FAIRBANKS -- The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been awarded a large research grant from the National Science Foundation.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner says the $20 million grant will be used in a five-year project on how Alaska communities are responding to environmental and social changes.

The interdisciplinary project will include 19 core university researchers, and eight more will be hired. They will work with more than 20 additional researchers from a variety of disciplines.

Research topics include examining the effects of land cover and precipitation changes on fisheries and tourism in the Kenai River watershed. Research in northern Alaska will look at how permafrost thaw and land cover change affect subsistence resources. And in Southeast, the focus will be on glacial recession near Juneau.