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Today's C
ongressional Action:
The House and Senate are not in session.
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Media
Mystery Seabed Sound Might be Scaring Animals, Nunavut MLA Says. An unidentified sound coming from the seafloor beneath Fury and Hecla Strait is making waves not only in the nearby hamlet of Igloolik, but also across desks at the Government of Nunavut and as far away as the Department of National Defence in Ottawa. Aggu MLA Paul Quassa rose Oct. 24 and Oct. 25 to tell fellow MLAs about a "pinging noise" detected on the seabed north of Igloolik that might be scaring away animals in a historically plentiful hunting area.
Nunatsiaq Online
 'Arctic Gene' That Poses Risks When Fasting is Found in Many More Infants Now that DNA Testing Has Begun. Thousands of years of a diet with lots of animal fats and sparse carbohydrates left a mark on the DNA of Native people of the Far North, a genetic condition that slows the body's ability to burn fat for energy. Experts once thought the condition was rare, but new DNA testing of newborns has found that CPT1A Arctic variant, as it's called, is common among the state's indigenous residents. While not normally a problem, the condition can lead to serious health problems when a person doesn't or can't eat, especially when very young.
Alaska Dispatch News
As Climate Changes, Meteorologists Relying Less on 'Using the Past to Inform the Future.'
National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Thoman
predicts more snow, more cold snaps - more normal winter weather - in Alaska this year now that the El Nino phase that helped make last winter so mild has moved on and been replaced by a La Nina.
At least, that's what's happened in previous years. But he says climate change has made forecasting in the Arctic more challenging.
"Well, that is the big problem with using the past to inform the future," Thoman said.
KUAC
 Coast Guard Advances Plans to Build 3 Icebreakers. The U.S. Coast Guard is moving forward on its long-range plan to build new icebreakers, asking potential builders this week to weigh in on their plans and timeline. The request shows that the federal government is moving forward on icebreakers despite long-term questions about funding. A single icebreaker is projected to cost about $1 billion. Alaska's congressional delegation has been pushing for a new Arctic icebreaker for years. The effort got a nudge forward when President Barack Obama visited Alaska in 2015 and pledged to speed up the acquisition process.
Alaska Dispatch News
Arctic Environmental Safety Standards to be Approved on December 5. The international forum The Arctic: Present and Future, to be held on December 5-6, is expected to approve the national standard entitled "Arctic Environmental Safety," said Vladimir Kotelnikov, head of the team of researchers who developed the standards. Kotelnikov leads the research and innovation division at the Kola Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences. The draft document was presented in Moscow on October 28. It offers an overview of the most pressing environmental protection issues arising from the significant human activity in the Arctic. Companies managing the Arctic's natural resources are expected to adopt the standard voluntarily some time later.
The Arctic
 Potential Ice-Melt 'Hot Spots' Identified in Arctic Ocean. The
The Arctic region is warming up
twice as fast
as the rest of the planet. This rapid temperature increase has caused
record-breaking seasonal retreat
in Arctic Ocean sea ice in recent years. The
latest minimum
recorded was set in September 2012, while the sea-ice cover
in September 2016
tied with 2007 for the second lowest extent ever recorded. And it's not just coverage that's the problem, sea ice is also thinning, with a current
average thickness of 3.2m in the central Arctic
.
Sea ice melts because of the atmospheric temperature, and due to heat from warm water. Relatively
warm currents flowing
into the Arctic waters from the Atlantic Ocean provide the largest oceanic heat input to the region, bringing enough heat to completely melt Arctic sea ice cover within two years. This inflowing Atlantic water has
warmed by 1°C since the 1970s
, and is warmer than it has been for at least 2,000 years. However, this warm water is isolated from the sea surface, and the underside of the sea ice, too, by an intervening layer of lighter, colder, fresher Arctic water.
The Arctic Journal
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
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Future Events
1st International Muskox Health Ecology Symposium, November 7-10, 2016 (Calgary, AB Canada).
The goal of this symposium is to share knowledge on muskox health ecology and sustainability across a variety of international stakeholders including community members/users, industry, wildlife management, and academia. We will discuss: the values, ecological, economic, social and cultural, of muskoxen; population status and trends; threats, vulnerabilities and resilience or sustainability; knowledge gaps; disease ecology; and existing and new tools for muskox health monitoring and research. For more information, please contact Susan Kutz.
ArcticNet annual Scientific Meeting 2016, December 5-9, 2016 (Winnipeg, MP Canada).
ArcticNet
will host its 12th Annual Scientific Meeting.
The ASM2016 will welcome researchers, students, Inuit, Northerners, policy makers and stakeholders to address the numerous environmental, social, economical and political challenges and opportunities that are emerging from climate change and modernization in the Arctic. As the largest annual Arctic research gathering held in Canada, ArcticNet's ASM is the ideal venue to showcase results from all fields of Arctic research, stimulate discussion and foster collaborations among those with a vested interest in the Arctic and its peoples.
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, December 12-16, 2016 (San Francisco, CA USA). Anticipating about 25,000 attendees, AGU's Fall Meeting will again be the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world. 2016 marks the meeting's 49th year and there will be approximately 20,000 oral and poster presentations in over 1,700 sessions, many of which will focus specifically on Arctic science. Among the highlights, the "2016 Arctic Report" will again be released, IARPC will hold a "Town Hall Meeting" on Thursday, Dec. 15th, from 12:30 to 1:30 pm in Moscone West Room 2003, and NASA will have a Town Hall on Operation IceBridge on Dec. 14th, in Moscone Room 202 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm.
Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 23-27, 2017 (Anchorage, AK USA). The annual Alaska Marine Science Symposium (AMSS) is Alaska's premier marine research conference. It brings together roughly 800 scientists, educators, resource managers, students, and interested public to discuss marine research being conducted in Alaskan waters. Research will be presented by geographic theme, including the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea & Aleutian Islands, and the Arctic. Topic areas will include ocean physics, fishes and invertebrates, seabirds, marine mammals, local traditional knowledge and more. Keynote presentations will be held Monday, January 23rd; Gulf of Alaska presentations will be on Tuesday, Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands on Wednesday, followed by the Arctic on Thursday.
Alaska Forum on the Environment, February 6-10, 2017 (Anchorage, AK USA). This statewide gathering of environmental professionals, community leaders, Alaskan youth, conservationists, biologists and community elders will be holding its 19th meeting to continue providing a strong educational foundation for all Alaskans and a unique opportunity to interact with others on environmental issues and challenges. As many as 1,800 people are expected to attend AFE this years meeting.
6th Annual Fletcher Arctic Conference, February 17-18, 2017 (Medford, MA USA). Fletcher Arctic VI, a TEDx-style event, will showcase the ideas, stories, and initiatives of people who live and work in the Arctic. The conference will bring together inspiring leaders, innovative business people, expert scientists, and artists from the pan-Arctic region. Building on The Fletcher School's interdisciplinary approach, Fletcher Arctic VI will be a forum to engage in conversation and spark open and constructive debate between speakers and participants, providing deep insights into this unique and rapidly changing region.
IV International Forum, March 2017 (Arkhangelsk, Russian Federation)
Arkhangelsk will host the Forum. The Forum will be titled Human in the Arctic and will be aimed at putting together joint efforts of the international community to promote effective development of the Arctic region as a territory for comfort life, work and leisure. The Forum will be attended by government officials, representatives of international organizations and prominent business communities, centers for political studies, Polar researchers and members of the international Arctic expeditions, foreign political scientists and economists, Russian and foreign journalists from leading international media organizations. The Forum will be attended by the President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Vladimir Putin. Additional information will be announced
here
.
Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences: People and Places (ICASS IX), June 8-12, 2017 (Umeå, Sweden).
ICASS IX's theme is People & Place. Research on social sciences and humanities have a great responsibility to address the challenges for sustainable development in the Arctic, with a specific focus on the many different parts of the Arctic and the people that live there. The multiple Arctics have lately been addressed by many policy makers and researchers. The purpose is often to counteract the stereotypic understanding of the Arctic too often represented by icebergs and polar bears. A focus on people and place highlights the many variances across the region in terms of climate, political systems, demography, infrastructure, history, languages, legal systems, land and water resources etc.
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.
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