Sampling the mighty Yukon River during the spring freshet

Flying over the Lower Yukon River Delta

Teddy, Theo, Kiera, Peter, Maria and Alana

Training Kiera and Theo on the YSI/EXO2

Photo Credit: Maria Tzortziou

This spring - and after two years of no measurements in the Yukon due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions - our team was finally able to visit again the Village of Alakanuk, located on the Lower Yukon River in Western Alaska.

There, we met with our local partners from the Alakanuk Tribal IGAP, Augusta Edmund and Ted Hamilton, to plan measurements for the 2022 spring-summer season.  We also trained two remarkable high school interns, Kiera and Theo, from the Lower Yukon School District. Keira and Theo will be collecting and filtering water samples from within the Yukon River Delta all summer, contributing a very important dataset on organic carbon and particulate loading from spring-freshet to fall. This dataset will help the development and validation of satellite ocean color algorithms for water quality, that will enhance our understanding of the changing Yukon’s past, present, and future.

​We are excited to be doing research in the Yukon, again, and even more so, to be able to reconnect and work closely together with those who call it home!  

- Maria Tzortziou (May 2022)