This Women’s History Month, NOAA has shared the stories of more than 20 women across NOAA Research who are advancing our knowledge of ocean, atmospheric, and climate processes through science, leadership, management, communication, and outreach. For our final story, we move north to the Arctic, a region that is warming four times as fast as the rest of the globe. The resulting impacts, including increased air and ocean temperatures and decreased sea-ice extent, affect different levels of the marine ecosystem and the communities who depend on regionally important fish stocks like salmon. Continue reading to meet four women who are committed to improving our ability to understand and predict changes in the Arctic region through conducting, supporting, and expanding scientific research activities.

Jiaxu Zhang

Meet Jiaxu Zhang, a research scientist at the University of Washington Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies and NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. By bringing together field observations and numerical models, Jiaxu works to help understand ocean dynamics, track changes in winds and sea-ice movement, and monitor the distribution of nutrients that support healthy marine ecosystems in the Pacific Arctic. “This work is critical for enhancing the resilience of coastal communities in Alaska, ensuring safe navigation, and maintaining food safety,” Jiaxu says.

Wei Cheng

Wei Cheng is a physical scientist at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington. Currently, Wei works on NOAA’s Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative, an effort to build the nationwide, operational ocean modeling and decision support system needed to reduce impacts, increase resilience, and help adapt to changing ocean conditions. Within this multidisciplinary initiative, Wei focuses primarily on modeling biological and physical ocean parameters from Baja, California to the polar Bering and Chukchi Seas. The findings from such modeling efforts will guide decision-making in marine resource management.