Research Summary
Churchill, Manitoba, Canada — Global warming is most dramatically visible at the edge of the Arctic, where peatlands run in a broad strip around the globe. These wetlands contain as much as 20% of the world’s carbon, usually locked in permafrost. But as the permafrost thaws, carbon dioxide and methane — the most pernicious greenhouse gases — may be released, which in turn could increase the rate of global warming, with devastating implications for the planet. What happens to the peat here will not only alter the local ecosystem, but also the entire biosphere. By looking into the ways climate change is affecting the lives of species that live in this region, you can help Dr. Peter Kershaw, Dr. LeeAnn Fishback (who will lead the Teen Team), and colleagues monitor ecosystem responses and gather data on the potential impacts of this phenomenon — before it’s too late.
Meet the Scientists
Dr. Peter Kershaw
University of Alberta
Dr. Kershaw is a biogeographer, disturbance ecologist and periglacial geomorphologist specializing in the impacts of anthropogenic disturbances (e.g. burrow pits, vehicle tracks, and oil spills) and fire on tundra and forest ecosystems in addition to permafrost landforms’ responses to climate change. He has worked and taught in Churchill for more than 15 years, although his main field sites have been in the western Arctic along the Mackenzie River valley and in the Mackenzie Mountains, where he has conducted research since the early 1970s. He has published papers on vegetation responses to anthropogenic and natural disturbances as well as environmental parameters (snowpack, temperature, permafrost) which largely determine the timing and type of recovery of these communities.
(Though Dr. Kershaw is the lead Earthwatch Scientist for the Climate Change at the Arctic’s Edge expedition, he will not be in the field with the 2009 Teen Team, which will be lead by Dr. Fishback.)
Dr. LeeAnn Fishback
Churchill Northern Studies Center; University of Winnipeg; University of Manitoba
Dr. Fishback is an environmental geochemist focusing on freshwater lake and pond water chemistry in arctic and subarctic regions. She lives in Churchill, Manitoba full-time as a northern field research scientist. Her passion for the North has grown over the past 15 years and she enjoys living in the remote areas of the country. Dr. Fishback received her Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada in 2002 and has been the Scientific Coordinator at CNSC for the last six years. In addition, she is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Winnipeg and in the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Earth, Environment and Resources at the University of Manitoba, both in Winnipeg, Manitoba where she teaches and supervises students. She enjoys the rigors of winter including snowmobile rides, snowshoeing and curling up with a good book on a blizzard day.
Dr. Ben Cash
Churchill Northern Studies Center
Dr. Cash is a wetland ecologist specializing in the ecology of vertebrate species adapted to wetland habitats. His experience ranges from the study of basic ecology and diversity of ephemeral wetlands in the southeastern US coastal plain to water quality measurement and ecology of natural oxbow lakes in the Mississippi Delta. He has worked in Churchill for six years, researching the biology of the wood frog and boreal chorus frog. Dr. Cash began his diverse biological training at Piedmont College in northeast Georgia where he was first exposed to the world of ecology and herpetology. He then obtained his M.S. degree from Georgia Southern University where his research involved describing the amphibian and reptile communities of isolated, temporary wetlands in the southeast Atlantic Coastal Plain. At the University of Mississippi, he received a Ph.D. for his research on behavioral and physiological aspects of the biology of slider turtles. He resides in Maryville, TN with his wife and two children.