Ken D. Tape ’99 is a scientist, adventurer, and artist studying the impact of climate change on the Arctic’s landscape and wildlife, as well as the people who live there. After graduating from Carleton as a geology major, he earned a master’s degree in geology and a PhD in biology from the University of Alaska–Fairbanks. In his work and art, Tape explores the interaction of animals with Arctic and subarctic landscapes. His research on the northward expansion of beavers in Alaska and the thawing of permafrost around beaver ponds has been covered by major news sources such as National Geographic and The New York Times. Some of his work combines science with community engagement, using local environmental observations to understand and address changes occurring in the Arctic. He has traveled on weeks-long snow machine and boating expeditions across the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic, visiting Indigenous communities to communicate about climate change and learn from their observations.
Tape has also explored the changes in vegetation and permafrost in the Arctic using repeat aerial photography, recreating 60-year-old photos to see landscape changes. Tape brought his research to the public by producing a photography book based on his results, The Changing Arctic Landscape (2010), which also became a nationally traveling exhibit featured at Carleton’s Perlman Teaching Museum in 2014. He has contributed to more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers, which have been cited thousands of times.
Tape returned to Carleton in 2014 to teach a geology class, Climate Variability and High Latitude Ecosystems, and has given several talks at Carleton on his climate change research. In addition to his scientific and photographic interests, he is an acoustic musician who has played in a band with his wife, Greta. He and Greta live in Fairbanks, Alaska.