Allison Welch works with Dr. Elchin Jafarov on the Geophysical Institute Permafrost Laboratory (GIPL) model to simulate the impact of erect shrub growth on ground temperatures in the Arctic. She’s interested in understanding how warming-driven shrub growth affects permafrost thaw. Welch is excited to be working for an organization that is not only committed to advancing science, but also to taking action to address the climate crisis.
Welch graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida with a B.S. in environmental science and minors in both wildlife ecology & conservation and geology. As an undergraduate, she was a research assistant in paleoclimatology in the UF Geological Sciences Department and in conservation genetics at the US Geological Survey. Welch also interned at the Alachua Conservation Trust, performing land management, where she became interested in botany and native flora identification.
Welch is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in earth system science at the University of California, Irvine. Her dissertation investigates how climate change is altering the carbon cycle in the Arctic through changes in vegetation, soil composition, wildfire regimes, and land-atmosphere interactions. She completed her field work at Toolik Field Station in northern Alaska, which is the ancestral homeland of the Inuit communities. Toolik field station and the surrounding areas are located on the ancestral hunting grounds of the Nunamiut, and occasional hunting grounds and routes of the Gwich’in, Koyukuk, and Iñupiaq peoples. Welch is grateful for the Indigenous people who inhabit and steward this land.
Welch has now completed most of the data collection and laboratory analysis for her dissertation, and she has become more interested in data science and modeling. Her work with Dr. Jafarov on his permafrost model is helping her learn how models are tuned and implemented and how to interpret her field results on a larger spatial and temporal scale. After the completion of her Ph.D., Welch would like to continue carbon research and data science for a non-profit, the government, or an industry startup. She is committed to advancing our understanding of ecological responses to climate change, specifically in the field of Arctic carbon cycle research, to develop science-based adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Welch attributes her choice of career to her summers spent doing trail maintenance with the Student Conservation Association as a teenager, where she was immersed in America’s incredible public lands in the backcountry of Rocky Mountain National Park. She still loves to hike, camp, backpack, and ski, and often stays active by running or playing ultimate frisbee. She also enjoys music, and frequently plays piano, sings, writes music, and goes to live shows around Orange County and Los Angeles.
