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August 28, 2020

No Arctic-science events are scheduled for today.

(Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, August 2020). Witness Community Highlights. Witness Community Highlights is an online publication launched in May 2017 to complement the regular publications of Witness the Arctic. It was developed in response to community feedback identifying the need for a monthly publication to highlight 1-2 Arctic research efforts and other timely items of interest to our readers. Community Highlights is distributed monthly via our Witness the Arctic mailing list of over 8,600 subscribers.
Media

Arctic Sea Ice Under Attack, and Ancient Records That Can Predict the Future Effects of Climate Change. Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about how Arctic sea ice is under attack Arctic sea ice under attack from above and below-not only from warming air, but also dangerous hot blobs of ocean water. Next, Damien Fordham, a professor and global change ecologist at the University of Adelaide, talks about how new tools for digging into the past are helping catalog what happened to biodiversity and ecosystems during different climate change scenarios in the past. These findings can help predict the fate of modern ecosystems under today's human-induced climate change. Science Magazine
 
Monitoring the Arctic Heatwave. Over the past months, the Arctic has experienced alarmingly high temperatures, extreme wildfires and a significant loss of sea ice. While hot summer weather is not uncommon in the Arctic, the region is warming at two to three times the global average-impacting nature and humanity on a global scale. Observations from space offer a unique opportunity to understand the changes occurring in this remote region. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, July 2020 was the third warmest July on record for the globe, with temperatures 0.5°C above the 1981-2010 average. In addition, the Northern Hemisphere saw its hottest July since records began-surpassing the previous record set in 2019. Phys.org
 
As Arctic Ice Melts, Polluting Ships Stream into Polar Waters. As melting sea ice opens the Arctic to navigation, more ships are plying the loosely regulated polar waters, bringing increasing amounts of climate-warming pollution, a Reuters analysis of new shipping and fuel-consumption data shows.Traffic through the icy region's busiest lane along the Siberian coast increased 58% between 2016 and 2019. Last year, ships made 2,694 voyages on the Northern Sea Route, according to data collected by researchers from the Centre for High North Logistics at Norway's Nord University. Reuters

Call for Information on Recent Arctic Research ActivitiesThe Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) is beginning its yearly effort to gather information on relevant research activities that have occurred over the last fiscal year. We hope this provides you an opportunity to share the work you have been doing during FY2020 with the wider research community. We welcome all to contribute information on recent work that is relevant to the Arctic Research Plan by September 4. Learn how to submit your work on IARPC's website.
Future Events

** New this week ** The Shaggy Savior of Northern Norway, 12:00 pm EDT on September 1, 2020. Professor Dolly Jørgensen will speak on a project about muskox hunting and farming and the larger issue of northern environments and "productivity." Her current research agenda focuses on cultural histories of animal extinction, and she recently published Recovering Lost Species in the Modern Age: Histories of Longing and Belonging (MIT Press, 2019). She has also edited several books, including Northscapes: History, Technology & the Making of Northern Environments (2014) and Visions of North in Premodern Europe (2018). The Pardee Center and the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge are pleased to co-host the Arctic Environmental Humanities Workshop Series, bringing together the diverse expertise of humanistic scholars, artists, and researchers for a series of virtual presentations and conversations about Arctic issues.

Program Manager Chat: National Science Foundation Support for Collaborations Between Arctic Researchers & Residents, 3:30 pm EDT on September 1, 2020 (virtual). The National Science Foundation will host a program manager chat about the recent Dear Colleague Letter announcing potential support for community collaborations between NSF-funded Arctic researchers and residents. Through this Dear Colleague Letter, NSF's Arctic Sciences Section (ARC) in the Office of Polar Programs is encouraging submissions of proposals for projects that will enrich interactions and improve collaboration between Arctic residents and NSF-funded researchers.

Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) Annual Meeting, October 29, 2020 (virtual) The ARCUS Annual Meeting serves as an important opportunity for for the Council of ARCUS Institutional Member RepresentativesARCUS Individual Members, and other members of the broader Arctic research community to connect with one another, the ARCUS Board of Directors, and staff. The meeting will be open to all interested participants and there is no cost to attend.

AGU Fall Meeting, December 7-11, 2020 (San Francisco, California USA). Fall Meeting is the largest gathering of Earth and space scientists in the world. More information will be available at the link.

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.

Save the Date: 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.
 

2021 Regional Conference on Permafrost/ 19th International Conference Cold Regions Engineering, July 11-16, 2021 (Boulder, Colorado USA). For the first time a Regional Conference on Permafrost will be combined with the bi-annual 19th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering. This conference is hosted by the US Permafrost Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International Permafrost Association, the Permafrost Young Researchers Network, and the University of Colorado Boulder. A complete list of planned sessions is available here.

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