Draft:Brian Buma

Brian Buma is an ecologist, explorer, and scientist whose is known for his work in scientific communication and ecological research. In 2015 he became a National Geographic Explorer, and in 2018 he was accepted as a fellow in the Explorers Club. Buma works in exploration and climate change ecology globally, having led and served on expeditions to the Arctic, Alaska, southern Chile, Nepal, and northern Greenland. He has published several written pieces, including The Atlas of a Changing Climate, and over 70 peer reviewed publications in the scientific literature. Buma is also a senior scientist at the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center, on the steering committee of the Arctic Migrations Network, and coordinates several volunteer science groups. He has written for several conservation organizations, like Earth Island Journal. He is currently faculty at the University of Colorado, in Denver, Colorado, USA and a senior climate scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund.

Explorations
Buma's exploration work has focused on ecology and archaeology. He has found both the furthest north evidence of pre-Industrial humans, in Greenland, and the furthest south evidence of pre-Industrial humans, on the Cape Horn archipelago in extreme southern Chile, as well re-finding and establishing the longest running permanent ecological study in the world.

Buma's expedition to rediscover the 1916 William Skinner Cooper study in Glacier Bay, Alaska, re-founded the longest running permanent ecological study (on primary community assembly) in the world and was featured by National Geographic. The project now serves for visitor education at Glacier Bay National Park, and the sites form the basis of several long-term studies.

In 2021, Buma was featured in National Geographic for his work searching and finding the world's southernmost trees and forests on Cape Horn, and sharing the effects of climate change in the southern hemisphere.

Buma's expeditions also found what is believed to be the world's southernmost archaeological site in the world, representing the furthest extent of pre-industrial humanity. The site, located on Isla Hornos (Isla Lököshpi) in Chile, consists of harpoon points and a cooking hearth, potentially a hunting camp or short-term harvesting location. The site, likely Yaghan based on oral traditions, is threatened by sea level rise and increasing storm intensity.

Buma runs the Edges of (All) Life project, a community science based effort to explore species distributions and range expansion/contraction as a result of climate change, organized through iNaturalist and National Geographic.

In 2023, Buma led an expedition to Greenland, to determine the northernmost life on earth, explore for archaeological sites, and establish long-term climate research in the Last Ice Area of the Arctic coast. This project also focused on educational resources for elementary and middle school students worldwide.

The expedition mapped Kaffeklubben Island, the furthest north undisputed point of land, and the northernmost life on that island, a patch of Arctic poppies and mosses. It also found what is potentially the furthest north archaeological site ever mapped, a tent ring from early Greenlandic inhabitants. This ring was tentatively dated to 700 years ago.

Scientific work
Buma works in the field of climate change and disturbance ecology. He has authored over 70 papers with over 2000 citations. His work documenting and mapping the extent of yellow-cedar decline was significant in the review (declined ) to list the species, Callitropsis nootkatensis, under the Endangered Species Act. The species is valuable economically, ecologically, and culturally. Buma has worked with logging communities on studies to assess the viability of co-management for conservation.

Buma's study of wildfire patterns and resilience focus on ways in which ecosystems recover and how human communities should conceptualize their relationship with fire, with a focus on adaptation and accommodation. His work showed that burned areas are frequently returning within 10-20 years in the current climate, a time period that threatens ecological recovery and wildfire planning.