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No Arctic science events are planned for today.
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From the South, Keen Interest in the Arctic and the Arctic Council. Hot, humid India may lie well south of the Arctic Circle, but it has plenty of connections to the Arctic, its leaders say. The earth's high latitudes have similarities to high altitudes of India's Himalayan region, including rapid warming and glacial retreat, Indians say. "We consider the globe is consisted of three poles - Antarctic, Arctic and Himalaya," said Raj Kumar Srivastava, an
Indian diplomat who traveled to Fairbanks to attend last week's ministerial meeting of the eight-nation Arctic Council.
Alaska Dispatch News
 Alaska Host Organization for Arctic Council to 'Transition' to Advocacy Role After Ministerial. Now that the United States has handed over chairmanship of the
Arctic Council, at its biennial
ministerial meeting held this year in Fairbanks, an Alaska organization that helped stage the ministerial is also undergoing a change. "We'll see an announcement next week about the transition of an
Alaska Arctic Council Host Committee to an Alaska Arctic Coordinating Committee," says Nils Andreassen co-chair of the Alaska Arctic Council Host Committee. The committee was created in 2015 by Gov. Bill Walker to facilitate council-related events in America's Arctic state, like the ministerial and the March meeting of the council's Senior Arctic Officials in Juneau.
KUAC
 Narwhal Stun Arctic Cod With Tusk: New Footage: More Evidence of Tusk's Importance to Narwhals. Footage captured by aerial drones as part of a narwhal research camp in Tremblay Sound in north Baffin has given biologists new insights into the behavior of narwhal. In the footage, a narwhal can be seen using quick taps of its tusk to stun Arctic cod, so the fish are easier to devour. In a May 12 news release, the World Wildlife Fund says the video is significant because it helps unravel the mystery of the narwhal tusk and shows that narwhals feed in their summering grounds.
Nunatsiaq Online
Kaktovik Hopes a Mix of Technology and Tradition Can Give the Village an Ice Cellar That Will Last. Dotting the ground across Barter Island are deep shafts. They look almost like mine shafts, descending into the chilled and dark permafrost below. Their faces are decrepit, and where they used to hold a bounty of whale meat, they now hold only floodwater. Sixty years ago, around the time when Matthew Rexford's grandfather was turning the ground to build his own ice cellar as a proud whaling captain, there were 12 of these such cellars in Kaktovik. Today there is only one left.
Alaska Dispatch News
 New Scrutiny of Polar Regions as World Braces for Climate Shifts: UN. Scientists will intensify scrutiny of the polar regions as part of an international campaign to improve global weather predictions and minimize risks linked to rapid climate change, the UN said Monday. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said a full year would be dedicated to improving polar forecasting capacities in the Arctic and another year would be spent doing the same in Antarctica. The
polar regions are by far the most impacted by
climate change, warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world in some areas and facing rapidly retreating glaciers and sea ice.
Phys.org
The Reindeer Island that Disappeared. Following mass deaths of animal, the once powerful cooperative managing the reindeer flocks in the Russian Arctic island of Kolguyev is officially declared closed. The new thing is fishing and collection of herbs, says Albert Ardeev, leader of the Kolguyev raindeer cooperative. In addition, locals can harvest sea weed,
he says in a press release published on the regional government website. The reindeer cooperative was once a thriving society with thousands of animals. Then it all collapsed.
The Barents Observer
Arctic Winds Affected by Climate Change Causes Drastic Changes to Polar Bears, Marine Life and More. Climate change is abundant in today's generation. However, some just don't know that Arctic's winds are also affected. Researchers then studied the issues and factors that were affected and stated ways on how people could help. According to
Phys Org, the Canadian Arctic was already ice-free since last August. Sandra Black, a clinical associate professor of zoo and wildlife medicine from UCalgary's Faculty of Science stated that studying narwhals aids her in discovering the climate change's impact of the Arctic's winds on the medium-sized whales.
Science Times
Polar Bears Shift From Seals to Bird Eggs as Arctic Ice Melts. Polar bears are ditching seafood in favour of scrambled eggs, as the heat rises in the Arctic melting the sea ice. A changing coastline has made it harder for the predators to catch the seals they favour and is pushing them towards poaching goose eggs. This is according to a team led by Charmain Hamilton of the Norwegian Polar Institute that monitored the movements of local polar bears and seals before and after a sudden
decline in sea ice in 2006, which altered coastal areas in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. The researchers attached tracking devices to 60 ringed seals and 67 polar bears overall, which allowed them to compare their movements before and after the ice collapse.
New Scientist
 Arctic Nations Strike Down Research Roadblocks.
Researchers working in the Arctic will face less red tape, under an agreement signed by representatives of the eight Arctic nations at a meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska, on 11 May. The legally binding document should help to ease rules that can hinder data collection and obstruct the transport of analytical equipment, data and samples across national borders. The pact is also designed to give scientists better access to government science facilities - including ice-breaking ships - and to terrestrial, coastal, atmospheric and marine areas for field research. [USARC's Cheryl Rosa quoted]. Nature
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Future Events
Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences: People and Places (ICASS IX), June 8-12, 2017 (Umea, 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.
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.
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.
Co-hosted by U.S. National/Naval Ice Center (NIC) and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC). A biennial symposium originating in 2001 that focuses on U. S. naval operations and national strategic issues in an "ice-free Arctic." This symposium brings together nationally and internationally recognized experts on Arctic observations, climate change, and maritime operations. Confirmed speakers include USCG Commandant Paul Zukunft
and Alaska's Congressman
Don Young.
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.
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