Emily Seelen
University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK·Earth & Environmental Science
Much of Alaska sits on permafrost, ground that normally stays frozen year-round. As the Arctic warms, this ground is thawing.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Engineering
Social Science
- Topics
permafrost
Arctic
Alaska
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Develop river-erosion forecasting tools for Alaskan permafrost rivers using satellite imagery analyzed with sub-pixel and machine-learning change detection, combined with theory on permafrost erosion and mud transport.
- Build watershed monitoring networks that pair low-cost autonomous water-quality sensors with high-throughput microbial sequencing used as an environmental sensor, linked through shared cyberinfrastructure.
- Design community-scale infrastructure and watershed-scale solutions to reduce riverbank erosion and siltation, in partnership with local, Tribal and federal stakeholders.
More about the research
Thawing permafrost destabilizes riverbanks and threatens roads, buildings, water quality and fish habitat. Many of the nation's natural resources and security interests lie along Alaska's river corridors. Federal, state and Tribal governments need better ways to judge which riverbanks are likely to erode and how risky that erosion is. This collaborative first-phase project brings together physical and social scientists, land managers, engineering firms and local, Tribal and federal stakeholders. Their goal is to document and forecast how rivers and landscapes are changing, and to develop practical ways to protect infrastructure.
Why it matters
Communities, Tribes and agencies in Arctic Alaska face riverbank erosion as permafrost thaws. Erosion forecasts, water-quality monitoring and erosion-control designs from this work could help them decide where to protect roads and buildings and how to reduce long-term costs. The tools could also help safeguard drinking water and fish habitat.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Marie Lowe
University of Alaska Anchorage, AK·Earth & Environmental Science
Estimate riverbank erosion rates in the warming Yukon River basin and their effects on water quality and infrastructure, using numerical landscape evolution models and monitoring stations.
Ming Xiao
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Engineering
Establish ground- and drone-based monitoring of permafrost change on Alaska's North Slope, and combine it with satellite remote sensing and image processing to track erosion and subsidence.
Alexander Kholodov
University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure long-term active-layer thickness, ground temperature and thaw subsidence at standardized sites along three climatic and ecological transects in northern Alaska, and compare how site conditions control seasonal thaw.
The school
University of Alaska Fairbanks: 7 labs on PI Pages, $246M a year on research, 31 research doctorates a year.
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