00_cover_Biennial Report 05-06.qxd - INSTAAR - University of ...

Teacher resource kit supplies forthe field activity “MacroinvertebrateMania!,” from theteacher curriculum guide “MyH 2 O,” developed by ColleenFlanagan under the direction ofDiane McKnight, Spring 2006.The guide promotes awareness ofthe Boulder and St. Vrain watersheds,and copies were distributedto area public and privateschools in Spring 2006. The projectwas funded by the NiwotRidge Long-Term EcologicalResearch Program. Photo:Colleen Flanagan (INSTAAR).INSTAAR SCIENTISTS DISCUSSPOLAR RESEARCH AT PUBLIC EVENTFOR UPCOMING INTERNATIONALPOLAR YEAR. John Behrendt, Jim White,Karen Cozzetto, and several other CUBoulder scientists shared their experiences inthe Arctic, Greenland, and Antarctic in a prelude to the nextInternational Polar Year, or IPY, in 2007. Titled “Countdownto IPY,” the free, public event focused on past and currentresearch efforts at Earth’s polar regions by CU Boulder facultyand graduate students. The event also included a briefhistory of IPY, an international, interdisciplinary researchcampaign last held in 1957, which will involve the efforts ofmore than 60 nations beginning next year. IPY will officiallyrun from March 2007 to March 2009 to allow for two fullseasons of field work in the Arctic and Antarctic.Participating scientists will use high-tech tools ranging fromsatellites, autonomous vehicles, and remotely operated climatestations to GPS, laser altimeters, and supercomputersto better understand the roles the polar regions play in avariety of global processes. Researchers involved in IPY willaddress such issues as dwindling sea ice, shrinking icesheets and glaciers, thawing permafrost, and creatures rangingfrom polar bears and penguins to marine life andmicrobes.THE NINTH CIRCLE: A MEMOIR OF LIFEAND DEATH IN ANTARCTICA,1960–1962. John Behrendt published anmemoir of his work with the United StatesAntarctic Research Program in the early1960s, when the Cold War was at its heightand research on the ice sheet was risky. TheAntarctic air squadron VX6 had an accident rate eight timesthat of U.S. Naval aviation in other parts of the world, andgraduate students and young scientists like BehrendtResearchers take a breakand play Frisbee at thebase of Canada Glacier,Taylor Valley, Antarctica,January 2006. Manyplayers are members ofthe 2005–2006 Antarctic“Stream Team,”which studied thehydrology and ecologyof glacial meltwaterstreams and is supportedby NSF’s McMurdoDry Valleys Long-TermEcological Research(LTER) program. Photo:Karen Cozzetto(INSTAAR).received hazard pay for their work. In Behrendt’s memoir werelive that era of scientific explorations with him. Hedescribes two seasons on the ice in Operation Deep Freeze,leading field parties, conducting scientific research, andstruggling against the elements. Behrendt led an over-snowgeophysical-glaciological-geologic-geographic explorationparty to the southern Antarctic Peninsula and to a mountainrange that was eventually named for him in recognitionof his work. Behrendt pioneered aerogeophysical surveysover the Transantarctic Mountains and the West AntarcticIce Sheet. In his reflections on the period from 1956 to1962, he notes the time was closer to the eras of ErnestSchackleton (Endurance voyage, 1914) and Robert F. Scottand Roald Amundsen’s treks to the South Pole(1911–1912) than to the present. Readers fascinated withthe 20th century frontier of our shrinking planet will relishhis adventurous account.OZONE AND THE OCEANS. ShellySommer created a poster display for theDiscovery Science Center that describes aproject, led by Detlev Helmig, to measureozone fluxes over the oceans. The displayalso explains the role of ozone in the tropospherevs. the stratosphere. The hands-on science center islocated in Fort Collins, Colorado, and serves 35,000 visitorseach year; many attendees are children from northernColorado and Wyoming. A companion web site, “Ozoneand the Oceans,” was created with the assistance of DavidLubinski. The site is an educational resource for grades 5–12that describes the science, introduces team members, andprovides updates on the project, a glossary, and downloadablePDFs of the Science Center posters. The site has beenadded to the Digital Library for Earth Science Education(DLESE) and the National Science Digital Library (NSDL).38 | SOCIETAL MISSION