HR: 0800h
AN: C21A-0054    [Abstracts]
TI: The Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN): Contribution to IPY's "Thermal State of Permafrost"
AU: Johansson, M
EM: margareta.johansson@nateko.lu.se
AF: Lund University, Dept. of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Analysis Lund University Sölvegatan 12, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
AU: Lantuit, H
EM: hlantuit@awi-potsdam.de
AF: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Telegrafenberg A43, Potsdam, 14473, Germany
AU: * Frauenfeld, O W
EM: oliverf@colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado, CIRES/NSIDC University of Colorado 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449, United States
AB: The Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN, www.pyrn.org) is a unique resource for students, young scientists, and engineers studying permafrost. It is an international organization fostering innovative collaboration, seeking to recruit, retain, and promote future generations of permafrost scientists and engineers. Initiated for and during IPY, PYRN directs the multi-disciplinary talents of its membership toward global awareness, knowledge, and response to permafrost-related challenges in a changing climate. Created as an education and outreach component of the International Permafrost Association (IPA), PYRN is a central database of permafrost information and science for more than 350 young researchers from 33 countries. PYRN distributes a newsletter, recognizes outstanding permafrost research by its members through an annual awards program, organizes training workshops (2007 in Abisko, Sweden and St. Petersburg, Russia), and contributes to the growth and future of the permafrost community. While networking forms the basis of PYRN's activities, the organization also seeks to establish itself as a driver of permafrost research for the IPY and beyond. We recently launched a series of initiatives on several continents aimed at providing young scientists and engineers with the means to conduct ground temperature monitoring in under-investigated permafrost regions. Focusing on sites not currently covered by the IPA's "Thermal State of Permafrost" project, the young investigators of PYRN will provide and use lightweight drills and temperature sensors to instrument shallow boreholes in those regions. The data and results will be incorporated in the global database on permafrost temperatures and made freely available to the scientific community, thereby contributing to the advance of permafrost science and the strengthening of the next generation of permafrost researchers.
DE: 0702 Permafrost (0475)
DE: 0768 Thermal regime
DE: 0770 Properties
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
DE: 1621 Cryospheric change (0776)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting