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2017 ESSAS Open Science Meeting on Subarctic and Arctic Science, June 11-15, 2017 (Tromsø, Norway).
This 3rd Open Science Meeting (OSM) is intended to attract an interdisciplinary group of scholars who will be prepared to discuss their research in the Subarctic, in both the North Atlantic and the North Pacific, and the Arctic Ocean. The title of the OSM is Moving in, out and across the Subarctic and Arctic marine ecosystems: shifting boundaries of water, ice, flora, fauna, people and institutions. It will document the changes that have occurred, the processes that led to these changes, and how future changes are likely to further affect these marine ecosystems. It will also to consider the people who depend upon these ecosystems and how they may be able to cope with the changes in the ecosystem goods and services that they derive from these ecosystems. These include the availability of subsistence foods and the opportunity for commercial fishing. Economic and societal pressures on coastal communities and nations will be sought in relation with the ecosystem changes. To put the present day in a longer perspective, the conference will include a session on the paleoecology of people in Subarctic and Arctic regions that were forced to adjust to the changing temperature and sea-ice conditions in the past.
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 Ice Age Survivors Thrive at University of Alaska Fairbanks Research Station. One large animal you rarely see in the wild in Alaska is the musk ox, a shaggy mammal straight out of the last ice age. But you can see musk oxen and other large mammals up close by taking a short drive to the Large Animal Research Station. The Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station is located near the University of Alaska Fairbanks, at 2220 Yankovich Road. It is home to three herds of large herbivorous land mammals - caribou, reindeer and musk oxen. The animals are part of long-term studies in Arctic biology and nutrition, among other fields.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Iqaluit Could Start Running Out of Fresh Water by 2024. Without action, the supply of fresh water in Iqaluit will begin to dwindle by 2024 due to climate change and increased demand, research led by York University has found. "Extreme climates make the management of fresh water difficult, but add climate change to the mix, along with too few financial and human resources, and northern cities, such as Iqaluit could run out of fresh water," said Andrew Medeiros of York U who led the research. Even if population growth remains stagnant, current climate change projections show demand will outstrip supply for freshwater in the Arctic community, said Medeiros, a research fellow for York University's Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies.
Science Daily
 Canadian Climate Change Study Cancelled Because of Climate Change. A $17-million research study on climate change has been scrapped because of the very reason it was launched. The University of Manitoba, which was leading the project, announced Monday that the Hudson Bay System Study was cancelled. "The Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen has cancelled the first leg of the 2017 Expedition due to complications associated with the southward motion of hazardous Arctic sea ice, caused by climate change," a release from the U of M said. "The need to deal with extreme ice conditions in the south meant the ship would arrive too late on site to meet research objectives."
Global News
Sea Ice That's Moving Means Polar Bears Must Walk More and Eat More. Rapid global warming has sped up the movement of sea ice off Alaska's coasts, and already- at-risk polar bears are paying a price, a new U.S. study says. Most sea ice moves throughout the year, and the white bears must continuously walk to stay within their preferred habitat, said U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist George Durner, lead author of the study. He compares it to living on a treadmill that has picked up speed because ice is thinner, more brittle and moving faster because of wind and ocean currents.
The Washington Post
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Future Events
** New this week **
Understanding Arctic Sea Ice and Ecology from the Floe Scale Up, June 14, 2017 (Webinar). Earth's sea ice cover is a vast, multi-scale system made up made up of a myriad number of distinct pieces, known as floes, with sizes that range over many orders of magnitude. In the summer, ice floes are covered in melt ponds that form elaborate formations with wide ranges of size on the ocean surface. The evolution of Arctic climate and ecology is strongly tied to the multi-scale heterogeneity of sea ice, in particular the distribution of these floe sizes and the degree of ponding in the summer months. Yet modern climate models still do not simulate melt pond formation, the evolution of floes, or the floe size distribution. This event is sponsored by NOAA's National Ocean Service Science Seminar.
The Wilson Center-Arctic Circle Forum: The United States and Russia in the Arctic, June 21-22, 2017 (Washington, DC USA). In light of recent world media attention towards Russia and the United States, the Arctic Circle and the Wilson Center will host a Forum on the two countries' complicated yet inherently linked role and relationship in the Arctic. The future of the Arctic will be greatly influenced by the actions of the United States and Russia. What are their policies, their plans and their relations with other states in the Arctic and the Asian and European countries seeking an increasing role in the Arctic? High-level representatives, policymakers and experts will gather in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC, June 21, to address these questions and challenges. This event is co-hosted by Wilson Center and Arctic.
The 2nd Asian Conference on Permafrost, July 2-6, 2017 (Sapporo, Japan). Delegates will participate in state-of-the-art oral and poster presentations in the modern city of Sapporo (host of the 1972 Winter Olympics). Field trips will visit marginal and extrazonal mountain permafrost sites that support unique geo-eco-hydrological features. All aspects of frozen ground research will be covered, from needle ice to deep permafrost, from frozen ground engineering in cities to permafrost on volcanoes, and from links between frozen ground and ancient cultures to present-day outreach. Plan now to enjoy science and engineering, excellent food, and unique field trips in Sapporo.
This biennial symposium, co-hosted by U.S. National/Naval Ice Center (NIC) and the US Arctic Research Commission (USARC) focuses on a broad cross-section of naval and maritime operations and issues in an "ice-free Arctic." The symposium brings together nationally and internationally recognized experts on Arctic marine operations, infrastructure, science, environmental observations, and on a wide range of other topics. Registration is FREE. For the first time, the event will be webcast live, enabling broader participation.
As the Symposium is organized jointly by two leading Research Institutes of Russian Academy of Science - Institute of Water Problems and Melnikov Permafrost Institute, particularly the contributions on following research topics are welcome:
- Observational evidences of change in coupled permafrost-hydrology system.
- Present state and future projections of local, regional and pan-Arctic hydrology.
- Modeling studies representing landscape evolution, dynamics of water storages and permafrost degradation.
- Impacts of permafrost hydrology changes on local communities.
VII International Conference on Cryopedology, August 21-25, 2017 (Yaktsk, Russia). The conference will be hosted by the Institute for Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS). Plenary reports will be organized in the hall of the Academy of Sciences of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic. The official languages of the conference are English and Russian (with translation). All technical facilities (projectors, computers, video sets) will be available during the conference for presentation of papers. Additional information will be available soon. See the Facebook page
here.
2017 University of the Arctic Rectors' Forum and Conference, August 27-29, 2017 (Aberdeen, Scotland).
This conference will also consider how northern scholarship can add to discussions on the North into broader terrains of intellectual engagement. In so doing, it will challenge dominant paradigms of research in both the natural and the social sciences, above all by calling into question the very separation of the world of nature from that of human society which underwrites the distinction between these two branches of scientific inquiry. In its place the conference will seek to forge a new practice of interdisciplinary research, done in collaboration with northern residents and on their terms, which recognizes that every discipline is itself an ongoing conversation, or a way of knowing, rather than a compartment within an overarching, hierarchically organized system of knowledge. Conversations from the North will, then, help to generate a science that is more open-ended, responsive to environmental variation and respectful of the wisdom of inhabitants.
- Small and off-grid community energy solutions
- Oil and gas development
- Renewable energy
- Regulation and Financing
- Transportation and transmission
The AES is a multi-disciplinary event expected to draw several hundred industry officials, scientists, academics, policy makers, energy professionals and community leaders together to collaborate and share leading approaches on Arctic energy issues.
2017 Arctic Circle Assembly, October 13-15, 2017 (Reykjavik, Iceland).
The annual Arctic Circle Assembly is the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from 50 countries. The Assembly is held every October at the Harpa Conference Center and Concert Hall and is attended by heads of states and governments, ministers, members of parliaments, officials, experts, scientists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, indigenous representatives, environmentalists, students, activists and others from the growing international community of partners and participants interested in the future of the Arctic.
Polar Law Symposium 2017 and Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit, November 13-16, 2017 (Rovaniemi, Finland).
The purpose of the Polar Law Symposium is to examine, in detail, the implications of the challenges faced by the Polar Regions for international law and policy and to make recommendations on appropriate actions by states, policy makers and other international actors to respond to these emerging and re-emerging challenges. The Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit
Conference is integrated with the Polar Law Symposium, which will be organized by the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at the Arctic Center of the University of Lapland.
ISAR-5 Fifth International Symposium on Arctic Research, January 15-18, 2017 (Tokyo, Japan).
The fifth ISAR has been planned at the recommendation of the science steering committee of ISAR-4, which was held in Toyama, Japan in April 2015. The fifth ISAR will be devoted to discussions on environmental changes in the Arctic and their regional and global implications, to seek additional international scientific collaboration in this area by gathering, synthesizing and sharing information related to these changes occurring in the Arctic. Special emphasis will be placed on the fields of the social sciences and humanities, which were not included in the previous ISARs.
ISAR-5 will consist of general sessions and special sessions. The general sessions will address the following topics: atmosphere; ocean and sea ice; rivers, lakes, permafrost, and snow cover; ice sheets, glaciers, and ice cores; terrestrial ecosystems; marine ecosystems; geospace; policies and economy; and social and cultural dimensions. Special sessions will be solicited on cross-cutting themes.
POLAR 2018, June 15-27, 2018 (Davos, Switzerland).
POLAR2018 is a joint event from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). The SCAR meetings, the ASSW and the Open Science Conference will be hosted by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL under the patronage of the Swiss Committee on Polar and High Altitude Research. The WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF is organizing POLAR2018.
** New this week **
Arctic Biodiversity Congress, October 9-11, 2018 (Rovaniemi, Finland). The second Arctic Biodiversity Congress is hosted by the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council, and the Ministry of the Environment, Finland. The second Arctic Biodiversity Congress will build on the success of the first Congress, held in 2014 in Trondheim, Norway, and will bring together scientists, policymakers government officials, Indigenous representatives, Traditional Knowledge holders, industry, non-governmental organizations, and others to promote the conservation and sustainable use of Arctic biodiversity.
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