Ikaaġvik Sikukun

"Ice bridges"

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Ikaaġvik Sikukun is a research project that couples state-of-the-art geophysical observations from unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) with a community-engaged research approach to bridge scientific and indigenous understanding of sea ice change in the Alaska Arctic. Our research team represents a partnership between academic researchers and the Native Village of Kotzebue and includes expertise in ice and ocean physics, marine biology, ethnography and documentary filmmaking. The research will take place in and around the community of Kotzebue, Alaska, which lies within Kotzebue Sound on the coast of southern Chukchi Sea. Sea ice is integral to the way of life for Kotzebue’s indigenous residents who rely on the marine mammals that inhabit the ice pack for food and clothing. Our study plan begins and ends with the involvement of community members to help craft research questions, collect observations and synthesize our findings. Ultimately, the findings will contribute to predictive assessments of the changing cryosphere of Kotzebue Sound, the implications of such change for the ecology and the Iñupiaq way of life that is dependent upon it. Through this approach, we will address key questions concerning the mechanisms and impacts of rapid changes taking place in the Arctic while ensuring that our answers incorporate traditional ways of knowing and are relevant to local needs.

Documentary Films

Ice Edge - Project Documentary



Project Overview — 15 videos

In the News

News Features:

NPR: Fire and Ice (April 2023)

NPR Short Wave podcast: Wildfires are bigger. Arctic ice is melting. Now, scientists say they're linked (April 2023)

University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences: On the ice and from the air: combining Indigenous Knowledge and multidisciplinary science to investigate Alaska’s ringed seals (March 2022)

National Park Service: Sea Ice: ‘Ice Edge — The Ikaagvik Sikukun Story (March 2022)

Lahaina News: Community invited to free screening of ‘Ice Edge — The Ikaagvik Sikukun Story’ (March 2022)

FERN’s Back Forty: Another testament to a warming world (March 2022)

The Wall Street Journal: In Climate Research, Arctic Scientists and Indigenous People Join Forces (February 2022)

Sustain What? podcast: ‘Ice Edge’ – Indigenous and Western Ways of Knowing Reveal Arctic Change (January 2022)

Nature: Weaving Indigenous knowledge into the scientific method (January 2022)

Columbia Climate School: Scientists and Native People Jointly Study Sea-Ice Declines Threatening Seal Hunts (October 2021)

ArcticToday: Two Indigenous-led studies in Alaska hint at how future low sea ice seasons could affect Arctic communities (September 2021)

ArcticToday: A new Indigenous-led study documents how ice loss is changing seal hunts (September 2021)

University of Alaska Fairbanks: Climate change threatens seal hunting by Indigenous Alaskans (August 2021)

State of the Planet: Tracking the impact of climate change in Alaska (April 2021)

Columbia Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: A New Research Paradigm: Where Data Science Meets Community Life (March 2020)

Press Releases:

University of Alaska Fairbanks: Film reveals Arctic change through Indigenous, scientific knowledge (January 2022)

State of the Planet: New Film Explores Combining Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science to Understand Waning Arctic Sea Ice (January 2022)

Events:

Co-production of Knowledge and a Path for Inclusive Climate Change Science (February 2022)

Ice Edge: The Ikaaġvik Sikukun Story (January 2022)

Local Newsletters

Spring 2019 Newsletter

Spring 2019: Project Overview & Research Questions

Fall 2019 Newsletter

Fall 2019: Using high-endurance Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles to address research questions

Spring 2020 Newsletter 3

Spring 2020: In-situ Measurements and Results

Spring 2020 Newsletter 4

Spring 2020: Messages from the Elders, Ugruk Hunting, and Historical Sea Ice Analysis

Publications


Lindsay, J. M., D. D. W. Hauser, A. R. Mahoney, K. L. Laidre, J. Goodwin, C. Harris, R. J. Schaeffer, R. Schaeffer, Sr., A. V. Whiting, P. L. Boveng, N. J. M. Laxague, S. Betcher, A. Subramaniam, C. R. Witte, and C. J. Zappa (2023), Characteristics of ringed seal Pusa hispida (natchiq) denning habitat in Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, during a year of limited sea ice and snow, Marine Ecology Progress Series, 705, 1-20, doi:10.3354/meps14252.

Witte, C. R., C. J. Zappa, A. R. Mahoney, J. Goodwin, C. Harris, R. E. Schaeffer, R. Schaeffer Sr, S. Betcher, D. D. W. Hauser, N. J. M. Laxague, J. M. Lindsay, A. Subramaniam, K. E. Turner, and A. Whiting (2021), The Winter Heat Budget of Sea Ice in Kotzebue Sound: Residual Ocean Heat and the Seasonal Roles of River Outflow, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 126(9), e2020JC016784, doi:10.1029/2020JC016784.

Mahoney, A. R., K. E. Turner, D. D. W. Hauser, N. J. M. Laxague, J. M. Lindsay, A. V. Whiting, C. R. Witte, J. Goodwin, C. Harris, R. J. Schaeffer, R. Schaeffer, S. Betcher, A. Subramaniam, and C. J. Zappa (2021), Thin ice, deep snow and surface flooding in Kotzebue Sound: landfast ice mass balance during two anomalously warm winters and implications for marine mammals and subsistence hunting, Journal of Glaciology, 1-15, doi:10.1017/jog.2021.49.

Hauser, D. D. W., A. V. Whiting, A. R. Mahoney, J. Goodwin, C. Harris, R. J. Schaeffer, R. Schaeffer, N. J. M. Laxague, A. Subramaniam, C. R. Witte, S. Betcher, J. M. Lindsay, and C. J. Zappa (2021), Co-production of knowledge reveals loss of Indigenous hunting opportunities in the face of accelerating Arctic climate change, Environmental Research Letters, 16(9), 095003, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac1a36.

Project Objectives

Project Objectives

Our overarching goal is to build bridges between indigenous communities and scientists, we identify the following objectives to guide the development of our science plan, our engagement with community of Kotzebue and the legacy we will leave for others to follow:

    Science
    Improve understanding of the mechanisms, impacts, and implications of sea ice retreat in the Arctic for the global science community and local stakeholders
    Community
    Develop partnerships between scientists and local residents to increase the capacity of local communities to address their research needs
    Legacy
    Document the progress of the project as a potential model for future community-based collaborative science endeavors in the Arctic

Map of Study Area

Map of Study Area

Kotzebue is situated in northwestern Alaska. The Native Village of Kotzebue and the surrounding areas are home to Indigenous communities, including the Iñupiaq people.

Kotzebue Sound is a large shallow embayment with extensive land fast ice in winter and is influenced by the Natal and Kobuk Rivers. The sound is a vital habitat for marine mammals such as the ringed and bearded seal and it supports traditional subsistence activities such as harvesting.

Southern Chukchi Sea is an important migration corridor for seabirds and marine mammals, but it has experienced extensive loss of sea ice in recent years.

Our team

Indigenous Expert Advisory Council

Roswell L. Schaeffer Sr.
Ross Schaeffer Sr

Roswell was born and raised in Kotzebue, Alaska. His parents were John and Annie Schaeffer Sr. He graduated from Copper Valley High School in 1966 and from the University of...

Cyrus Harris
Cyrus Harris

Cyrus is a lifelong coastal Alaskan, living mostly at Sisualik, about 12 miles across the bay from Kotzebue. He learned from a young age the importance of keeping track of...

Robert (Bobby) Schaeffer
Bobby Schaeffer

Robert was born in Kotzebue, 1949, and has lived in and near Kotzebue his entire life. From a young age, he learned about the environment from his dad and other...

John Goodwin
John Goodwin

John is an Alaska Native hunter who has lived in the Kotzebue area for more than 50 years and has spent his entire life learning about the ocean and the...

Project Investigators

Christopher J. Zappa
Chris Zappa

Chris' website
Chris is a Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. He grew up north of Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Columbia...

Andy Mahoney
Andy Mahoney

Andy is a Research Assistant Professor Geophysics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. As the leader of the Geophysical Institute’s sea ice research group, Andy is actively engaged at the...

Alex Whiting
Alex Whiting

Alex developed the Native Village of Kotzebue’s Environmental Program in 1997 and has directed the program as the Environmental Specialist since. A large part of the focus has been researching...

Sarah Betcher
Sarah Betcher

Sarah's website
Sarah is an award winning documentary filmmaker and owner of Farthest North Films, a company specializing in films that communicate across cultures, especially showcasing...

Co-Project Investigators

Ajit Subramaniam
Ajit Subramanian

Ajit is a biological oceanographer who uses remote sensing, bio- optics, Geographical Information Systems, to better understand how the marine ecosystem works and can be managed. Specifically, he works on...

Donna Hauser
Donna Hauser

Donna's website

Donna is a spatial marine ecologist whose research has examined the habitat use of marine mammals throughout the Arctic and the northeast Pacific since 2002. Having grown up in Anchorage,...

Researchers

Scott Brown
Scott Brown

Scott is an electronics and systems engineer who works with Dr. Christopher Zappa to perform both traditional and cutting-edge measurements from UAVs. For the last 6 years and across 3...

Nathan Laxague
Nathan Laxague

Nathan is a post-doctoral research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. He was raised in Maine and has lived by the coast his entire life, captivated by the...

Kate Turner
Kate Turner

Kate is from the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, she has moved to Alaska to work on this project as a PhD student of sea ice geophysics under Andy...

Carson Witte
Carson Witte

Carson is a Field Engineer in Dr. Christopher Zappa’s OASIS (Observatory for Air-Sea Interaction Studies) lab. He has had the privilege of spending several different weeks in Kotzebue over the...

Tej Dhakal
Tej Dhakal

Tej Dhakal is an Aerospace Engineer at LDEO who focuses on remote sensing systems for manned and unmanned aircraft. In the past 7 years at LDEO, Tej has developed remote...

Latitude Engineering Inc.

Aaron Farber
Aaron Farber

Aaron has spent the last four years working on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) focusing on investigating and integrating new sensor packages for aerial deployment. His work with in situ lab-on-a-chip...

Cory Rosene
Cory Rosene

Cory came to Latitude in 2013 with a background in small business management and custom bicycle fabrication. He is highly skilled in hand fabrication, welding and machining and proficient in...

Collaborators

Jessie Lindsay
Jessie Lindsay

Jessie is a Master’s student at the University of Washington in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS), where she is advised by Kristin Laidre. She is supported by...

Peter Boveng
Peter Boveng

Peter is the leader of the Polar Ecosystems Program at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Marine Mammal Laboratory. The program conducts monitoring and research on harbor seals and ice-associated (ringed,...

Kristin Laidre
Kristin Laidre

Kristin is a Principal Scientist at the Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington working on problems of applied animal ecology in the Arctic. She is an Associate...

Picture Reel

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Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

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Latitude Engineering’s HQ-90B aircraft represents a giant leap in Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) capability, enabling long-endurance missions with vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and optimized to perform in remote locations such as Alaska’s Arctic coastal communities. The Hybrid Quadrotor (HQ) technology offers the efficiency, speed, and range of a normal fixed- wing aircraft with no need for a runway or other complex launch and recovery equipment. The HQ-90B has a cruising speed of 40 knots, with a 15-hour endurance carrying a nominal 15-lb payload. The HQ-90B can reach 14,000 feet, has a wingspan of 185 inches and weighs 115 lb. The aircraft features a swappable nose cone for holding a variety of payloads that can be switched out quickly. Compared to pure multi-rotors, HQ technology is more cost effective, more reliable, has higher top speed, more endurance, more wind tolerance, and can cover more ground. Compared to fixed wing aircraft, HQ technology operates from more locations and from more types of platforms.

Funding

Moore Foundation

Logistics support

FWS

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Selawik

National Wildlife Refuge | Alaska

Contact Us


Please email ikaagvik_all_pis@lists.ldeo.columbia.edu for all questions pertaining to the project.

Ikaaġvik Sikukun