There are many challenges in building sustainable and thriving communities in the Arctic while addressing the impacts of a warming and changing Arctic landscape due to climate change. As one of eight Arctic nations that comprise the Arctic Council, the United States, under the Biden Administration has called for an increase in international cooperation to address climate change in all facets of its domestic and foreign policy, including the Arctic. Estonia, a close neighbor of the Arctic, is applying for Observer status in the Arctic Council, is committed to mitigating the impacts of climate change, and advancing sustainable development in the Arctic. This discussion will offer an exchange of views by experts from the United States and Estonia on ways to promote collaboration to address the critical issues facing the Arctic, especially in the areas of research, environmental protection, and sustainable development. Chair of the US Arctic Research Commission David Kennedy will speak at this event.

Endangered polar bears are breeding with grizzly bears, creating hybrid “pizzly” bears, and it's being driven by climate change, scientists say. As the world warms and Arctic sea ice thins, starving polar bears are being driven ever further south, where they meet grizzlies, whose ranges are expanding northwards. And with that growing contact between the two species comes more mating, and therefore increased sightings of their hybrid offspring. 

A team of MIT engineers has developed a navigational method for autonomous vehicles to navigate accurately in the Arctic Ocean without GPS. There is a lot of activity beneath the vast, lonely expanses of ice and snow in the Arctic. Climate change has dramatically altered the layer of ice that covers much of the Arctic Ocean. Areas of water that used to be covered by a solid ice pack are now covered by thin layers only 3 feet deep. Beneath the ice, a warm layer of water, part of the Beaufort Lens, has changed the makeup of the aquatic environment.

Vice Adm. Linda L. Fagan has been nominated by the White House to be the next Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. She currently serves as the commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area, overseeing all Coast Guard missions from the Rocky Mountains to the waters off the East Coast of Africa. Fagan concurrently serves as commander, Defense Force West and provides Coast Guard mission support to the Department of Defense and Combatant Commanders. Fagan is a 1985 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy and is the Coast Guard’s first-ever Gold Ancient Trident, the officer with the longest service record in the Marine Safety field.

The aquatic animal known as the sponge is often described as entirely sessile: once they've settled in a spot and matured, they aren't generally thought of as moving around. But, according to a new study in the journal Current Biology on April 26—in which researchers describe mysterious trails of light brown sponge spicules (spike-like support elements in sponges) across the Arctic seafloor—that isn't always so.

Scripps Oceanography researchers say "heat bombs" are destroying the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. News 8 spoke with lead scientist Jennifer MacKinnon who lead Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers and an international team to the Arctic Ocean for the study. "Heat bomb" describes the pockets of warm water from the Pacific Ocean that are speeding up the melting of sea ice. When the warm, salty and dense Pacific Ocean water enters the area through the Bering Strait, it settles deep beneath the frozen surface.

As an indicator and amplifier of global climate change, the Arctic's health and stability is the cornerstone of the stability of our climate system. It has far-reaching impacts on ecosystems, coastal resilience and human settlements in the middle and high latitudes.

The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) has released a draft of the Arctic Research Plan 2022-2026 for public review in the Federal Register. The comment period will close on June 11, 2021. The draft plan addresses the most pressing Arctic research needs that require a collaborative approach and that can advance understanding of the Arctic, inform policy and planning decisions, and promote the well-being of Arctic and global communities. Download the plan and learn how to comment at iarpccollaborations.org/draft-plan.html

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a nomination hearing to consider the presidential nomination of Dr. Eric Lander to be Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

This event is hosted by the Arctic Domain Awareness Center. This workshop will be an assessment of the future maritime transportation system of the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort sea regions.

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.

DHS S&T's Centers of Excellence (COE) Summit is set and focused on Homeland Security Challenges: Evolving Threats & Dynamic Solutions. This event is a special opportunity for COE researchers to connect and network with DHS components, federal, state, and local stakeholders, as well as industry partners to present current and emerging solutions to threats and challenges faced by DHS. Attendees can visit the Innovation Showcase, where COE and vendor partners showcase research breakthroughs, new products and tools to assist operational decision-makers and dynamic solutions to secure our Homeland.

ADAC will conduct the Center's Program Year 7 Annual meeting to focus on U.S. Coast Guard Project Champions, key stakeholders and the community of Arctic science and technology researchers. Included in the Program Year 7 Annual meeting are planned guest speakers from HQ U.S. Coast Guard, DHS S&T and senior Arctic Research leadership in Washington D.C.

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.

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.