A decades-long study of introduced voles on the Norwegian islands of Svalbard is helping to answer a longstanding puzzle of Arctic ecology -- what drives the well-established population cycles of small Arctic mammals, such as voles and lemmings. These plant-eating rodents are among the most populous Arctic mammals. The results suggest the importance of predators as a primary factor driving the cycles, and shows that bottom-up, herbivore-plant interactions fail to generate their usual population cycles.

Right whales are so named because they were the “right” whale to hunt. They’re known for being slow-moving, and they float on the surface after being killed. Also, they’re really rare, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It’s estimated that between 26,000 and 37,000 animals were taken in only a handful of decades,” said Jessica Crance, a Research Biologist at the Marine Mammal Lab at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “And then they became the target of illegal Soviet whaling in the 1960s. And that decimated what was left of the population and brought them down to what we think are their current numbers.”

Scientists are racing to collect ice cores — along with long-frozen records they hold of climate cycles — as global warming melts glaciers and ice sheets. Some say they are running out of time. And, in some cases, it's already too late. Late last year, German-born chemist Margit Schwikowski and a team of international scientists attempted to gather ice cores from the Grand Combin glacier, high on the Swiss-Italian border, for a United Nations-backed climate monitoring effort.

NERACOOS and CIOOS Atlantic, with funding support from the U.S. Embassy in Canada, will host a three-part webinar series featuring discussions with local experts on scientific, economic, and policy issues facing coastal communities spanning the Arctic to the Northeastern seaboard of the United States. Each of the three seminars will coincide with part of the voyage of the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy, which has partnered with Canada to undertake a research cruise the Northwest Passage and circumnavigation of North America. As the Healy passes through the Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia and the Gulf of Maine, experts in a variety of subjects will speak about the challenges they're encountering, and how we can come up with solutions that transcend borders. 

NERACOOS and CIOOS Atlantic, with funding support from the U.S. Embassy in Canada, will host a three-part webinar series featuring discussions with local experts on scientific, economic, and policy issues facing coastal communities spanning the Arctic to the Northeastern seaboard of the United States. Each of the three seminars will coincide with part of the voyage of the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy, which has partnered with Canada to undertake a research cruise the Northwest Passage and circumnavigation of North America. As the Healy passes through the Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia and the Gulf of Maine, experts in a variety of subjects will speak about the challenges they're encountering, and how we can come up with solutions that transcend borders. 

Conversations will include John Farrell, the executive director of the US Arctic Research Commission, and Larry Mayer, a former commissioner with the US Arctic Research Commission.

The annual Arctic Circle Assembly is the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from 60 countries. It 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.

For the most up-to-date COVID information, please see the the US Embassy in Reykjavik's COVID page: here.

NERACOOS and CIOOS Atlantic, with funding support from the U.S. Embassy in Canada, will host a three-part webinar series featuring discussions with local experts on scientific, economic, and policy issues facing coastal communities spanning the Arctic to the Northeastern seaboard of the United States. Each of the three seminars will coincide with part of the voyage of the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy, which has partnered with Canada to undertake a research cruise the Northwest Passage and circumnavigation of North America. As the Healy passes through the Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia and the Gulf of Maine, experts in a variety of subjects will speak about the challenges they're encountering, and how we can come up with solutions that transcend borders. 

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.

The Maritime Risk Symposium is an annual three-day conference in which government and maritime industry leaders, port representatives, researchers, and solution providers convene to examine current and emerging threats to maritime security. Government agencies, commercial entities, institutions of research, and higher education come together to discuss various threats, challenges, and risks to international and domestic maritime sectors.

The European Commission and the European External Action Service will organize a high-level EU Arctic Forum and the Annual Arctic Indigenous Peoples’ Dialogue. The EU Arctic Forum will bring together key Arctic players and stakeholders to assess recent developments in the region and discuss challenges ahead. The event will provide a strategic outlook for the updated EU Arctic policy and delve into topics that are of particular significance for the Arctic’s inhabitants.

The New England Arctic Network (NEAN) will host its 2021 meeting at the University of New England in Portland, Maine. Additional information will be published soon. 

Hosted entirely online the ArcticNet Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting 2021 (ASM2021) is a hub for Arctic research in Canada. The ASM2021 brings together researchers from the natural, health, and social sciences to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing Arctic region, shaped by climate change and modernization. This conference will push the boundaries of our collective understanding of the Arctic and strengthen our ability to address the Arctic issues of today and tomorrow.

The National Academies’ Polar Research Board is convening the following session at the Fall AGU meeting.

Organizers announce, that due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses has been postponed to 2022. 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.

Arctic Symposium 2022 continues momentum in Arctic defense and security collaboration established in prior ALCOM-hosted events. AAS22 seeks to address the challenges faced by the U.S. military and our allies and partners in understanding and responding to our respective national interests. AAS22 is planned and organized by the Arctic Domain Awareness Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) in support and in compliance to guidance from Alaskan Command (ALCOM) Staff and Commander. More information available soon.