Funding was provided to Pennsylvania State University to support for a one-year residence for Dr. Eric Post at the Danish Ministry of Environment during the International Polar Year. In Denmark, Dr. Post will coordinate his ecological research at Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland with research conducted by Danish colleagues at Zackenberg, Northeast Greenland. This collaborative research seeks to understand fundamental aspects of the ecology of Arctic organisms and how they are responding to environmental change. The PI's residence at the Danish Ministry of Environment will promote formal collaboration, the development of infrastructure, and data-sharing that will foster deeper understanding of Arctic ecology and the likely effects of climate change. Specific focus will be given to comparisons and contrasts between the interaction between plants and animals at high- and low-Arctic sites. The funding also will be used to formalize the exchange of students and post-doctoral fellows studying ecology at Kangerlussuaq (Pennsylvania State) and at Zackenberg laboratory (Danish Ministry of Environment). The collaborative effort will integrate research from the low-Arctic site (Kangerlussuaq) and the high-Arctic site (Zackenberg) with three foci:
(1) individual- and species-level responses to climatic warming (how to the sequences of life history events of individuals respond to warming in high and low-Arctic communities); (2) community-level response to climatic warming (integrating long-term observations of the timing of biological processes and changes in that timing to determine whether responses to warming differ according to trophic level and between the high- and low Arctic); and (3) ecosystem-level response to climatic warming (investigating the role of plant-animal interactions in vegetation response to climatic warming in low- and high-Arctic environments).
The funding will foster international mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; establish the infrastructure for long-term, international scientific collaboration in Greenland; and enhance public awareness of Arctic ecology and threats posed by global warming.
