Current Research

Project Overview

My project makes use of a floe-resolving sea ice model called SubZero to observe the seasonal breakup and motion of sea ice in Kobuk Lake (Hotham Inlet), near Kotzebue, Alaska. This process is crucial to Kotzebue Sound communities reliant on sea ice for hunting and fishing.

The confined topography of Kobuk Lake leads to the seasonal ice breakup being primarily wind-driven, and a great candidate for the development and validation of SubZero. This development will be guided by high resolution aerial surveys of the lake, in-situ observations from local scientists and indigenous knowledge, and existing satellite data.

References

• Montemuro et al., (2023). SubZero: a discrete element sea ice model that simulates floes as evolving concave polygons. Journal of Open Source Software, 8(88), 5039, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.05039
• Moses, S. K. (2010). Nutrient and contaminant dynamics in the marine food web of KotzebueSound (Alaska). University of Alaska Fairbanks.
• Savereide, J. W. (2002). Under-ice gillnet harvest of sheefish in Hotham inlet in 2000-2001. Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish, Research and Technical Services.