Field Course

The core of the Polaris Project is a field course / research experience studying arctic system science at the Northeast Science Station in Cherskiy, Siberia (north of the Arctic Circle on the Kolyma River). It is one of the most remote and beautiful places on the planet.

During the Polaris Project field course, students and faculty work together to study the Arctic as a system. Instead of focusing on a single question in a single ecosystem type, we consider a range of questions across multiple components of the Arctic System including forests, tundra, lakes, rivers, estuaries, and the coastal Arctic Ocean. The unifying scientific theme is the transport and transformations of carbon and nutrients as they move with water from terrestrial uplands to the Arctic Ocean. We emphasize the linkages among the different ecosystems, and how processes occurring in one component influence the others.

2009

The 2009 Polaris Project took place during July 2009. Look at some of the science, stories, and photos from the trip. We will update this page with a course summary at some point. The pre-trip reading list is here for interested folks.

2008

The inaugural Polaris Project field course was in summer 2008. Courses will also take place in 2009 (applications due Feb. 15, 2009) and 2010, with the possibility of continuation if funding is available. During the 2008 course, students and faculty initially surveyed the different ecosystem types and got hands-on experience with key tools and methods. We discussed unresolved scientific questions related to each ecosystem type, emphasizing the links between the different components. Students then designed and implemented their own research projects and presented results to the group at the completion of the course. Students were also able to continue or expand their projects once they returned to the US. The 2008 Field Course Report is a longer narrative that details the cultural and scientific aspects of the course.