[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