For the last few years, a group of Alaska researchers have been looking into the good, the bad and the ugly of how permafrost affects farming in high latitudes.
Now, they’ve expressed some of their personal and professional discoveries through printmaking, and people can check out the art and science mashup online or at an installation completed June 23 on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.
“The more you know about permafrost, and how it behaves when it has thawed, the more you know, the better decisions you can make on your farm,” said Melissa Ward Jones, a research associate professor at UAF’s Institute of Northern Engineering.
She’s the lead on Permafrost Grown, a five-year, $3 million project funded by the National Science Foundation. It’s set to end next year.
Ward Jones has been collaborating with farmers and other scientists on the project to explore everything from how varying amounts of ice in the ground changes what happens at the surface while permafrost thaws, to how well asparagus can grow in permafrost-affected soils.
The team has also investigated how warm different kinds of mulch get during an Interior Alaska summer. Mulch can be used to heat up cold soils, or for weed suppression and moisture retention, and in their study, one type, called “SRM Red,” hit 127 degrees Fahrenheit.
That’s hot, said Ward Jones.
“If you’re worried about thawing permafrost, then those might not be the best choice. But if you want to heat up your soil, heat it up and maybe you want to thaw it as well, then maybe those are the mulches to use,” she said.
In January, some of the project’s participants attended a printmaking workshop at the Folk School Fairbanks. They were tasked with channeling their knack for the hard sciences into the fine arts. And now, 18 panels mounted on posts display both information about the project’s findings and the fruits of their printmaking labor. The panels stretch along the asphalt path next to Georgeson Botanical Garden.
“They all have – all the art pieces are accompanied by a piece of text, like a reflection, and actually we’re coming to my favorite,” she said in an interview Wednesday, looking just ahead on the path.
An adult and child walk hand-in-hand in the image on her favorite panel as the sun beams down on them. A cross-section of the soil beneath their feet takes up the whole bottom half of the piece, and the adjacent text says, “While the ground moves and permafrost thaws below us, life goes on at the surface.”
“It’s kind of short, sweet, makes you think,” she said.
Ward Jones appreciates the hint of optimism and said it’s reflective of the project overall. Yes, permafrost thaw can kill crops, change water flow and damage equipment and structures. But she said the project isn’t all doom and gloom, and that it’s meant to equip people with knowledge to tailor land uses to the conditions on their farm.
Ward Jones’ artwork is a little farther down the path, and she’s a little less enthusiastic about it.
“I liked it, but I feel like mine is the least artistic out of everybody, but I tried,” she said.
Her piece links visual depictions of peonies and vegetables with the shape of ice wedges, or bodies of underground ice that can lead to significant subsidence and sinkholes when they thaw.
She came into the project as a permafrost expert, not an agriculture expert, so she said the combo represents what she learned about farming as the project progressed. And she said she hopes that, by the end of the art and science walk, other people also will have learned more about how permafrost and agriculture interact.