[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 83 (Monday, May 2, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22718-22719]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-8690]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Notice of the Availability of an Environmental Assessment

AGENCY: National Science Foundation.

[[Page 22719]]


ACTION: Notice of availability of a draft Environmental Assessment for 
proposed activities in the Arctic.

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SUMMARY: The National Science Foundation gives notice of the 
availability of a draft Environmental Assessment for proposed 
activities in the Arctic.
    The Office of Polar Programs (OPP) has prepared an Environmental 
Assessment of a Biocomplexity Study of the Response of Tundra Carbon 
Balance to Warming and Drying Across Multiple Time Scales, 2005-2008. 
Given the United States Arctic Program's mission to support polar 
research, the proposed action is expected to result in substantial 
benefits to science. The draft Environmental Assessment is available 
for public review for a 30-day period.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before June 1, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be submitted to Dr. Polly A. Penhale, 
National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs, 4201 Wilson 
Blvd., Suite 755, Arlington, VA 22230. Telephone: (703) 292-8033. 
Copies of the draft Environmental Assessment are available upon request 
from Dr. Penhale, or at the Web site: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/arctic/arc_envir/tundra_ea.pdf.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This project will examine how biological and 
physical processes interact to control carbon uptake, storage and 
release in Arctic tundra ecosystems using an experimental approach to 
manipulate tundra moisture. Approximately 25% of the world's soil 
organic soil organic carbon reservoir is stored at high northern 
latitudes in permafrost and seasonally-thawed soils in the Arctic, a 
region that is currently undergoing unprecedented warming and drying, 
as well as dramatic changes in human land use. The objective of this 
study is to quantify linkages between soil moisture and carbon uptake, 
storage and release over multiple spatial (microbial to landscape) and 
temporal (minutes to decades) scales. Understanding how changes in 
annual and inter-annual ecosystem productivity interact and potentially 
offset the balance and stability of the Arctic soil carbon reservoir is 
of utmost importance to global climate change science.
    The project is focused on a soil moisture manipulation involving a 
60-hectare tundra flooding/draining experiment near Barrow, Alaska on 
the Arctic Coastal Plain. The project is located within the Barrow 
Environmental Observatory (BEO). The BEO is 7,446 acres of land owned 
by the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation (UIC) in a designated Conservation 
District that has been zoned as a scientific research district for 
long-term, experimental studies, such as this.
    A permit has been acquired by the project from the U.S. Army Corps 
of Engineers (U.S. ACOE) for the manipulation of wetland tundra. The 
National Science Foundation has received a Biological Opinion finding 
of non-jeopardy through the Section 7 Consultation with U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service required by the Endangered Species Act regarding the 
two threatened species that may be encountered or displaced by the 
project, Steller's elders and spectacled eiders. The potential impacts 
of the project were considered thoroughly during project planning and 
are anticipated to have no significant impact on the environment with 
the implementation of the associated mitigating measures defined in 
environmental assessment and the U.S. ACOE permit.
    Copies of the draft Environmental Assessment titled, an 
Environmental Assessment of a Biocomplexity Study of the Response of 
Tundra Carbon Balance to Warming and Drying Across Multiple Time 
Scales, 2005-2008, are available upon request from: Dr. Polly A. 
Penhale, National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs, 4201 
Wilson Blvd., Suite 755, Arlington, VA 22230. Telephone: (301) 292-8033 
or at the agency's Web site at: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/arctic/arc_envir/tundra_ea.pdf. The National Science Foundation invites 
interested members of the public to provide written comments on this 
draft Environmental Assessment.

Polly A. Penhale,
Environmental Officer, Office of Polar Programs, National Science 
Foundation.
[FR Doc. 05-8690 Filed 4-29-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-M