EPSCoR'S Phase IV research project, Alaska ACE, conducted biological, physical and social research into the adaptive capacity of Alaskan communities: the mechanisms that enable communities to effectively respond to environmental and social changes. Research included new sensors and mapping to monitor biophysical changes, coupled with social science approaches to measure community responses.

ACE research was organized around three regional test cases:

• The Southeast Test Case focused on changes to ecosystem services brought on by glacial recession in Berners Bay, near Juneau.
• The Southcentral Test Case examined the effects of hydrological and landscape changes on communities in the Kenai River watershed.
• The Northern Test Case studied how permafrost thaw and land cover change affect subsistence resources around the North Slope village of Nuiqsut.
• Results from the test cases were used by a statewide Coordination, Integration and Synthesis (CIS) Working Group to answer larger scientific questions about adaptation and to create decision-support tools for land and resource managers.
• An Education, Outreach and Diversity (EOD) Group worked to involve students and the public in EPSCoR research and to keep them apprised of results.

This archive also contains information about a 2016 workshop supported by Alaska NSF EPSCoR, entitled "The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus in Islanded Communities and High Latitudes: Issues, Pathways, and Implications."