Celebrating 20 years

photo by Scott Zolkos

Keeping watch on Arctic rivers

In the early 2000s, analyses of long-term datasets revealed tantalizing clues about increasing flow in Arctic rivers related to climate change. However, a sparsity of measurements on pan-Arctic river chemistry hindered understanding of climate change impacts on ecosystem health. The Arctic Great Rivers Observatory (ArcticGRO) was created to bridge that gap and, by measuring chemistry in the six largest Arctic rivers every two months using identical methods, establish a critical monitoring baseline. The team comprises lead researchers from five institutions, including Woodwell Climate, and nearly a dozen essential international partners. The first samples were collected almost exactly twenty years ago, in June 2003. Since then, this unique international collaboration has analyzed nearly 600 samples each for dozens of chemical parameters; inspired more than 200 peer-reviewed publications; generated unparalleled—and unexpected—insights on Arctic ecosystems; and shaped paradigms which have helped to advance understanding of our changing planet. A synthesis of this unique dataset will be published later this year.

photo by Linda Deegan

A truly unique experiment

The TIDE Project began in 2003 with the collection of baseline data on Massachusetts’ Great Salt Marsh. The following year, an interdisciplinary research team started adding nutrients to two tidal salt marsh streams, kicking off what would become the world’s only long-term, landscape-scale fertilization experiment aimed at understanding how human development impacts one of Earth’s most productive ecosystems. Over the course of two decades, the TIDE Project has engaged a diverse group of more than 100 participants, many of them interns, research assistants, and graduate students. Led by Woodwell Climate Senior Scientist Dr. Linda Deegan, TIDE has yielded seminal insights into how coastal salt marshes respond to intersecting human impacts. A high-profile 2012 Nature paper shined a spotlight on the role of nutrient pollution in marsh loss—and highlighted the importance of TIDE, as the effect had not been seen in studies that manipulated just a few square meters.