There now exists abundant evidence that pervasive changes are underway in the patterns of seasonality in the Arctic. Shifts in the timing, length, and pattern of individual seasonal events are occurring throughout the arctic system, including physical events (e.g., ocean and atmospheric circulation and fluxes, precipitation, sudden thaws, presence of ice and snow), biological events (e.g., plant phenology, animal life history events) and human activities (e.g., resource use, industrial activities).
To explore these changes, NSF's Arctic System Science Program (ARCSS) funded 40 awards totaling $14.3 million on 17 interdisciplinary projects, including field studies, retrospective investigation, modeling, and synthesis. More than 85% of the funding was provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Two additional related projects were funded through other programs in the NSF Arctic Sciences Division, giving a total set of 19 projects on "Changing Seasonality in the Arctic System."
The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) has developed a website for the projects at: http://www.arcus.org/projects/csas. The website includes comprehensive and searchable information about each project, including project overview, education and outreach activities, products, findings, photos, and other resources.
For questions regarding the website, please contact Judy Fahnestock, ARCUS, at judy [at] arcus.org.
For questions regarding the CSAS projects, please contact Neil Swanberg, NSF, at nswanber [at] nsf.gov.
For more information about the ARCSS program, see: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13426 and http://www.arcus.org/arcss/index.html.