Student Research Profile: Kaushik Gupta

THE STUDENT

Kaushik Gupta is a PhD student in the Department of Environment and Geography, focusing on the processes and impacts related to landfast sea-ice in the Hudson Bay and James Bay system. Kaushik was co-supervised by Jens Ehn and the late David Barber. He studied Environmental Science for both his Honours Bachelor and his Masters, both completed at the University of Calcutta, India. His Masters was on the applications of radar and optical remote sensing techniques in coastal monitoring and management.

Kaushik has always been interested in knowing how things work and are interlinked; how the environment is a network where nothing is truly random. He wanted to watch this great mystery unfold right from the front row. Since his undergraduate studies, Kaushik was passionate about research in the fields of wildlife and the physical earth system. The more he visited different terrains across India, the more intrigued he was about the physical environment, Kaushik says. And during his Masters, his interest navigated towards remote sensing and its applications in oceanography and geomorphology. As Kaushik delved deeper into the field, he realized the importance of understanding natural systems in order to protect the world we live in. His passion also grew because of the opportunities he had to visit and work across various geographical terrains. Kaushik says, “I believe that every tidal wave, every gust of wind, from the biggest mountains to the smallest of rocks, each have a distinct story to tell, all we got to do is listen.”

THE RESEARCH

Kaushik’s paper, Landfast Sea Ice in Hudson Bay and James Bay: Annual Cycle, Variability and Trends, 2000–2019, published in Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, looked at the landfast ice regime and variability across the Hudson Bay and James Bay region. The paper highlights the regional nuances of climate change impacts, especially when regional hydrodynamics is considered. Landfast sea ice refers to ice that is attached to the shoreline. Landfast sea ice is more economically and ecologically relevant than most think, according to Kaushik. It provides a habitat to large vertebrates and microorganisms who play an important role in nearshore primary production. And landfast sea ice is important to Arctic and Sub-Arctic coastal communities as it supports various activities, such as hunting, fishing, and travel.  
 
Kaushik says, “the study emphasized the overall pattern of landfast ice growth and persistence across the bay area, as well as the synchronized changes in ice regime with changing air temperature.” Another focus of the study was the influence of coastal orientation and local bathymetry on the stability and seaward extension of landfast ice. In analyzing 19 years of data, Kaushik found that in the eastern regions of Hudson Bay and James Bay the length of time of the ice being present was decreasing, while in the western regions it was increasing, showcasing the local unevenness of climate change impacts and the importance of regional variables, such as geography and bathometry.

THE PUBLISHING

How did you select the journal to publish in? Several of my colleagues have previously published with Elementa, their remarks on the journal have been very positive. Also, Elementa was hosting the “BaySys Special Issue” so being a part of the BaySys Project it was a natural choice for me to choose this journal. Apart from all this, my own observation on the journal’s expectation from researchers, its scores, guidelines and peer review process cemented my choice.

What did you think of the reviewer comments? The response from the journal was pretty quick, I got the first round of comments from both the reviewers in a month. At first it was scary, but as I looked closer most of them were minor comments. I found the entire process to be very enlightening, the comments were very helpful and specific. Addressing the comments from the reviewer did make the manuscript better.

How did you find the process overall? The overall process was great. Getting the entire dataset and looking at it in details our mind starts shooting too many ideas on what can be done or shown from the dataset, but it’s vital to focus on the need of the moment. We learn a lot in the process and with every manuscript we learn something new. It’s a fun and an enriching process especially when you have early career researchers and big names in the field working together as the author team.

THE TAKE-HOME ADVICE

“It’s a long run from developing an idea to getting published, too many steps in between. What we actually need is to be transparent and focused on where we want to go with the idea. Another important advice is to be flexible and open to ideas. Often, we start with a specific objective in mind but as we proceed, the datasets, analysis, results present us with a more enthralling output, sometimes we don’t really end up where we expected we would. It is very common and that’s when we need to examine and recourse.

My ‘take-home’ advice would be: There are no dead ends, there is no stopping point and it’s never going to be enough… as there is no end to knowing.”

CONTACT

Kaushik Gupta, PhD Student
Department of Environment and Geography
University of Manitoba
Email: guptak1@myumanitoba.ca

THE PAPER

Gupta, K., Mukhopadhyay, A., Babb, D. G., Barber, D. G., Ehn, J. K. (2022). Landfast sea ice in Hudson Bay and James Bay: Annual cycle, variability and trends, 2000–2019. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 10 (1): 00073. https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2021.00073

Interview by Katarina Djordjevic