AGU 2022: Tolerating distress and regulating emotions in research work

IANRE researcher Jessie Young-Robertson is presenting two areas of research at this week's American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in Chicago. The first discussed her ecology work. The second focuses on mental health in science settings: "Tolerating distress and regulating emotions in research work."

Young-Robertson, a boreal forest ecologist and clinical mental health counselor, understands the stress that can accompany field work in remote settings. When researchers end up at a field station or on a research vessel, it may not be possible to get space when experiencing the mental and emotional distress that comes with daily living and doing a difficult job.

“Science is hard, particularly in remote settings,” said Young-Robertson, a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher who is presenting a paper on the topic at the 2022 American Geophysical Union meeting.

“I think people struggle with managing distress in general,” she said. “And I think sometimes we have a habit of not treating ourselves or each other very well when we’re experiencing distress.”

Young-Robertson noted that distress is different from stress.

“Distress is like a really big feeling and a moment that is hard to manage,” she said. “It could be anger; it could be a big burst of anxiety. It’s usually due to something stressful occurring, like equipment breaking, things not going as planned or interpersonal struggles. Long-term distress tolerance or management is emotion regulation.”

Sometimes when people are in distress, they may do unhelpful things like yell at a colleague or a student, she said. “That has no place in the workplace.” Unmanaged distress can also negatively impact our mental health.

“I think one of the barriers to being inclusive and diverse is that we don’t talk enough about interpersonal and mental health,” Young-Robertson said. “We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.

“And there are some tools that we can use for ourselves to get through the moment and manage things a little bit differently,” she said. Mindfulness aimed at distress tolerance is one of the most accessible tools people can use in remote research environments.

AGU 2022: Consequences of shrub expansion in the boreal forest

Samuel Dempster is an undergraduate working with IANRE boreal ecologist Jessie Young-Robertson. He will talk about his research on "Consequences of shrub expansion in the boreal forest," at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting this week in Chicago.

Here's an excerpt:

In Alaska’s Arctic tundra, changes in permafrost, soil and plant growth due to climate change have been well documented. However, according to University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Samuel Dempster, similar changes in the boreal forest are often overlooked.

Dempster’s goal is to see how alder physiology in the boreal forest responds to changing environmental conditions. The goal is to better understand how expansion of small trees and shrubs will affect large-scale processes in the North.

Dempster studied a stand of alders near Fairbanks in a nonpermafrost area where the small trees are spreading.

“I was looking at them from breakup all the way to the first snow,” Dempster said. He gathered weekly measurements of stem and leaf water content, photosynthesis and transpiration, along with other related variables.

Dempster said another question he asked was “Are (the alders) looking good where all of the other trees are not doing that great?” Summer 2022 in Interior Alaska was hot and dry. The alders responded to the conditions with higher transpiration rates and lower photosynthesis rates overall. However, the trees maintained a stem water content of around 50%, suggesting they were able to regulate some physiological processes to cope with the hot, dry conditions.

That indicates alders may tolerate seasonal drought conditions, which may let them expand in areas with climate change.

Young-Robertson also contributed to the study.

AGU 2022: Boreal tree adaptation to seasonal drought conditions

IANRE researcher Jessie Young-Robertson is presenting a paper this week at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in Chicago on "Boreal tree adaptation to seasonal drought conditions."

Here's an excerpt:

Climate change is bringing shifting rainfall patterns and warmer temperatures to the boreal forest. At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Young-Robertson is studying how boreal trees store and regulate water use.

“I want to talk about the drought response of boreal forest trees over a long period of time,” Young-Robertson said. “By drought response, I mean how the trees use water, how stressed they get and how they respond to environmental changes in air temperature and rainfall.”

The study is focusing on two tree types: coniferous black spruce and deciduous aspen and birch in the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed near Fairbanks. In summer 2022, sensors measured environmental variables, sap (water) flux and trunk water content every 30 minutes. Canopy water stress measurements were taken weekly.

“The story so far is that we really need a snowpack,” Young-Robertson said. “We’re seeing the impact of earlier springs. We’re seeing the impact of super-hot summers, and we’re seeing the impact in the changing of the packaging of the precipitation.”

The “packaging” of precipitation refers to when and how much rain falls during the summer. Rain that just comes in August has a different effect than rain that falls all summer.

Trees grow in June and July. If it doesn’t rain while the trees are growing, that adds stress, she said. Ongoing work is revealing that the trees are approaching their climatic limit with increased drought pressure.