR, Inc., an environmental consulting firm based in Fairbanks, Alaska. The $801,998 contract is for a multi-disciplinary research project that integrates remote sensing, field-based, and sociological approaches to study environmental change and socio-ecological impacts in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta region of western Alaska.

The project objectives are to: 1) elucidate links between Y-K Delta ecosystem productivity and regional climate drivers; 2) resolve spatial and temporal changes in vegetation and landscape properties related to disturbances; 3) characterize changes in tundra vegetation across long-term monitoring plots; and 4) relate observed changes to local knowledge and concerns about environmental impacts and community sustainability. The work leverages detailed long-term field datasets and remote sensing analysis. There is no set-aside designation for this contract, which has an ultimate completion date of December 31, 2020.

NASA research announcement award. The multi-disciplinary work proposed here integrates remote-sensing, field-based, and sociological approaches to address environmental change and socio-ecological impacts in the Y-K delta region. Notably, all phases of the project will be informed by quantitative, repeat sampling of vegetation, soil, hydrology, and permafrost properties across a long-term monitoring plot network that was established in the mid-1990S and is well-suited for validating multi-temporal remote-sensing datasets. Specific objectives are to (1) elucidate links between the productivity of Y-K delta ecosystems and regional-scale atmospheric and cryospheric climate drivers; (2) resolve the spatial extent and drivers of long-term changes in vegetation and physical landscape properties related to landscape-scale disturbance processes; (3) characterize changes in the composition and structure of tundra vegetation across a network of long-term monitoring plots; and (4) relate the observed changes to local observations and concerns regarding environmental change, impacts to ecosystem services, and community sustainability. The proposed work will occur in three phases over four years. In 2015, research activities will focus on analysis of multi-decadal remote-sensing data time-series, and retrospective studies of historical and contemporary high-resolution imagery. Results of the remote-sensing analysis will be used to design and implement a ground-based data collection effort focused on vegetation, soils, hydrology, and permafrost across environmental gradients near two yupik population centers: the central coast region near chevak and the yukon delta near emmonak. In 2018, work will focus on applying findings to address the concerns and needs for information identified by stakeholders and land managers. The project will leverage detailed long-term field datasets, as well as data products generated from recently-completed vegetation mapping and remote-sensing analysis efforts in western alaska.