By Laura Weingartner

Three researchers who study the boreal forest at the Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station find ways to use science to make art. Read on to see the creativity of Jan Dawe, Jessie Young-Robertson and Santosh Panda. Incorporating art into the sciences can help demonstrate certain concepts and engage new audiences while making something beautiful and interesting.filler text for formatting

OneTree Alaska

Jan Dawe is a researcher, educator and artist. One of her goals as a research assistant professor of natural resource education and community-engaged scholarship, and the director of OneTree Alaska is to help people of all ages connect with the boreal forest. She uses art as a way to make science more accessible to our whole community.

She collected and pressed three sets of branches from the birch tree used for the “OneTree3” project sponsored by The Fairbanks Folk School in June 2023. She then created cyanotypes from them and added color using botanical inks made from birch inner bark modified with turmeric, copper soaked in vinegar and salt, or hydrogen peroxide.

Even though the branches were collected on the same day, the leaves and reproductive structures record the whole growing season, representing spring, summer and fall

Small bright green leaves growing off thin branches against a dark blue background sprinkled with small cross-shaped birch seeds
Leaf-out: As the tender green 2023 leaves open up, the branch on the left still shows the weathered brown-gray axis of a 2022 seed cone that persisted through the winter and is shedding its last few seeds and scales.
Large dark green leaves grow on two sets of branches against a dark blue background. Small cylindrical male catkins grow off the end of each branch.
Mid-summer photosynthesis factories: Bright green leaves work almost 24/7 to produce energy for the tree as the branches start to develop small male catkins.

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Yellow-brown leaves grow on thin branches against a dark blue background sprinkled with light birch seeds. Plump cylindrical male catkins grow off the end of one branch
Summers end and early winter prep: Yellow leaves, heavy seed cones and fully developed male catkins are typical of a tree shutting down growth and preparing for winter dorman.

Read more about the work Dawe does.

Alaska Boreal Forest Soils Lab

Jessie Young-Robertson, co-director of the Alaska Boreal Forest Soils Lab and artist, uses creativity in her research and art and encourages lab members to be creative. Here are some examples of the art that has come out of her lab.

Two photos, one of a blue and white leaf surface cells appearing as wrinkly bubbles with two large dark stomata pores in the mix. The other has an orange and purple textured leaf surface with many small stomata pores
Sam Dempster, research technician in the lab, took photos of the stained surface of fireweed and alder leaves under a microscope as part of a research project determining the density of stomata on the leaves. Stomata are pores in a leaf’s surface that allow carbon dioxide to enter and water to escape.
Close-up view of a red and light teal xylem cells showing detailed weave pattern, appearing almost like a fishing net.
Nathaniel Bolter, research technician, took this image of magnified alder xylem cells that compose tree rings, form a tree’s woody structure and transport water and nutrients from the roots throughout the plant. These images were taken to examine the size and wall thickness of the xylem cells over the course of a growing season.
Acrylic painting of a tree against a textured blue background. The leaves are various shades of green, the ground a warm earthy tone and the trunk shows blue and white water streaming through the tree and into the leaves
Young-Robertson painted this depiction of the dynamic flow of water through trees and into the atmosphere, illustrating her lab’s work studying how the boreal forest uses water.

Visit the third-floor hallway of the O’Neill building on the UAF’s Troth Yeddha campus, or visit the Alaska Boreal Forest Soils Lab website to see more of their work.

Alaska as Art

Alaska as Art is a project by the Geospatial Research Group led by Santosh Panda, associate professor of GIS & Remote Sensing. This group used satellite imagery of unique geological features to visualize the climatic and geologic processes that shape Alaska. By editing publicly available satellite images to enhance the color, texture and 3D perspective of the landforms, they turned these images into beautiful and educational art.

Satellite image of the Yukon River Delta, showing vibrant yellows and reds that highlight land features and bright blues and greens that highlight water features
The Yukon River is the longest river in Alaska at 1,980 miles (3,190 kilometers) long. This satellite image shows where it emptys into the Bering Sea via the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
Satellite image of the Malaspina Glacier looking like a vibrant blue paint spill in dark red water amidst white and orange mountains
The tongue of the Malaspina Glacier, the largest glacier in Alaska. The Malaspina lies west of Yakutat Bay and covers 1,500 square miles (3,880 square kilometers).
Aerial view of brown permafrost terrain with scattered green and white circles of water, creating a patterned, bubble-like texture over the landscape.
Thermokarst lakes fill Alaska’s coastal plain. A thermokarst lake is a body of freshwater, usually shallow, formed by thawing ice-rich permafrost. Continued thawing of the permafrost can lead to the drainage and eventual disappearance of thermokarst lakes, which are formed in response to a warming

Learn more and see the rest of the images here.