Hi, this is Mike Loranty. Several colleagues and I are heading to Siberia too.  I’m a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Research Center working with Dr. Scott Goetz. Although not officially affiliated with the Polaris Project, we have become quite familiar with it through Max Holmes. In addition to Scott and myself, our contingent will include Dr. Michelle Mack from the University of Florida and two members of her lab: postdoc Heather Alexander, and research assistant Kami Earl. As you might imagine the logistics required for travel to the Siberian Arctic can be quite daunting. Lucky for us we were able to coordinate our travel with that of the Polaris group, with lots of help from Kate Bulygina (Thanks Kate!).

We will be studying the forests in the general vicinity of the Northeast Science Station, in Cherskiy. Our work is part of a project funded by NASA that seeks to understand the impacts of fire on boreal forests. Specifically, we are interested in understanding how the severity of a fire affects post-fire forest regeneration. Field observations made in Alaska by Michelle’s group suggest that more severe fires alter post-fire succession, resulting in the presence of more deciduous trees. In Scott’s group we are linking this information with satellite observation in order to understand how changing fire regimes may impact the composition of boreal landscapes, and also using it to model changes in ecosystem carbon fluxes associated with changes in fire severity. The next step is to achieve a similar level of understanding for Siberian boreal forests. Most all of our group also studies tundra ecosystems and so we’ll be interested in many of the other research activities going on while we’re there too.

I think it is safe to say that we’re all pretty enthused to be traveling to Cherskiy with the Polaris group – I know I am.