P - R
RAISE
The Russian-American Initiative on Shelf-Land Environments in the Arctic (RAISE) facilitates collaborative research between Russian and American scientists studying terrestrial, shelf, and ocean environments in northern Eurasia in the context of global change. RAISE is a multi-disciplinary initiative aimed at integrating scientific understanding of global change in the Arctic at the land-sea boundary over prehistoric, historic, and current time frames. An international scientific steering committee promotes this effort, and a project office, located at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, provides research support. The following research problems, identified during scientific workshops supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Russian Fund for Basic Research, led to the development of the RAISE program: 1. Among the great unknowns in climate prediction is the potential for release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane from peat and permafrost as climate warms at higher latitudes. Some of the largest coastal erosion rates in the world are already occurring in the Russian Arctic, and the ultimate transport and fate of resultant large fluxes of organic carbon into the Arctic Ocean are poorly understood. 2. The volume of river runoff in the Arctic may also be altered by global change, and changes in the freshwater content of the Arctic Ocean are likely to have consequences for formation of sea ice cover and thermohaline circulation over the Arctic-North Atlantic climate system. 3. The retreat of sea ice over the vast Eurasian continental shelves will also have direct impacts on biological productivity, will affect marine mammals and birds, and, ultimately, will impact subsistence communities in both Russia and Alaska who depend upon current climate and hydrographic patterns. Contact Information: Dr. Vladimir Romanovsky Geophysical Institute University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 757320 Fairbanks, AK 99775-7320, U.S.A. Telephone: +1.907.474.7459 Fax: +1.907.474.7290 e-mail: ffver&#64uaf.edu For more information, link to "http://arcss.colorado.edu/arcss/projects/raise.html" or "http://www.raise.uaf.edu/" [Summary provided by ADCC]