Geography Newsletter - Spring 2019

Thwaites - Jeff Goodell, a journalist from Rolling Stone Magazine, and Elizabeth Rush, a book writer from Brown University, have their breakfast coffee looking over the ice front of Thwaites ice shelf. The icebreaking research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer cruises a few hundred meters from the ice cliff that, in some areas, stands over 60 feet above water and more than 800 feet below.

I stood looking out my window watching the rain fall in my greening yard in Boulder, Colorado, soaking in the muffled sounds and vibrant colors I hadn’t experienced in a while. I realized after a few moments, I was swaying slightly back and forth. Not swaying as I breathed, but to a rhythm that had embedded into my body over the last two months: the rolling of the ship over the long Drake Passage swells. They call it “dock rock,” the sensation of being on the ocean when you’re on land. It comes from your body becoming used to and compensating for a ship rolling beneath your feet, known as getting your “sea legs,” which matters a lot to me because it ends my gnarly seasickness. Today, my dock rock was a really nice reminder that I had been there; our research at Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica was real and not a surreal dream of another world, even though it often feels that way as soon as I set foot back on land. 

It has been just a week since I returned from Chile and my research cruise in Antarctica. We left the ice of the Amundsen Sea 16 days ago on March 15th, and since travelled across the large swells of the Drake Passage – known for the worst seas in the world – to Punta Arenas, Chile. We were 56 scientists, support staff and crew that had sailed for 54 days on the icebreaking research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer, a 308 ft long ship that included something like 60,000 square feet of space. For the last two months, our steel island had nothing exchanging with the outside world except water, mud, and a few emails and phone calls. 

Our mission had been to conduct the first season of research for the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC), a five-year joint research endeavor between the U.S. National Science Foundation and British National Environmental Research Council. A more than $40 million-dollar research endeavor funding nine separate research projects, the ITGC aims to better resolve the past behavior, current state, and future predictions for the Thwaites Glacier. With about three meters of global sea level frozen in the ice behind Thwaites and the neighboring Pine Island Glacier and our high uncertainty on what to expect from the glacier, Thwaites embodies the biggest “wildcard” for future sea level rise on the planet. This first cruise on the Palmer was meant to start the ball rolling on the ITGC research to determine what we can expect from Thwaites: “How much, how fast.” We could not have had a more successful season.

I smile to think how much has happened since that first day we spotted the ice on February 5th... “Iceberg! Starboard beam¹.” I was sitting at my computer typing and I think it took a second to sink in for me and everyone else in the room. Then we were all on our feet in a flurry, rushing to each of our personal stashes of camera equipment scattered throughout the ship, and up to the bridge on the 05 deck, five levels up a monotonous steel staircase from the main deck of the ship. I opened the hatch (door on a ship) and, as I stepped outside, I saw the bright white island towering a half-km. from the ship. Then I heard everyone’s exclamations. “Whoa!” “So beautiful.” “I never imagined the scale.” Clicking filled the air as all of the scientists’ cameras worked hard to capture every angle of that first sighting. Measuring larger than a football field across, about 60 ft above the water, and riven with intricately-carved ice patterns and bright indigo fissures, the scale and magnificence of the berg was beyond what first-timers to Antarctica could have imagined. On our way to Thwaites Glacier, though, this berg paled in comparison to what we would soon encounter, and sightings would become as commonplace as seeing a car on the street in Boulder.

Seal - Gui Bortolotto and Lars Boehme (left to right) tag a sedated seal while Mark Barham and a few Adélie penguins look on. The tag is an oceanographic instrument that measures ocean conductivity (for salinity), temperature, pressure (for depth), and location whenever the seal dives. The data gets transmits to satellites when it surfaces. With 12 seals tagged, they have made over 1000 dives in the month since they were tagged, with a few as deep as 1000 meters. The tags will fall off when the seals molt again in a year.

Since that first iceberg sighting over two months ago, we accomplished more oceanographic and geological research than we had expected for a single Antarctic research cruise. We tagged 12 seals with small oceanographic instruments that will capture the water measurements we need to understand how much heat the ocean delivers to the glacier and how much melt it is causing. Our geologists onboard captured most of what they need to reconstruct past ocean and ice changes at Thwaites Glacier, creating maps of geologic features on the seafloor, acquiring history records from marine sediment cores, and picking up a few penguin bones and rocks along the way to age-date past glacial changes. We sent a $4 million dollar, cutting edge autonomous underwater vehicle – named Ran after the Norse goddess of the sea – on its maiden voyage under the floating portion of Thwaites Glacier to get the first-ever water measurements and seafloor maps beneath the ice (to learn more about any of these, check out my Snow on Ice blog at www.thwaitesglacier.org/blog). All of this work integrated together will fill in large gaps in our understanding about the past and present state of Thwaites.

While I played a small scientific role onboard and took every opportunity to immerse myself in those scientific discoveries we made, my primary role onboard had less to do with science and more to do with people. I was the media facilitator, which is an enigmatic, but likely emerging, role in science as we learn how to bridge the communication gap with the public. Most people immediately think blog writer and outreach, which, yes, I did a lot of. But most of my time went toward facilitating interactions between three media who joined for the entire cruise, and the scientist. Imagine putting mainstream journalists onboard a ship for two months, 24/7 on-the-record, with 23 scientists, to report on day-to-day scientific endeavors and life onboard. The two groups’ approaches to communication are like night and day: scientists conservative and focused on what’s best for the science, journalists oriented toward grabbing the attention of their readers with sensational stories. My goal was to help both groups to synergize with the other as much as possible, while reducing discontent and negative impacts on both group’s goals. It meant that I mediated between a scientist and a journalist about what “off-the-record” meant. I helped the media to navigate the fine line between their occupational ethics of not having their reporting censored and the idea that a couple inaccurate words could put scientists onboard or their families at home in a really bad situation. And I had to jump into the science planning at times to make sure the media were given exposure to the more challenging scientific activities for their important media pieces. I lucked out that I had three incredible journalists that shared the two most important values with the scientists: to report accurately and to help science and climate change.

I am proud to say that the media and scientists together accomplished so much more than I imagined. The media broadcasted our story to the public through Rolling Stone Magazine, Public Radio International’s The World, BBC, National Geographic, and a soon-to-be creative non-fiction book. After over 300 interviews over the eight weeks, the team amplified the ITGC research beyond what scientists can typically achieve alone, reaching hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of people per media venue with incredible stories about the scientists onboard, the importance of their research, and the magnificence of Antarctica. 

We accomplished a tremendous amount of work for one season and we had so many momentous days in the field. Of all of it, though, my first sighting of the front of Thwaites Glacier will stay with me as the most breathtaking and impactful I’ve had so far in my career. I remember vividly, the winds were calm and seas still as glass. A high fog sat all around the ship, shrouding the sky with a gray gloom, but contrasting the ice features to make each chiseled ridge, brilliant blue fractured cut, and etched ice layer visually striking. The conditions so peaceful, the Captain felt comfortable following the 120-kilometer-long ice front with the ship for most of the day at a distance of only a few hundred meters from the ice. Standing five decks above the waterline on the ship, it felt like I could almost reach out and touch the glacier. The first half of the ice front we followed were high ice cliffs towering over 60 feet above the water. Then we reached the portion of the ice front that we knew to be sitting over deep troughs that held lots of warm water. The ice suddenly looked completely mangled, the uneven surface often sloping down to the water line and fractured into blocks of ice ready to break off at the slightest breath. Of this more fractured ice, an area over four kilometers deep and tens of kilometers wide broke off only two days after we were there at the ice front, giving testament to its fragility. The reality of it struck me hard as one of those neon signs reminding me of why I got into this field in the first place and why the work of ITGC was so vital to both the future of Antarctica and people thousands of miles away who will be impacted by it.

Being back in Boulder now, surrounded by rain, plants, and people, my two months in Antarctica mostly feels like a dream: completely different people, landscape, and even motions beneath my feet. So it’s nice to, every once in a while, have a little reminder that it was real.  

¹Nautical term for right side of the ship in the 3 o’clock direction.

中国制造: 亚洲基础设施和“中国模式”发展.

After experiencing episodic but rather deep economic and political crises in the three decades following the 1949 Communist Revolution, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has experienced very dramatic economic expansion over the last fifty years, and especially since the turn of the Century. Most notably, as per data from the World Bank, the PRC’s economy has grown more than 5 percent, a figure considered fairly high, in 44 out of the last 50 years including each and every single year since 1991. This growth has surpassed the ten percent mark eighteen times in the last half-Century, including six times since 2001, when China became a member of the World Trade Organization, leading to over a four-fold increase in the size of its economy in this Century alone (from 2.37 to 10.16 trillion, in 2010 constant dollars).

This dramatic expansion has largely been the result of an aggressive promotion of export-oriented manufacturing. Since the mid-1980s, the PRC engaged in major industrialization efforts, which have over time made China “the factory of the world.” Initially, much of these transformations were focused in particular coastal and Northern cities and were enabled by foreign investment from overseas Chinese sources (e.g., companies from Taiwan, Singapore), and increasingly by Western investment, with State-owned companies and investments rising over time and becoming quite central to China’s development model since the turn of the 21st Century.

View toward Xinzhou by Tim Oakes 

As part of these investments, China has gradually invested in infrastructure development, accelerating considerably over the last decade and resulting in dramatic social and cultural changes in both rural and urban areas across the whole country.  This expansion, along with China’s already-strong clout in regional and, increasingly, global geopolitics, has also promoted an infrastructural development model beyond its borders as part of a newly aggressive foreign policy known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

To better understand the extent and implications of these transformations, scholars at the Center for Asian Studies (CAS) at CU Boulder led by Tim Oakes, Professor of Geography, and the Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKIHSS) began the China Made Project, an effort supported by The Henry Luce Foundation to explore the domestic and international dimension of China’s infrastructure development, and to shift the academic focus from broader geopolitical and international relations perspectives to a finer-grained analysis of the infrastructures themselves and the on-the-ground social and cultural dimensions of their construction. 

China Made will involve the development of several interrelated projects, some thanks to funded postdoctoral and graduate research positions; conversations during three academic conferences – two hosted at CU (including one this past October), and one hosted by HKIHSS; and the development of online scholarly resources for project participants and the broader academic community.

Please contact Prof. Oakes if you have any questions about China Made.

The Undergrad Snow Internship Program has been hosting undergraduates at the CU Mountain Research Station for over 20 years and includes alumni like Jen Morse and Noah Molotch, who help run the program today. The long-term data collected through this program has helped drive published papers due to the continuous collection of snowpack data. The collection points in the Subalpine (C1) and the Alpine Tundra (Niwot Saddle) provide a snow profile across an elevation gradient that is supported by metrological data and the Niwot SNOTEL Station. 

The students work hard to hike uphill in varying weather conditions: high winds, blowing snow, and the occasional sunny day. The varying harsh weather conditions on Niwot Ridge give the students experience in backcountry decision-making and understanding the threshold of collecting good data when conditions are not ideal. Their decision making is supported by training in Wilderness First Aid and understanding of the research site’s protected areas and emergency procedures if events were to turn bad. 

The measurements made within the snowpack include density measurements of snow water equivalent (SWE), snow depth, grain type and hardness.  The hard work they put into mentally and physically overcoming the conditions is rewarded by the ski down back to the Mountain Research Station (although it may not be filled with powder turns). 

The outreach of the Snow Internship Program is an important piece to furthering education about the ever-changing Colorado snowpack. From outdoor recreationalists, to local stakeholders such as the Colorado Water Congress, and grade school students, the undergraduates demonstrate the process of digging a snowpit and describing what each measurement is used for. The students are using their field experience to help others understand the importance of snow measurements and how fun they can actually be. And with a view as great as the continental divide along Niwot Ridge the beautiful sights can make any day worth it.

Niwot Saddle with snow pit site located in the upper right.

Photo: Jen Morse, Mountain Research Station PRA instruction new Snow Interns on protocol for the Snow Federal Sample to measure Depth and Snow Water Equivalent.

Collaboration and community were at the heart of the Geography department’s first Graduate Student Forum held on Saturday January 26^th. The forum was organized by Graduate Director Jennifer Fluri, Graduate Program Assistant Karen Weingarten, and Graduate Representatives Diego Melo, Erika Schreiber, Kylen Solvik, Tasha Snow, Gabriella Subia Smith, and Xi Wang. Twenty graduate students in total attended the all-day forum that consisted of a series of activities designed to build community and facilitate discussion about how to improve the grad program.

After introductions, grad students self-sorted into groups based on a number of different criteria in order to find common ground and think outside the box: level in the grad program, international or domestic, favorite seasons, cats person or a dogs (or neither!), and finally by subfield: human geography, GIS, and physical geography. From there, everyone split into groups of four to five with representatives from the different subfields. Each group had to develop a collaborative research project idea that required the use of skills, methods, and research interests of each person in the group.

At lunchtime, seven faculty members joined the event for informal conversations followed by a panel discussion on faculty career paths and struggles they faced in grad school themselves. After the panel the group was split into two groups, one for further discussion on career development and job searching, and the other for more conversations about topics discussed in the morning. The faculty and students discussed ideas for improving the department, such as in encouraging better cohesion and interaction across cohorts and subdisciplines.

Overall, grad students widely considered the event to be a successful opportunity to get to know other students in the department, learn about others’ research, find opportunities for collaboration, and have a space to discuss important issues. Graduate Director Jennifer Fluri and the Grad Reps hope that the department can continue to create spaces like the forum for grad students to build community and conversations across the discipline.

The new findings, published today in the journal Nature Communications, show that alpine tundra in Colorado’s Front Range emits more CO2 than it captures annually, potentially creating a feedback loop that could increase climate warming and lead to even more CO2 emissions in the future.

A similar phenomenon exists in the Arctic, where research in recent decades has shown that melting permafrost is unearthing long-frozen tundra soil and releasing CO2 reserves that had been buried for centuries.

“We wondered if the same thing could be happening in alpine terrain,” said John Knowles, lead author of the new study and a former doctoral student in CU Boulder’s Department of Geography and a researcher at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). “This study is a strong indication that that is indeed the case.”

Forests have long been considered vital carbon ‘sinks,’ sequestering more carbon than they produce and helping to mitigate global CO2 levels. As part of the Earth’s carbon cycle, trees and other vegetation absorb CO2 via photosynthesis while microbes (which decompose soil nutrients and organic material) emit it back to the atmosphere via respiration, just as humans release CO2 with every breath. 

Melting permafrost, however, changes that equation. As previously frozen tundra soil thaws and becomes exposed for the first time in years, its nutrients become freshly available for microbes to consume. And unlike plants, which go dormant in winter, microscopic organisms can feast all year long if environmental conditions are right.

To study this effect in alpine conditions, researchers measured the surface-to-air CO2 transfer over seven consecutive years (2008-2014) at the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Colorado, a high-altitude research project funded by the National Science Foundation that has been in continuous operation for over 35 years. The team also collected samples of soil CO2 and used radiocarbon dating to estimate how long the carbon forming that CO2 had been present in the landscape.

The study showed, somewhat surprisingly, that barren, wind-scoured tundra landscapes above 11,000 feet emitted more CO2 than they captured each year, and that a fraction of that CO2 was relatively old during the winter, the first such finding of its kind in temperate latitudes. The findings suggest higher-than-expected year-round microbial activity, even in the absence of a deep insulating snowpack.

“Microbes need it to be not too cold and not too dry, they need liquid water,” said Knowles, now a researcher at the University of Arizona. “The surprise here is that we show winter microbial activity persisting in permafrost areas that don’t collect much insulating snowpack due to wind stripping it away.”

While the alpine tundra’s net CO2 contributions are small compared to a forest’s sequestration capability, the newly-documented effect may act as something of a counterweight, hampering atmospheric CO2 reductions from mountain ecosystems in general. The findings will need to be factored in to future projections of global warming, Knowles said.

“Until now, little was known about how alpine tundra behaved with regard to this balance, and especially how it could continue emitting CO2 year after year” Knowles said. “But now, we have evidence that climate change or another disturbance may be liberating decades-to-centuries-old carbon from this landscape.”

Additional co-authors of the study include Peter Blanken of CU Boulder’s Department of Geography; Mark Williams of CU Boulder and INSTAAR; and Corey Lawrence of the U.S. Geological Survey. The National Science Foundation provided funding for the research.

Arctic sea ice likely reached its maximum extent for the year, at 14.78 million square kilometers (5.71 million square miles) on March 13, 2019, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) directed by Geography professor Mark Serreze at the University of Colorado Boulder. The 2019 maximum is effectively tied with the 2007 maximum at seventh lowest in the 40-year satellite record.

“While this is not a record low year for the Arctic sea ice maximum extent, the last four years have been the lowest in our record, reflecting a downward trend in winter sea ice extent,” said NSIDC senior research scientist Walt Meier. “This is just another indicator of the rapid changes that are occurring in the Arctic due to climate change.”

NSIDC is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder. The NSIDC Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis is supported in part by NASA.

To read the full analysis of this year's ice conditions, visit NSIDC's Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis page. 

Download the NASA animation of the 2019 Arctic sea ice melt season here.

Scientists collect sea ice data in the Beaufort Sea northeast of Barrow, Alaska. Image credit: NASA/Kathryn Hansen. High-resolution image

Gina Li (MA, 2019)

In June 2019, Gina Li will be starting a job as a Geospatial Data Engineer at Descartes Labs in San Francisco, CA. Headquartered in Santa Fe, NM, Descartes Labs is a start-up founded by several top scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2014. The company focuses on building cloud-based geospatial tools that can retrieve and process massive amounts of different types of earth observation data (i.e. satellite imagery and weather) at scale and on the fly. In addition, the company develops machine learning models that can be run on such data in their cloud platform to answer questions regarding natural disasters, the spread of disease, and food security. With the explosion of earth observation data in recent years, there has subsequently been a need to also process and make sense of that data efficiently. Gina writes: “My experience working with Dr. Reid's  environmental health group as an RA at CU EarthLab as well as processing my own health and meteorological datasets for my MA thesis in the Geography Department has given me insight and exposure to the importance of geospatial processing to answer real-world questions.”

Kai Kresek (BA, 2018)

I am currently living and working in Washington DC. I'm putting the GIS, remote sensing and research skills I gained in my undergraduate studies to work by helping to manage data and support environmental research at the World Resources Institute. I work as a data specialist with Global Forest Watch, an online platform that provides data and tools for monitoring forests. This platform is used around the world to manage forests, stop illegal deforestation and fires, monitor commodity supply chains and conduct research. I am excited to be gaining more experience with managing and analyzing big data. I also feel very fortunate to be working alongside brilliant colleagues from around the world. I'm also learning more about science communication through direct engagement with the journalists, scientists and advocates who rely on our data.

I feel so fortunate to have been a part of the Geography department! There are so many opportunities for students to take useful courses with knowledgeable and enthusiastic professors, as well as to directly apply the skills they learn in the classroom to research. The remote sensing, GIS and statistics courses have turned out to be extremely useful in preparing me for a career with an environmental research organization, and the interdisciplinary approach that the department takes has given me a solid background in human and physical geography. Research opportunities with Earth Lab, and with professors like Dr. Colleen Reid and Dr. Bill Travis gave me great hands on experience. Geography is such a diverse and vibrant field to work in right now, and I am so thankful that CU Geography influenced me to pursue this career path.

I just want to let the professors and TAs know that they're doing an amazing job! As a student who did the GIS track, the GIS, Remote Sensing and Statistics professors should know that the courses they teach are so incredibly useful, and they are really setting students up for success. Though they were often some of the most difficult courses I took, I use skills I learned in their courses every day! They seem like they have a good idea of what students need to know in order to be successful in the Geography field.

Andrew Linke (PhD, 2013)

Many congratulations CU Geography alum Andrew Linke, currently Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Utah, for winning the Stanley D. Brunn Junior Scholar Award, given by the Political Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers.  

Andrew Linke (right) posing with Stanley Brunn

Keith Wardrip (MA, 2005)

Since graduating from CU with my master's degree in Geography in 2005, I have had the privilege to pursue research related to community and economic development. My career began in the nonprofit sector in Washington, DC, but for the last seven years, I've worked in the Community Development Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Focused on issues impacting low-income communities, my research has run the gamut topically, from affordable housing and employment to community development finance and access to credit. I attribute my own employment opportunities to the instruction and guidance that I received at CU, as well as an internship that provided me with hands-on research experience.

In addition to the knowledge I gained while completing my degree, I created friendships that have lasted through the years. I would be remiss if I didn't mention my advisor, Gary Gaile, who left us too soon but who had an impact on me that was proportional to his size. I didn't realize it at the time, but the weekly Intellectual Cafe that Gary hosted in his office would become one of my fondest memories of the program.

Robert (Bob) Widner (MA, 1992)

My CU Geography degree spurred my life-long interest in land use planning and government regulation. The degree provided a springboard to a Masters in Urban & Regional Planning from UCD and a law degree from the University of Kansas. I now practice law representing government clients with an emphasis in land development and land regulation. Professor Clark's "Urban Geography" class in 1983 was the genesis of my wonderfully enjoyable and successful career.

Helen Louise Young (PhD, 1975)

I am a retired software engineer from Raytheon Company. I established the Louise Young Diversity Lecture Series at my undergrad alma mater, East Central University, Ada Oklahoma. Speakers have included the oldest American woman to have climbed Mt. Everest, a Holocaust Survivor, a Navajo Code Talker, a Tuskegee Airman and R.V. Burgin, a World War 2 Marine who fought in the fiercest battle of the Pacific Therater, the Battle of Pelieu. Burgin recounted his memories in the book, “Islands of the Damned,” which was background material for the Tom Hanks-Steven Spielberg epoch television series on Showtime, “The Pacific.” Burgin was portrayed as one of the Marines.

I taught Geography at my undergrad alma mater, East Central University in Ada Oklahoma from 1971-1974. In ‘74, I took a sabbatical to finish my dissertation. I moved to Denver and wrote about South Park Colorado, “Land and Water Acquisition In Relation to Present and Potential Land Use Change in South Park, Colorado.” In 1970, my Master’s thesis at UCB “The White Rocks Natural Area Study,” was incorporated into a Boulder County publication as one of six natural area studies. Eventually Boulder County preserved these natural areas. I’m proud to have been a part of that project, headed by Professor Emeritus Donald D. MacPhail (d). Dr. MacPhail was my dissertation director and Professor Emeritus M. John Loeffler (d) was my Master’s thesis’s director.

On October 11, 2016, I was a co-presenter at National Coming Out Day along with my wife, Vivienne Armstrong, whom I met at UCB in April 1971 through the campus’s Gay Liberation Front. Both Vivienne and I have been prominent figures in the nation’s LGBTQ rights movement for over 47 years.

Terry Vincent McIntyre (BA, 1961)

In the foreign service, I worked on Law of the Sea for several years. I guess it was because I could read a map. I was an Economics Officer, but spent time as the Resource and Energy Officer in Australia and the southwest Pacific, Brazil, and later Venezuela mainly because I knew a bit about natural resources.

Additionally, I was the Deputy Director of the Fulbright Commission in Brazil for 8 years (where I currently live). Some Geographers passed thru during this time. I have a MS from Oregon State which, at the time, was called “Natural Resources”. I have a PhD in International Studies from American University and I was the first person to pass the first comp there in Geography. They invented something for me!

Other Recent Graduates and Their Theses Titles

Emma Hines

Emma Hines

Following graduation this Spring, Emma Hines will start a position as a Research Fellow with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Climate and Health Program. Emma will receive training focusing on assessing health vulnerability and risk to the impacts of climate change, as well as receiving mentorship from staff scientists through team projects, all while applying her existing skills and learn new techniques related to statistical analysis, GIS mapping, and risk assessment. Emma’s work will involve using varying methodologies including literature review, data acquisition and cleaning, epidemiological analysis, and development of guidance documents and technical assistance to aid health departments in assessing and addressing health impacts arising from flooding, wildfires, and extreme heat. Emma will also have the opportunity to participate in relevant trainings, workgroups, communities of practice, meetings and conferences to further my knowledge and skills.