Return to Main Land and Life page
Dr Byron Adams
studies: 
Byron Adams is an associate professor in the Microbiology and Molecular Biology Department at Brigham Young University. He works with Diana Wall’s soil team and other members of the MCM LTER. He is interested in molecular evolution and systematics of nematodes, tardigrades and rotifers. His current focus is on comparative phylogeography, food webs, and the evolution of community structure.
Contact: Byron Adams
Microbiology and Molecular Biology Department, and Evolutionary Ecology Laboratories, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602-5253, USA
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
T:+1 (801) 422-3132
___
Dr. Jenny Baeseman
Jenny Baeseman grew up on a dairy farm in Central Wisconsin and has spent several seasons studying streams in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Her training includes a B.S. in Water Chemistry from the University of WI - Stevens Point, M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota, a Ph.D. also in Civil Engineering with an environmental emphasis, postdoctoral training in geosciences at Princeton University, as well as experience in the academic world as an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences. Currently, she is the Program Development Coordinator for the Arctic Research Consortium of the US (ARCUS) and based at the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska - Fairbanks.
Jenny began working with the International Polar Year (IPY) in the summer of 2005. She is the co-chair of the IPY Tertiary Education Committee and the founding Director for the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), one of the major legacy programs of the IPY. APECS is an international and interdisciplinary organization for undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, new faculty and educators with interests in the polar regions and the cryosphere. This organization allows young researchers to combine their interests in interdisciplinary polar science with interests in education and outreach and professional development activities. One of Jenny's personal goals is to make sure everyone she meets knows that polar bears don't eat penguins - as they live in different polar regions.
Contact:
Dr. Jenny Baeseman
Director - Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS)
International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska - Fairbanks
T: 907-474-1963
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Dr. Ian Hogg
studies springtails: 
Ian Hogg is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Waikato. His research interests focus on the diversity of Arctic and Antarctic invertebrates such as springtails (pictured above), as well as their ecology and conservation. He is particularly interested in the use of molecular techniques (e.g. DNA barcoding) for species' identification and the assessment of biodiversity.
Contact details:
Ian D. Hogg
Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Waikato, New Zealand
T: +64 7 838-4139
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
---
___
Prof Jim Reist
studies 
Jim Reist is a research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Central and Arctic Region, Winnipeg where he leads a small research section concentrating on Arctic fishes. He is also an adjunct professor in Zoology and Natural Resources Institute (University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada) and Biology (University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada). His research interests include taxonomy, biodiversity (e.g., life history types, population structure), life history, and biogeography of northern freshwater, anadromous and marine fishes, particularly salmonids in the mid to High Arctic. Additional research focuses upon the effects of anthropogenic impacts on arctic fishes and their ecosystems. Research on taxonomy and biodiversity includes morphological and genetic approaches; life history research is collaborative and involves biological, otolith microchemical and stable isotopic analyses; biogeographic research includes mapping species occurrences and longer-term distributional changes; and, impacts work includes exploitation, climate change, and cumulative effects.
Contact information:
Jim Reist
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Manitoba, Canada
T: +1-204-983-5032
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Margareta Johansson
Margareta Johansson is a PhD student working at the GeoBiosphere Science Centre at Lund University and at the Abisko Scientific Research Station in Sweden. She is working on permafrost dynamics in relation to climate change and its impact on ecosystems in the Abisko area in northernmost Sweden. Her research includes monitoring of active layer and ground temperatures, modelling permafrost development in the catchment and also an experimental manipulation to simulate future climate conditions and its effects on active layer dynamics and biodiversity.
Margareta will be participating in the Land and Life Live Events
Contact: Margareta Johansson
GeoBiosphere Science Centre, Lund University, Sweden
T: +46 46 222 44 80
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Dr. Hugues Lantuit
Hugues Lantuit's research is primarily focused on the impacts of climate change on Arctic coasts. He uses geospatial tools, including satellite imagery, Geographical Information Systems, and photogrammetry to quantify and characterize coastal erosion occurring in permafrost regions of the Arctic, in particular nearby Arctic Inuit coastal communities.
Hugues is also the creator of the Permafrost Young Researchers Network, an association bringing together more than 530 members from 40 countries to share, discuss and promote new research experiences.
Hugues will be participating in the Land and Life Live Events
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Dr Maarten Loonen
For over 20 years, Maarten Loonen has been ringing and observing geese in the arctic. He tries to understand the problems and dangers in a bird's life in the arctic and the difficulty to produce offspring. He has been studying behavioral decisions (when to fight, run or nest), availability of food (grass and moss) and risk of predation (arctic foxes and gulls) and is now looking at the role of diseases. All these factors vary a lot and respond to climate change. At the time of the live event, the geese are nesting and half-way through incubation. We are counting nests on different islands and read rings to determine who is present.
Maarten Loonen is senior scientist at the Arctic Centre and Willem Barentsz Polar Institute, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
He is also station manager of the Netherlands Arctic Station in Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen and will be working there from 9 June till 14 August.
Maarten will be participating in the Land and Life Live Events with a broadcast from there, 79 degrees northern latitude from an international research base in the northernmost village of the world.
Check out his website: www.arcticstation.nl with a wealth of pictures in the weblog
Dr. Pier Paul Overduin
Senior Research Scientist
Paul Overduin has worked in the Canadian High Arctic, Siberia, Chukotka, East Antarctica and on Spitsbergen.
Paul is interested where the ground is permanently frozen, how cold it is, and how it is changing. In his current position at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar Research in Potsdam, Germany, he is concentrating on the way permafrost affects the Arctic Ocean's coastline and on what happens to permafrost after the sea floods the land. He is currently trying to improve our understanding of permafrost in the coastal zone, and how it evolves after inundation. He is also co-leader of an international project studying coastal dynamics in the Arctic.
Paul will be participating in the Land and Life Live Events.
___
Dr. Cristina Takacs-Vesbach
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at UNM and studies the microbial ecology of extreme environments. In her thirteen years working in Antarctica, her research has focused on the microorganisms that live in the lakes and soils of the dry valleys. She was one of the first American women to spend part of winter in a remote field camp in the region and first became involved in the International Polar Year as a member of the US National Committee to the IPY.
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Prof. Antonio Quesada
Antonio Quesada is Professor at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) and is the PI of the multidisciplinary LIMNOPOLAR program. His research interests focus on non-marine aquatic ecosystems and in particular on microbial ecology associated to these ecosystems. He is especially involved in using freshwater ecosystems as sentinels of climate change in polar regions.
Contact details:
Antonio Quesada
Dept. Biología. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. 28049 Madrid. Spain
T: +34 914978181
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Prof. Rod Seppelt
Dr Seppelt is a Principal Research Scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and curator of the AAD Herbarium which contains more than 30,000 specimens from the Antarctic continent, sub-Antarctic islands and elsewhere.
A researcher of more than 36 visits to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic Rod Seppelt is recognised as Australia's leading Antarctic bryologist and his book, The Moss Flora of Macquarie Island provides an up-to-date summary of almost 30 years' taxonomic research.
Australian Antarctic Division
Channel Highway,
Kingston, Tasmania 7050,
Australia
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Angela McGaughran
Angela gained her BSc in biology at the University of Waikato, where she subsequently gained her MSc in genetic patterns of New Zealand and Antarctic arthropods. She is now located at Massey University in Palmerston North, where she is working towards her PhD. Her main focus is 'polar evolution' and this encompasses investigation into life history (e.g. metabolic energy budgets) and genetic parameters of populations of Antarctic springtails and mites. Her academic career has seen her working in Wright and Victoria Valleys in Antarctica for her MSc, Cape Bird on 06/07, and she is currently preparing for an expedition to the Dry Valleys for the 2008/2009 season.
Contact
PhD Student, Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University, New Zealand
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Dr. Bob Hollister
Bob Hollister does research in ecology and environmental science. He has over 9 publications in premiere journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America (PNAS), Global Change Biology, Ecology, and Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research. He began Arctic research in 1994 working under Pat Webber at Barrow, Alaska. His expertise is in changing tundra vegetation and biotic response to warming and other disturbances.
Hollister has a rich history of service related to Arctic research. He is an active member of the ITEX (International Tundra EXperiment, IPY project 188) network and has taken a leadership role within the group on several synthesis activities. He has worked with BASC (Barrow Arctic Research Consortium) since its conception to find ways to make research more efficient and affective in Barrow, Alaska. He was an organizing committee member for the Barrow Area Research Support Workshop which ultimately resulted significant upgrades to logistical support in Barrow. As a former representative to ARCUS (Arctic Research Consortium of the United States) through Michigan State University, Hollister has served on numerous nominating and developmental committees.
As a member of the Global Change Biology Editorial Advisory Board he is well aware of the many changes currently impacting biological systems. He has experience working in systems outside the Arctic circle including tropical dry forests and temperate systems, especially Michigan wetlands. He also lead a study abroad course to Antarctica.
Hollister does extensive outreach activities in Alaska and Michigan. He often talks with community groups and classrooms about the Arctic and climate change. Do not hesitate to contact him, you will generally find him quite friendly and receptive.
Contact:
Robert D. Hollister, Ph. D.,
Assistant Professor, Biology Department, Grand Valley State University, USA
T: +1/616/331-8582
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Dr. Jerry Brown
International Permafrost Association
More about Permafrost
P.O. Box 7, Woods Hole, MA
02345 U.S.A.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
___
Anna Liljedahl
Anna is a research assistant at IARC, is working on a project that combines measurements and modeling to study the hydrological regime on a watershed scale. Soil moisture is of particular interest, especially for future scenarios. The study requires an exchange of data between snow, soil thermal regime, vegetation, and hydrology models. Liljedahl is also collecting field measurements to test the accuracy of geographical representations in model simulations.
Contact details: Anna Liljedahl
Research Assistant/PhD Student
International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
PO Box 757340, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7340
406A Akasofu Building
(1) 907-474-1951, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
____
Dr. Steven Overbauer
Steven Oberbauer is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Florida International University in Miami. Dr. Oberbauer received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from San Diego State University, where he was first introduced to arctic research. He completed his Ph.D. at Duke University studying the ecophysiology of tropical trees in Costa Rica. Dr. Oberbauer currently researches climate change effects in both the Arctic and the Tropics, specifically how plants adjust to changes in their environment and resource availability.
On an expedition June 10th - July 18th, 2008 studying Arctic Tundra Dynamics, he will be participating in one of the Land and Life Live Events.
Details, biographies, contact, and background on the Polatrec page
___
Cameron Wobus (University of Colorado)
Location: Somewhere near Barrow - in the field
Study Area: Coastal Erosion in the Alaskan Arctic
Arctic coastlines lie at a crucial interface between the sea ice-ocean system and the landscapes of polar regions. My project is focused on understanding how climate change is influencing rates of coastal erosion in northern Alaska, which we hope will help us to predict future changes in Arctic landscapes, hydrology, and ecology.
---
Steven L. Chown
Aliens in Antarctica
Director, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
Stellenbosch University
South Africa
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
To arrange an interview, please contact Anel Garthwaite
Tel: +2721 808-2725
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.sun.ac.za/cib
___
Elizabeth Eubanks
Elizabeth Eubanks is a New Orleans native who has spent much of her youth crabbing, fishing, exploring the bayous, and camping out west with her family. Being exposed to a broad spectrum of nature sparked her drive to pursue a zoology degree at Auburn University and a Master’s in Education from Palm Beach Atlantic University. Mrs. Eubanks has taught integrated middle school science for 11 years and presently teaches at St. Mark Catholic School in Boynton Beach, Florida. Mrs. Eubanks teaches in order to share her passion for science with kids. Her lessons are filled with hands on activities in a stimulating environment in which students utilize real science to question, reason, think outside of the box, and to feel empowered by knowledge. She will be participating in one of the Land and Life Live Events.
Details, biographies, contact, and background on the Polatrec page
___
Dr Mike Gill
Michael J. Gill is the Chair of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program. The CBMP is the cornerstone program of the Arctic Council’s Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna Working Group (CAFF) and is currently lead by Canada.. The CBMP office is located in Whitehorse, Yukon and is hosted by Environment Canada’s Northern Conservation Division. Michael and his colleagues are working with a number of existing monitoring networks developing a number of products, from long-term integrated monitoring plans to web-based data portals, to facilitate integration of current monitoring effort and deliver the information to both the public and policy arenas.. As Michael says – “We have a world class network of research and monitoring programs operating in the Arctic. The challenge before us is to develop products and tools that facilitate and support this investment and improve overall coordination of monitoring - it’s about doing more with what we already have”. Check out the CBMP website: www.cbmp.is for a flavour of what CBMP has already accomplished and where it is taking us.
Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program
For further information, please contact
Mike Gill
Chair, Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program Office
91780 Alaska Highway
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Y1A 5B7, Canada
Tel +1 867 393 6760
Fax +1 867 393 7970
___
Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic (EBA)
Here is a full list of projects and contacts studying evolution and biodiversity in the Antarctic.
For further information, please contact
Shulamit Gordon
Antarctica New Zealand
Private Bag 4745
Christchurch 8140
NEW ZEALAND
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
__
Soil Ecosystems and Hydrology in the Antarctic Dry Valleys
McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research Program
Contact information:
Diana Wall
Colorado State University
Natl Resource Ecol Lab
200 W Lake Street
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1499
Ross Virginia
Dartmouth College
Environmental Studies Program
6182 Steel Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Diane McKnight
University of Colorado
INSTAAR
1560 30th Street
Campus Box 450
Boulder, CO 80309-0450
—
NOMAD
Dr. Vladislava Vladimirova, Prof. Yulian Konstantinov and Dr. Joachim Otto Habeck are three researchers working with NOMAD, an IPY project that studies social change among reindeer herders in Russia’s far north. Read their extended bios and contact information.