NCET

Ancient carbon from Pleistocene era (10,000 years ago) animals, along with chunks of green grass growing in the ancient soil is being flushed into Arctic lakes and rivers as the long-frozen permafrost thaws, producing methane gas and possibly carbon dioxide which may be causing further global warming.

To study this climate change phenomena, Sudeep Chandra, University of Nevada, Reno professor and researcher will be returning for his second year as one of the principle investigators with the Polaris Project, an international team of scientists and students studying climate change in the Siberian Arctic.

Joanne Heslop, an undergraduate at the University, was one of the few students across the country chosen in the highly competitive selection process to participate. It will be her first year in the month-long program. They leave July 2 for the research and field course.

The Polaris Project program is training future leaders in Arctic research and education, and informing the public about the impacts of climate change; essential goals given the rapid and profound transformations underway in the Arctic.

In addition to the field course, The Polaris Project includes research experience for undergraduate students in the Siberian Arctic, several new arctic-focused undergraduate courses taught by project co-primary investigators at their home institutions, the opportunity for those scientists to initiate research programs in the Siberian Arctic, and a wide range of outreach activities. All project participants, both students and faculty, will visit kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms in their home cities to convey the excitement of polar research.

Technorati Tags: Sudeep Chandra, University of Nevada Reno, Polaris Project, Joanne Heslop, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

…

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Reno-Tahoe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.