ARI Team
Overview
INTERACT is a circumarctic network of currently 89 terrestrial field bases in northern Europe, Russia, US, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Scotland as well as stations in northern alpine areas. INTERACT specifically seeks to build capacity for research and monitoring all over the Arctic, and is offering access to numerous research stations through the Transnational Access Program.
INTERACT is multidisciplinary: together, the stations in INTERACT host thousands of scientists from around the world who work on projects within the fields of glaciology, permafrost, climate, ecology, biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling. The INTERACT stations also host and facilitate many international single-discipline networks and aid training by hosting summer schools.
For more information: https://eu-interact.org/
The Western Arctic Research Center (WARC) is a member of INTERACT, participating by supporting international researchers by providing data and sample collection assistance.
Objectives
The main objective of INTERACT is to build capacity for identifying, understanding, predicting and responding to diverse environmental changes throughout the wide environmental and land-use envelopes of the Arctic. This is necessary because the Arctic is so vast and so sparsely populated that environmental observing capacity is limited compared to most other latitudes.
Location(s)
The Western Arctic Research Center, in Inuvik NT, is a participating INTERACT station.
For a full list of INTERACT stations: https://eu-interact.org/field-sites/
Methods
INTERACT station managers and researchers have established partnerships that are developing more efficient networks of sensors to measure changing environmental conditions and the partnerships are also making data storage and accessibility more efficient through a single portal. New communities of researchers are being offered access to terrestrial infrastructures while local stakeholders as well as major international organisations are involved in interactions with the infrastructures.
The trans-national access component is crucial to building capacity for research in the European Arctic and beyond. INTERACT is offering transnational access to 43 research stations located in the Arctic, and northern alpine and forest areas in the Europe, Russia and North-America. It is providing opportunities to researchers to work in the field in often harsh and remote locations that are generally difficult to access. In return, the input of new researchers has led to cross fertilization, comparative measurements at different locations and new research directions at the individual infrastructures.
External Partners:
European Commission
Knowledge Translation:
Tales from the Western Arctic Research Centre (WARC) -Part 1
Tales from the Western Arctic Research Centre (WARC) -Part 2
Resources:
INTERACT FIELDWORK PLANNING HANDBOOK
INTERACT PRACTICAL FIELD GUIDE
INTERACT STATION CATALOGUE 2020
Keywords
Terrestrial, Monitoring, Permafrost, Partnership, Circumpolar, Circumarctic, International
Updated May 2021