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No Arctic-science event is scheduled for today.
The Arctic Update will not publish tomorrow, January 1, 2021, in recognization of a federal holiday. The next Arctic Update will publish on January 4th.
Happy New Year!
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[Environmental Health Perspectives] Microplastic Contamination of Seafood Intended for Human Consumption: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Fifty studies were included in the systematic review and 19 in the meta-analysis. Evidence was available on four phyla: mollusks, crustaceans, fish, and echinodermata. The majority of studies identified MP contamination in seafood and reported MP content <1MP/g<1 MP/g, with 26% of studies rated as having a high RoB, mainly due to analysis or reporting weaknesses. Mollusks collected off the coasts of Asia were the most heavily contaminated, coinciding with reported trends of MP contamination in the sea. According to the statistical summary, MP content was 0-10.5 MPs/g0-10.5MPs/g in mollusks, 0.1-8.6 MPs/g0.1-8.6 MPs/g in crustaceans, 0-2.9 MPs/g0-2.9 MPs/g in fish, and 1 MP/ g1 MP/g in echinodermata. Maximum annual human MP uptake was estimated to be close to 55,000 MP particles. Statistical, sample, and methodological heterogeneity was high. [December 2020]
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Media
 Why an Alaskan Hospital Added Reindeer Pot Pie and Seal Soup to Its Menu. You're not going to find jello cups on the menu at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Instead, patients and visitors choose between reindeer pot pie, smoked hooligan, birch sourdough biscuits with fireweed jelly, herring roe, salmon-belly or seal soup, and Eskimo ice cream (made with animal fat, fish oil, and berries). Depending on the season, the hospital's Executive Chef, Amy Foote, receives boxes of fiddlehead ferns and spruce tips trimmed in the late spring, coho salmon and halibut caught in late summer, cloudberries and blueberries picked and packed in the fall, and whale or other game meat in late winter. Atlas Obscura
Edinburgh Company Generates Electricity from Gravity. What goes up must come down, and a vague memory of school physics reminds me that an object that has yet to come down has potential energy in it. Drop it, and it becomes kinetic energy. That's the essence of pump storage in hydro projects. On a steep drop between two reservoirs, use excess power at night to pump water uphill, then release it downhill when you need it. BBC News
 Critical Weather Stations on Greenland, Which Show Pace and Scale of Ice Melt, Find New Funding. Located across the middle of the vast Greenland ice sheet are a network of 16 climate stations, which track winds, snowfall accumulations, melting of snow and ice, sunlight and temperatures. This array has been in place since 1995, funded in part by NASA and the National Science Foundati on, and painstakingly installed and maintained via expeditions to the ice by pioneering climate scientist Konrad Steffen and his crew of graduate students and other researchers. Steffen died earlier this year when he fell into a crevasse while working on the ice. The Washington Post
Scientists Find the Error Source of a Sea-Ice Model Varies With the Season. Arctic sea ice has been rapidly declining in recent decades, and changes in arctic sea ice can have a significant impact on global weather and climate through interactions with the atmosphere and oceans. In addition, the Arctic shipping routes are a shortcut to connect the major countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The Arctic region is also rich in natural resources and biological resources. Simulation of the Arctic sea ice could provide valuable information for Arctic shipping as well as climate studies, and it is therefore urgent to evaluate the ability to simulate Arctic sea ice and diagnose the sources of simulation errors. EurekAlert!
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Future Events
ADAC Customer and Partner's Roundtable, 1:00 PM EST on January 13, 2021 (virtual)  . The Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) is a US Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate Office of University Programs, (OUP) Center of Excellence in Maritime Research hosted by the University of Alaska. In accordance with ADAC's "Year 7 Work Plan" ADAC conducts quarterly Customer and Partner's Roundtables. The Center will host its Second Program Year 7.
Alaska Native Perspectives of an Evolving Arctic Environment, 12:00 pm AKST on January 15, 2021. Join AKWorld for this discussion of climate, security, economic opportunity, science, resilience and other implications of a changing Arctic. Whether you are in Florida, California, Alaska, or another state in-between, you have experienced significant weather changes amplified by a rapidly changing Arctic. Come, listen, and join the conversation with two Alaska Native women who have firsthand knowledge and understanding of this important issue for Alaska, the United States, and the World.
2021 Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 26-28, 2021 (virtual). The Alaska Marine Science Symposium (AMSS) has  been bringing together scientists, educators, resource managers, students, and interested public for over twenty years to discuss the latest marine research being conducted in Alaskan waters. Showcasing Alaska's marine science remains the utmost priority despite the challenges we all have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are also exploring some additional events (virtual panels, social hours, etc.) surrounding the virtual launch of AMSS 2021, so stay tuned! We are looking for panel ideas Topic ideas may include but are not limited to: coastal resiliency, ocean noise, marine debris, perspectives on changing ecosystems, co-production of knowledge, economics of climate change, and the future of the Arctic Research Post-COVID in local communities. (submit here: https://alaskamarinescience.org/2021-panels).
Arctic Frontiers 2021, February 1-4, 2021 (virtual). Arctic Frontiers  started out in 2006 assembling the first global scientific conference on economic, societal and environmental sustainable growth in the north. In February 2021, we will arrange the 15th conference with the theme "Building Bridges". The conference has a pan arctic perspective 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.
 ALCOM's Arctic Senior Leader Summit, 2021, March 10-11, 2021 (virtual). In support of U.S. Northern Command's Arctic mission, please consider joining Lt General David Krumm, USAF, Commander Alaska Command, Alaska NORAD Region and 11th Air Force and a host of Defense and Security Leaders for Arctic Senior Leader Summit 2021 (ASLS 21) 10-11 March 2021. This event is oriented to addressing senior leader strategic views on the developing range of security and defense matters affecting the Arctic region. Due to the on-going complications of in-person meetings as a result of COVID 19, Arctic Senior Summit 2021 will be conducted via video conference. Day 1 of ASLS 2021 is focused on plenary presentations and follow-on strategic discussions. Day 2 ASLS 2021 is a planned tabletop exercise. Further details and registration to be provided soon via ASLS 21 planning team at the Arctic Domain Awareness Center. Please see: https://arcticdomainawarenesscenter.org/Events for more details or email ADAC center leadership at https://arcticdomainawarenesscenter.org/Team.
Arctic Science Summit Week, March 20-26, 2021 (Lisbon, Portugal). The Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, the  Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Local Organizing Committee will host the Arctic Science Summit Week 2021. The Conference is organized by FCT, Ciência Viva, AIR Center, the Portuguese Arctic Community and by IASC and partners. Framed by the overarching theme for the Science Conference "The Arctic: Regional Changes, Global Impacts," Lisbon invites International experts on the Arctic and Indigenous Peoples to discuss the "New Arctic" and also its impacts and interactions to and with the lower latitudes.
 One Health, One Future, April 6-11, 2021 (virtual). This is expected to be the largest circumpolar One Health conference held in the United States in 2021, with participation anticipated from across the Arctic region. The event is part of the United States contribution to One Arctic, One Health, an Arctic Council project now in its sixth year of operation. The project aims to develop a circumpolar network of One Health experts that can share knowledge, conduct exercises, and spur collaborative investigations of One Health phenomena.
2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses, May 3-6, 2021 (Hanko, Finland). Organizers announce, that due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses has been postponed to 2021. This symposium will bring together molecular microbial ecologists specializing in different organism groups to share our latest results and discuss methodological problems, as well as future prospects in the field, including practical international collaborations. The environmental focus will be on cryospheric environments including sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost, but excellent research in other polar environments is also invited. The methods to be discussed will focus on 'omics' techniques, ranging from single cells to metagenomes, but research using additional methods is encouraged as well.
3rd Arctic Science Ministerial, May 8-9, 2021 (Toyko, Japan). The  Japanese and Icelandic organizers of this ministerial continue to plan for an in-person ministerial, in Tokyo, but have moved the dates from November 21-22, 2020 to May 8-9, 2021 because of Covid-19. Since the last Arctic Science Ministerial in 2018, changes in the Arctic ecosystem and the resulting impacts locally and globally have been severely felt. Considering the need for climate change mitigation, adaptation, and repair measures, the relevance of an international Arctic Science Ministerial has never been greater. It is necessary to strengthen scientific cooperation and collaboration among both Arctic and non-Arctic States in order to develop our understanding of the rapid changes impacting the Arctic. The First Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM1) was hosted by the United States in 2016, and two years later, the Second Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM2) was co-hosted by Germany, Finland, and the European Commission. ASM3 will be co-hosted by Iceland and Japan.
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