Arctic Update Header
October 25, 2019
 
No Arctic-science events are scheduled today.
Media

Petersburg Assembly to Ask for Hearing on Humpback Whale Critical Habitat. Petersburg's borough assembly Monday voted to seek a hearing in the Southeast Alaska community for proposed habitat protection for some of the humpback whales that frequent the region. The National Marine Fisheries Service published a federal register notice Oct. 9 for a proposed rule to designate critical habitat for some populations of humpback whales. Those include whales listed as threatened that winter in Mexico and spend part of their year in Southeast Alaska. Alaska Public Media
 
What's Big, Lives Underwater, and Fights Climate Change With Its Body and Booty? Whale Give you One Guess. When Ralph Chami was 14, he wanted to be an oceanographer. Instead, he got a PhD in economics, and is now the assistant director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which works with 189 countries to promote financial stability. But childhood dreams die hard, and nearly 40 years later, when the opportunity arose to travel to Baja California with the Great Whale Conservancy, Chami jumped at the chance to get closer to the massive creatures that caught his imagination as a kid. Popular Science 

UAF_logo New UAF Climate Report Highlights Rapidly Changing Alaska Ecosystems. Alaska has been breaking so many climate records over the last five years, it suggests the state has crossed a threshold into increasingly rapid ecosystem changes. That's according to a new report by Rick Thoman and John Walsh, scientists at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "When you cross these thresholds, some of which we don't know what they are until they happen, that you get these very rapid changes," Thoman said in an interview on Wednesday. Alaska Public Media

Gray Whale Wrangell Collects Gray Whale Bones for Research, Education. This month, a group of forest service employees along with five Wrangell High School students traveled to the Eastern Passage to collect the bones of a gray whale that unexpectedly washed up on shore earlier this year. The skeleton will provide plenty of local educational and research opportunities.  Alaska Public Media

On Russia's Vast Frontier, Lots of Free Land and Few Takers. Three years ago, Russia set out a bold plan to revive its vast Far East, handing out free land to reverse depopulation in an area rich in timber, minerals and oil that has drawn interest from Chinese investors and businesses. But the ambitious program to arrest the decades-long outflow of residents to the bright lights of big cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, hasn't lived up to expectations. Pioneers of this five-year pilot program now in its third year have been stymied by poor transportation, meager power links and unexpected costs, leaving some locals worried they will be unable to keep up with the Chinese economic juggernaut. The Wall Street Journal

Who Goes Farthest of Them All? The World's Longest Wild Animal Terrestrial Migrations and Movements. Caribou are often credited with the longest terrestrial migrations in the world, though without much scientific support. An international team of scientists, including Kyle Joly (National Park Service), Elie Gurarie (University of Maryland) and Mark Hebblewhite (University of Montana), gathered GPS collar data from around the world to address the question of which large terrestrial mammal migrates the farthest. Recognizing that not all mammals migrate, they also determined how far these mammals moved during the course of a year. National Park Service
Future Events
           
Narwhal: A Tusk with a Twist, October 28, 2019 (Washington, DC USA). After over a dozen years chasing the elusive and mysterious Narwhal in its Arctic habitat, conducting laboratory analysis, and applying a traditional study of Inuit and Greenlandic culture, Martin Nweeia, a dentist in Connecticut and lecturer at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and assistant professor at Case School of Dental Medicine, solved one of science's greatest riddles: the function of the narwhal's unicorn-like tusk. Join the National Museum of Natural History as Nweeia reveals his findings and what we can learn about the evolutionary history of the narwhal and its tooth, and asks us to consider adaptation of northern regions, animals, and peoples in a rapidly warming Arctic.

** New this week ** Program Manager Chat with the Bureau of Ocean & Energy Management (BOEM) - IARPC Collaborations Public Webinar Series, October 29, 2019 (Webinar). BOEM Program Officers Cathy Coon and Guillermo Auad will host this webinar on BOEM funding opportunities and welcome the research community to join, ask questions and share feedback.

** New this week ** Fulbright Arctic Initiative: Research and Policy Findings for Sustainable Arctic Communities and Economies, October 31, 2019 (Washington, DC USA). The Arctic faces critical policy challenges on many issues including climate change response, public health and healthcare infrastructure, energy, environmental protection, sustainable management of the Arctic Ocean, infrastructure, Indigenous rights, and governance. This symposium reports on research findings and selected policy recommendations from the Fulbright Arctic Initiative thematic research teams.

** New this week ** Svalbard Science Conference 2019, November 5-6, 2019 (Oslo, Norway). The Svalbard Science Forum, The Research Council of Norway and The Norwegian Polar Institute in cooperation with The Ny-Ă…lesund Science Managers Committee (NySMAC) invite researchers, research managers and stakeholders to the second Svalbard Science conference. The conference will focus on Svalbard in a pan-Arctic setting, aspiring to enhance cooperation and quality within Svalbard research, build and strengthen interdisciplinary and international networks and consolidate Svalbard as an attractive platform for Arctic research.

Greenland Science Week, December 1-5, 2019 (Nuuk, Greenland).  Greenland Science Week builds bridges between science and the Greenlandic society, business community and government, and creates a networking and cooperation platform for the Greenlandic and international science community around research in the Arctic.

1st Southern Hemisphere Conference on Permafrost: Permafrost at Altitude and Latitude, December 4-14, 2019 (Queenstown, New Zealand). This conference will operate in a new format, with three-day field excursions offered before and after the conference session days. This will allow participants to make a roundtrip from Christchurch to Queenstown, with visits to glaciers and glacial lakes, the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area and Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, cultural points of interest, and scenic spots to discuss glacial and periglacial landscape development. 

IX International Forum "Arctic: Today and the Future," December 5-7, 2019 (St. Petersburg, Russia) The forum will consider Arctic development issues. The forum is supported by the State Commission for the Development of the Arctic, the Federation Council, the State Duma, the Public Chamber of Russia, and various federal ministries and departments government bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

ASM2019 Annual Scientific Meeting, December 2-5, 2019 (Halifax, NS Canada). Canada's North is experiencing unprecedented change in its sea and terrestrial ice, permafrost and ecosystems under the triple pressures of climate change, industrialization and modernization. The impacts of these pressures can be seen on food and energy security, shipping, sovereignty, northern community health and well-being, and sustainable development and resource exploitation. All these issues have brought the North to the forefront of national and international agendas. With a focus on networking events, this gathering of  leading Arctic researchers, graduate students, Northern community representatives, government and industry partners and stakeholders from all field s will provide all with  valuable connections where innovative ideas and initiatives  can  develop  in  support of health  and sound  governance in the Arctic.

Greenland Science Week, December 2-5, 2019 (Nuuk, Greenland). The Arctic research conference, Polar Research Day, will be held in Nuuk on December 4, 2019. Alongside the one-day conference, several additional science events are planned and organized, so that the conference, a public outreach day, themed workshops, seminars and networking activities will be part of Greenland Science Week. The event will include opportunities to meet and network with a broad range of researchers, business community, government employees and society in an Arctic context, and the organizers anticipate participants from all disciplines in discussions of Arctic science in relation to Greenland. Greenland Science Week is organized by Ilisimatusarfik, AAU Arctic, Sermersooq Municipality and Greenland Perspective.

American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. December 9-13, 2019 (San Francisco, CA). As per usual, there will be a lot of Arctic research presented at this huge gathering.

** New this week **  Arctic Frontiers, January 26-30, 2020 (Tromso, Norway).   Arctic Frontiers is a global scientific conference on economic, societal, and environmental sustainable growth. This year's theme will be "The Power of Knowledge," with a pan-arctic emphasis, and builds new partnerships across nations, generations and ethnic groups.  Arctic Frontiers provides a forum for dialogue and communication between science, government and industry in the Arctic. The  plenary program will have five main sessions with the following working titles: State of the Arctic, The power of knowledge, Robust and resilient Arctic communities, Powered by knowledge, Arctic oceans - distant connections, Sustainable business development. An abstract-driven science program will address Arctic Food Security, Local or Global Arctic? Multi-scaled considerations of connections and remoteness in climate-impacted, Disruptive Technologies and Knowledge-based Development in the Arctic.

ISAR-6: Arctic Research: the Decade Past and the Decade Future, March 2-6, 2020 (Tokyo, Japan). Rapid changes are taking place in the Arctic that impact regional human and natural systems, and affect the global environment. The International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR) will meet for the sixth time since its first symposium in 2008 to identify changes in the Arctic environment and society, and to discuss possible future sustainable development. The hosts invite all researchers with interests in the Arctic to participate in this multidisciplinary symposium and share their insights, their challenges, and to explore the possible futures of the Arctic.
 
Arctic Science Summit Week and the 5th Arctic Observing Summit. March 27 to April 2, 2020, (Akureyri, Iceland). 
The Arctic Observing Summit (AOS) is a high-level biennial summit that provides a platform to address urgent and broadly recognized needs of Arctic observing across all components of the Arctic system. The theme of AOS 2020 is Observing for Action. AOS 2020 will be held in Akureyri, Iceland (March 31-April 2) and will focus on pressing issues related to the use, design, optimization and implementation of the observing system. To that end, submissions in the form of white papers, short statements and poster abstracts are requested that address any and all aspects of the overarching theme and sub-themes. Currently seeking submissions to the AOS. See link for additional information.



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