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• CV

Steven (Steve) Dykstra has led field research/consulting and outdoor education programs in diverse environments throughout the world—enabling people to be environmental stewards—from the deltas of Vietnam to the alpine valleys of Tajikistan to the Serengeti of Tanzania.  In 2005, Steve began working in coastal ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ as a naturalist in Kenai Fjords National Park and became a faculty member at UAF in 2023.

• Eliah Gomez (MS)
• Evan Joyce (MS)
• Nawal Midraj (PhD)
• Mary Pontibriand (PhD)

• OCN F481/681 The Ocean and Global Change
• OCN F425/625 Subarctic Oceanography Field Course
• OCN F697 Coastal and Estuarine Processes

PUBLICATIONS LIST HERE

• Affiliate, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR- University of Colorado, Boulder)
• Associated Faculty, Sea Ice Group (UAF)

• Coastal ocean and River Mechanics (estuaries, deltas, continental shelves, tides, storm surge, floods, circulation, vertical land motion);
• Climate Science (sea level change, climate oscillations, atmosphere-land-ocean interactions);
• Cryosphere hydrodynamics;
• Human Impacts (infrastructure, water quality, water resources, etc.);
• Data Processing, Data Analysis, and Modeling

Steve researches ocean-land-ice interactions, focusing on river-marine transitions and the role of human impacts. By differentiating effects of climate change, natural variability, and the built environment in high latitudes, my research advances our scientific understanding of flood risks, global warming impacts, and predicting environmental change. Equally important is my teaching of environmental stewardship in academia, for outdoor education, and to diverse groups throughout the world. 

• Ice Impacts on the Resonance, Convergence, and Friction of Tidal Transport (Tide-Ice ReCon), CMI/U.S. Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management;
• Integrated System for Operations in Polar Seas- Logistics Over the Shore (ISOPS-LOTS), US Army Corp of Engineers CRREL
• Tide and Storm Surge Hazards in a Convergent Resonant Estuary, Kuskokwim River (CFOS-UAF);
• Baseline Study of the Snake River Estuary Dynamics, Nome, ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ (WERC- UAF, Water Resources Research Act- U.S. Geological Survey;
• ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Coastal Mapping Center of Excellence (Woolpert, inc., Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise- USACoE);
• The role of vertical land motion during the 1964 Great ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Earthquake on Cook Inlet tides;
• Tidal controls on river backwater elevation and deltaic flow routing, Tombigbee-Alabama Delta

• Outstanding Researcher, UAF CFOS, 2025
• ASPIRE Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of South Carolina, 2021-2023
• DISL/FDA Fellowship, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2019-2020
• GoMRI Scholar, Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, 2017
• Honorary Photographer, Geological Society of America, 2010

• Motorboat Operator Certification (Scientific Boating Safety Association), 2016
• Wilderness First Responder (Wilderness Medicine Institute), 2013
• Commercial Drivers License, 2009

• Steering Committee Member of the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Water Level Watch (ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Ocean Observing System, IOOS), 2023-present
• Town of Dauphin Island Sensitive Wetland Management Plan, 2020-2021
• International Student/Development Mentoring Program (Horizons International, CU Boulder), 2013
• Zeravshan Valley Irrigation Development (Global Partners Tajikistan), 2012-2013
• Hanoi Municipal Arsenic (Dynamic Solutions Intl.- Vietnam), 2010
• Hoosier River Watch (Taylor University, Indiana DEM), 2008-2009
• Ngorngoro Conservation Area WASH (Hilfe für die Massai- Tanzania), 2006