Eric Klein
University of Alaska Anchorage, AK·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
As the Arctic warms, glaciers shrink, permafrost thaws deeper, and more rain falls. These changes alter how much water flows through northern rivers and wetlands, where that water comes from, and what it carries, including nutrients and carbon.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
Arctic hydrology
river discharge
permafrost
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Measure water-cycle components in permafrost watersheds in High Arctic Greenland that range from heavily glaciated to glacier-free, to track how sources of river water shift as glaciers shrink.
- Test whether deeper active-layer thaw (the seasonally thawed soil above permafrost) and more rain will increase groundwater flow to rivers and extend it later in the season, using field-calibrated numerical hydrological models.
- Estimate how much carbon is stored in peatlands near Pallas, Finnish Lapland, by mapping peat depth with ground penetrating radar and collecting sediment cores.
- Determine how water sources, water residence times, and shallow water flow affect peatland ecohydrology and carbon dioxide and methane fluxes, and whether hydrology controls peat depth, using water-isotope-based climate models.
More about the research
The answers matter beyond the Arctic, because northern water and carbon feed into the global water cycle and climate. The lab's two projects follow water through two cold landscapes: rivers fed by glaciers and permafrost in Greenland, and carbon-rich peatlands in Finnish Lapland.
Why it matters
Arctic rivers and peatlands affect freshwater resources, the global water cycle, and climate patterns. Better predictions of how river flow will change as glaciers disappear could help communities and water planners prepare for a future with less ice. Firmer estimates of how much carbon northern peatlands store, and how changing water patterns release it as carbon dioxide or methane, could improve forecasts of climate feedbacks.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
CAREER: Follow the Water: Understanding River Discharge Dynamics in Rapidly Changing High Northern Latitudes
NSF · Sep 2023 – Aug 2028
Collaborative Research: IRES Track 1: Transarctic Connections: Linking Alaskan Students with Finnish Arctic Scientists for Research in the Rapidly Changing Arctic
NSF · Jul 2023 – Jun 2027
Closest labs
Marianne Karplus
University of Texas at El Paso, TX·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure ice thickness, subglacial sediments, and hydrologic processes in the Lunana glaciers of Bhutan using radar and seismic surveys.
William Armstrong
Appalachian State University, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Quantify ice lost through iceberg calving and underwater melt at three lake-terminating glaciers of the Juneau Icefield, using ground-based radar, GPS and satellite measurements of ice thickness and speed.
Nikolay Shiklomanov
George Washington University, DC·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure active-layer thickness (the seasonally thawed ground above permafrost), ground temperature and thaw subsidence at long-term sites along three climatic and ecological transects in northern Alaska.
The school
University of Alaska Anchorage: 4 labs on PI Pages, $25M a year on research, 3 research doctorates a year.
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