Circumpolar Musings: Research

Reindeer capacity of pastures will be calculated in Yamal

Amanda Graham — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:27:10 GMT

(Sever-Press via Yamal.org, 6 March 2013) -- This year the Department of Agro-industrial Complex, Trade and Provision of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug plans to undertake scientific and research work "Elaboration of the methodology for calculation of reindeer capacity of pastures on the territory of the region". The director of the department, Vyacheslav Kucherenko, explained the project to the conference of Yamal Union of Reindeer Herders, and said the methodology is intended to yield information for substantiating and taking administrative decisions on planning economic and nature-protecting activities and also use for practical aims by economic subjects. By his words, intensive industrial development of Yamal brings to decrease in territories of pastures. At the same time, number of domestic reindeer in the territory of Yamalskiy and Tazovskiy districts stays on the high level, which brings to more intensive use of reindeer pastures. Thus, it is necessary to elaborate the methodology and to calculate reindeer capacity of pastures on the territory of the region.

NOAA’s Coast Survey plans for new Arctic nautical charts

Amanda Graham — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:23:50 GMT

(NOAA press release, 28 February 2013) -- NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey has issued an updated Arctic Nautical Charting Plan, as a major effort to improve inadequate chart coverage for Arctic areas experiencing increasing vessel traffic due to ice diminishment. The update came after consultations with maritime interests and the public, as well as with other federal, state, and local agencies. “As multi-year sea ice continues to disappear, vessel traffic in the Arctic is on the rise,” said Rear Admiral Gerd Glang, NOAA Coast Survey director. “This is leading to new maritime concerns about adequate charts, especially in areas increasingly transited by the offshore oil and gas industry and cruise liners,” Glang said. Commercial vessels depend on NOAA to provide charts and publications with the latest depth information, aids to navigation, accurate shorelines, and other features required for safe navigation in U.S. waters. But many regions of Alaska’s coastal areas have never had full bottom bathymetric surveys, and some haven’t had more than superficial depth measurements since Captain Cook explored the northern regions in the late 1700s. “Ships need updated charts with precise and accurate measurements,” said Capt. Doug Baird, chief of Coast Survey’s marine chart division. “We don’t have decades to get it done. Ice diminishment is here now.” NOAA plans to create 14 new charts to complement the existing chart coverage.

Russia launches program on Arctic development to 2020

Amanda Graham — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 07:56:18 GMT

(Trude Pettersen/Barents Observer, 20 February 2013) -- The Russian Government has approved the strategic program on Arctic development up to 2020, signed by President Vladimir Putin. The strategic program, which was published by the government today and signed by President Vladimir Putin, includes development of an integrated transport system in the Arctic, establishment of a competitive scientific and technological sector, development of international cooperation and the preservation of the Arctic as a zone of peace. The document, which is quite general in its formulations and covers almost every aspect of management of this huge area, guarantees state support to the development of infrastructure for transport, industry and energy, as well as to scientific, scientific-technical and innovational activities. During the first stage of implementation of the program (to 2015) Russia plans to focus on development of infrastructure for communication and information in the High North, establishment of centers for search and rescue along the Northern Sea Route, strengthening of FSB’s coast guard service and development of an integrated national system for environmental monitoring of the Arctic zone. The program on Arctic development states the main priorities for state investment policy, regulations of labor relations and social politics in the Arctic zone.

Frosty time machine coughs up arrowheads

Amanda Graham — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 07:23:24 GMT

(Ida Korneliussen/ScienceNordic, 20 February 2013) -- When Stone Age hunters missed their targets they inadvertently turned snow patches into treasure chests. ... The bow is nocked and released. The arrow zings through the air. But this was an especially unfortunate shot. Not only did it miss the prey, the arrow drove deep into a snow patch. For some reason it wasn’t retrieved. But it didn’t disappear for good. “We archaeologists are reliant on hunters missing like that,” says Martin Callanan, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where he teaches in the Department of Archaeology and Religious Studies. “When arrows disappeared deep into snow they sometimes froze there for keeps, until we find them,” he says. One of his favourite artefacts is the arrow that disappointed a hunter 5,400 years ago. Callanan and other NTNU researchers are working with an international project called Snow Patch Archaeology Research Cooperation (SPARC), which has as one of its goals the finding and analysing of hunting weapons in perennial mountain snow patches around the country.

Arctic trash doubled in past decade: Study

Amanda Graham — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:41:32 GMT

(Jack Phillips/Epoch Times, 1 November 2012) -- Debris like plastic bags and other waste are continuing to pile up on the Arctic Ocean’s seabed, with the amount doubling in the past ten years, according to a new study. Marine biologist and deep sea expert Melanie Bergmann, in a study published [22 October] in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, examined 2,100 photographs of the Arctic seafloor at a depth of around 8,200 feet in the Fram Strait, which is located between Greenland and the Svalbard Islands. The trash, Bergmann said, is impacting local sea life, with almost 70 percent of plastic litter coming “into some kind of contact with deep-sea organisms.” “For example we found plastic bags entangled in sponges, sea anemones settling on pieces of plastic or rope, cardboard and a beer bottle colonized by sea lilies,” Bergmann says in a press release. The photos Bergmann used were from a camera stationed near the seabed, that takes a photograph every 30 seconds. The camera is primarily used by scientists for documenting changes in the biodiversity, mainly in regards to sea cucumbers, sea lilies, sponges, fish, and shrimp. Bergmann said she went through all the photographs from 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, and 2011 to make a comparison of the trash on the seafloor. “The study was prompted by a gut feeling. When looking through our images I got the impression that plastic bags and other litter on the seafloor were seen more frequently in photos from 2011 than in those dating back to earlier years,” Bergmann said in a release. Trash and other pollutants that make it to the Arctic Ocean come from sources around the world via air and ocean currents, says the Pew Environment Group think tank. It argues that as Arctic ice continues to melt, more ships will be using the Northwest Passage and other routes that are subsequently opened up further, increasing the amount of garbage and sewage dumped into the ocean. Article highlights: Litter on the deep Arctic seafloor over time was quantified by image analysis. Litter density increased from 3635 to 7710 items per square km between 2002 and 2011. ? The majority of litter recorded was plastic. Sixty-seven percent of the litter items was entangled or colonised by benthic invertebrates.

As climate warms, Arctic spawns massive ice islands

Amanda Graham — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:07:58 GMT

(Tim Lister/CNN, 7 December 2012) -- In mid-July this year, a roar echoed around one of the most remote inlets of northern Greenland -- and an island was born. No ordinary island, but a huge chunk of ice, roughly twice the size of Manhattan, that had broken from the Petermann Glacier. Scientists gave it the romantic name of PII-2012 and watched it begin to drift slowly into the Nares Strait, which separates Greenland from Canada. Then it began to break up, spawning several smaller ice islands. The birth of PII-2012 was no isolated event. The Petermann Glacier had lost a much larger chunk in 2010. It also broke into fragments, though that may not be the right word. One of them alone was estimated to weigh 3.5 billion tonnes, or metric tons (3.86 billion short tons), according to E. Julie Halliday, a researcher at Memorial University in Canada. ... Halliday noted in a paper presented at the Arctic Technology Conference in Houston last week that while "management of a 3.5 billion-tonne ice island away from offshore structures may theoretically be possible, putting it into practice would be logistically very challenging." ... Scientists are only now beginning to research these ice islands and the rate at which they melt and divide, especially as the Arctic waters warm and the restraining effect of sea ice disappears. ... The same warmer temperatures that are encouraging the collapse of ice shelves are melting icebergs and ice islands before they reach the north Atlantic, according to the International Ice Patrol, a program led by the U.S. Coast Guard to protect shipping from the sort of disaster that befell the Titanic. ... The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in its annual Arctic Report Card, published this week, said dramatic melting of the Greenland ice sheet had occurred in July, "covering about 97 percent of the ice sheet on a single day." ... All the evidence says that what in effect is the world's source of air conditioning is getting weaker, with consequences that will be felt far below the 48th parallel.

Spring Arctic snow pack melting fast, study warns

Amanda Graham — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:35:43 GMT

(CBC News, 5 November 2012) -- The spring snow pack in the Arctic is disappearing at a much faster rate than anticipated even by climate change models, says a new study by Environment Canada researchers. That has implications for wildlife, vegetation and ground temperatures, say the scientists, who looked at four decades of snow data for the Canadian Arctic and beyond. Combined with recent news that the Arctic sea ice retreated to an all-time low this summer, it suggests climate change may be happening much faster than expected, said Dr. Chris Derksen, a research scientist for Environment Canada and one of the study's authors. "What we discovered was that there is a significant reduction in the amount of snow cover, particularly in May and June… and the rate of that decline is actually slightly faster than the loss of summer sea ice," Derksen said in an interview. They studied 40 years of data from across the Arctic from April to June, and found the decline in spring snow cover was actually slightly faster than the decline in sea ice that made headlines around the world.

Russia’s strategic tasks in Arctic, global ocean

Amanda Graham — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:50:55 GMT

(Voice of Russia, 12 October 2012) -- On Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended a keel-laying ceremony of the diesel-powered icebreaker LK-25 in St. Petersburg. Industry experts say the keel-laying of the new generation icebreaker marks a new stage in Russia’s exploration of the Arctic region. The state-of-the-art diesel-powered icebreaker LK-25 of ice class Icebreaker 8 will replace the old icebreakers, which were built in the 1980s. With the capacity of 25 MW the new icebreaker will be capable of sailing the most difficult conditions of the Kara Sea, in any ice situation. The new ship laid at the Baltic shipbuilding plant of the United Shipbuilding Corporation will be completed in 2017. Currently, Russia is also building other new icebreakers. The ships called Moscow and St. Petersburg were laid down 6 years ago but their capacity is much smaller than that of the LK-25 ship. In terms of capacity the LK-25 project is a milestone. And the largest ever project in the history of Russia’s shipbuilding industry is scheduled for 2013. The LK-60 nuclear icebreaker with the capacity of 60 megawatt will cost almost 40 billion rubles (more than one billion dollars) This vessel will be capable of sailing in the northernmost and easternmost parts of the Arctic region. This means that Russia will be able to solve strategic tasks in any part of the Arctic Ocean. We hear from Igor Ostretsov, the deputy director for science of the All-Russia Research Center of Nuclear Machine-Building. "The Soviet Union was an undisputable leader in building of icebreakers. We always had the advantage in the Arctic region. Now those icebreakers are getting old and we are renewing the fleet. It is very important to secure Russia’s presence in the Arctic areas, which always belonged to us, now when many other countries are eyeing the Arctic region. An icebreaking fleet is the most important tool there." Russia’s neighbors on the Arctic region are continuing to dispute Moscow’s claims on the Arctic shelf, which rich reserves attract even non-Arctic states such as Japan and Malaysia. Russia is continuing to explore the area to define the shelf borders and to apply a new request to the UN. Alongside the renewal of the icebreaking fleet the construction of new research ships is underway. On Wednesday, a new scientific research ship Academic Tryoshnikov was made operational. The industry experts say that in terms of its icebreaking capabilities it is superior to the Academic Fyodorov research ship. With the new research ship of this class Russia will be able to win back the leading position in scientific explorations of the Arctic region, Medvedev said Wednesday.

N.W.T. farmer harvests potatoes near Arctic Circle

Amanda Graham — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:44:55 GMT

(CBC News, 12 October 2012) -- One man in Norman Wells is transforming his town into the potato capital of the N.W.T., harvesting 30,000 pounds of the vegetable this year from his farm about 130 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle. For seven years Doug Whiteman has experimented with fertilizers, frost, top soil and timing on three acres bordering a grass airstrip. The short growing season and cold temperatures make growing vegetables a challenge. Government grants have covered three quarters of the cost of the seeds and harvesting equipment but he’s spent thousands out of his own pocket and may finally make a profit this year. “The main thing is to show it is possible,” he said. “You always think of moose, caribou, berries — this is food from the land also.” His grandchildren help pick potatoes in the field, his daughter helps him sort and does sales while he’s away, and his son helps him with deliveries. Whiteman sells to residents and businesses, for whom fresh produce is a welcome change, and even to boats travelling along the Mackenzie River. Jeff Gilroy runs the Yamouri Inn in Norman Wells and goes through more than 100 pounds of potatoes a week. Buying locally saves the cost of shipping by air or winter road, as there is no all-season road to the town with a population of about 800.

Government of Canada’s search for lost Franklin ships delivers numerous collateral results

Amanda Graham — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 18:01:10 GMT

(Government of Canada press release via Heritage Daily, 21 September 2012) -- The Honourable Peter Kent, Minister of Environment and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, today gave an update on this summer’s Arctic archaeological survey led by Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Service to find the ill-fated 1845-1846 Franklin Expedition vessels: HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. “The search for the lost Franklin vessels continues, but I can unequivocally say that this year’s survey was by far our most successful one to date,” said Minister Kent. “I would like to congratulate all our amazing partners who were part of this Canadian-led research team. They reached new heights with this project, and I look forward to seeing what new possibilities open up in time for next year’s continued search.” This year, the search team ruled out more than 400 square kilometres in Canada’s vast Arctic waters, almost tripling the coverage of past field seasons and further narrowing the search for the elusive wrecks of the Franklin Expedition. With almost four weeks spent in the Arctic, the team employed a multitude of scientific data that will also greatly benefit Canada’s understanding and knowledge of the Arctic. Working from both the research vessel, Martin Bergmann, supplied by the Arctic Research Foundation, and Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the survey time was significantly extended compared to previous years. In addition to Parks Canada’s underwater archaeologists searching for the Franklin vessels, the broader project team included the Arctic Charting and Mapping Pilot Project, led by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Canadian Hydrographic Service. This project allowed for the collection of data for the production of official navigational charts in the Arctic, while supporting, marine archaeology and ecosystem management objectives.

Russia’s input to Arctic exploration

Amanda Graham — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 21:19:56 GMT

(The Voice of Russia, 2 September 2012) -- Many centuries of studies and exploration of the Arctic territories are filled with multitudes of vivid, large-scale and, at times, dramatic events. The Arctic map is a hymn to man’s spirit. It shows the names of islands, gulfs and mountains that immortalize their discoverers. It is in large part due to Russian explorers that the lands of the North became an adequately studied and accessible part of the globe. Of course, explorers from other countries also studied the Arctic but it rarely became a tradition in a full l sense of this word. Many generations of Russian pioneers and researchers contributed colossal efforts, expertise funds and often their lives to the exploration of the Arctic region. In their quest for the North Pole they discovered new lands, seas, islands and archipelagos. Thanks to Russian explorers mankind learned about the existence of Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands, the Chukchi Peninsula, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska. The Russians were the first to prove that Asia and America were separated by a strait. Russian polar navigators purposefully explored Arctic sea and river routes, studied the Arctic Ocean and played a prominent part in charting the Northern Sea Route. Since 1914 Russian airmen have been conquering the airspace above the Arctic.

Healy 1202 research cruise

Amanda Graham — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 22:31:17 GMT

(Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping Joint Hydrographic Center, 6 September 2012) -- A blog detailing the daily progress of the Healy as researchers study the Arctic Ocean and map the sea floor. Blog post from September 5, 2012: Today we returned to the seafloor knoll that was partially sounded on August 31 to fully map the feature and determine if it rises above the 2500 m depth contour. (The 2500-m contour is a key element in establishing limits of the extended continental shelf.) Our multibeam mapping determined that the highest point of the knoll is about 2690 m deep and thus does not give us a 2500-m contour to work with. Nonetheless, we now have a detailed survey of the knoll to replace the vague shape on the existing maps. After we acquire the multibeam echo sounder data, our data processing watch team “processes” the data. In data processing, we confirm that the ship’s position and attitude data are valid and we clean erroneous depth values from the sounding data. These erroneous depth values can arise from interference from other echo sounders, bubbles or ice under the ship, mechanical noise from the ship’s machinery, or often just from weak echoes returning from the seafloor. The cleaned depth values are combined into a digital depth data grid for display and analysis.

Ancient history of circumarctic peoples illuminated

Amanda Graham — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:01:50 GMT

(University of Pennsylvania press release, 18 May 2012) -- For many of these populations, this is the first time their genetics have been analyzed on a population scale. One study, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, focuses on the Haida and Tlingit communities of southeastern Alaska. The other study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, considers the genetic histories of three groups that live in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Establishing shared markers in the DNA of people living in the circumarctic region, the team of scientists uncovered evidence of interactions among the tribes during the last several thousand years. The researchers used these clues to determine how humans migrated to and settled in North America as long as 20,000 years ago, after crossing the land bridge from today's Russia, an area known as Beringia. Penn houses the Genographic Project's North American research center. "These studies inform our understanding of the initial peopling process in the Americas, what happened after people moved through and who remained behind in Beringia," said author Theodore Schurr, an associate professor in Penn's Department of Anthropology and the Genographic Project principal investigator for North America.

Warming Arctic will affect south as well

Amanda Graham — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:28:33 GMT

(Ed Struzik/Times Colonist, 6 May 2012) -- University of Alberta scientist Andrew Derocher was in the High Arctic in late April getting a rare, first-hand glimpse of what the future of the Arctic might look like right around the time 3,000 researchers, policy-makers and indigenous leaders were gathered in Montreal at the International Polar Year 2012 conference to try to imagine the same thing. Derocher was on the sea ice catching and tagging polar bears off the coast of Victoria Island when Inuvialuit hunter Pat Epakohak hunted and killed a female polar bear that had two very unusual-looking cubs with her. "One of the cubs was very grizzly-bear-like and the other looked more like a polar bear," Derocher wrote in an email after getting a chance to look at the carcasses of the animals. "I guess we can expect more of these hybrids as the population of grizzly bears continues to grow in this part of the world." Up until about 20 years ago, sightings of grizzlies in the High Arctic were extremely rare, a quirk of nature, many biologists thought, that may have occurred because the bear walked the wrong way or strayed too far following mainland caribou that sometimes cross the sea ice to Arctic islands. No one imagined that hybrids such as the one Derocher saw would be part of the land or seascape. But that thinking began to change in recent years as more brown bears and a succession of other animals, such as red fox, coyotes, white-tailed deer, Pacific salmon and killer whales, began showing up in areas traditionally occupied by Arctic fox, Arctic wolves, caribou, Arctic char and beluga whales. Some of these animals, we now know, are also producing hybrids.

Ottawa investing $10-million in Arctic surveillance

Amanda Graham — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:10:49 GMT

(Anna Mehler Paperny/Globe and Mail, 4 May 2012) -- Canada is moving to wrest back control of a swiftly changing North – or at least get a better handle on what’s going on in its icy waters. Global warming and growing international interest in the melting Northwest Passage make it imperative, the federal government says in an online call for expressions of interest, to improve surveillance in territory Canada claims but knows little about. The research arm of the Department of National Defence is investing $10-million from now through 2015 in a remote-controlled satellite surveillance project in the Barrow Strait, a small slice of the Northwest Passage through which most vessels pass on their way westward along that route. The Northern Watch project was announced in 2007 and the first equipment set up the next year, only to be severely damaged by harsh weather conditions. Now, after several years of remediation and altering equipment to make it stand up better to Arctic conditions, Ottawa has put a call out for a company to build a system that researchers can control from Halifax and, eventually, set up to be entirely automated. It will send the signals to Defence Research and Development Canada's Atlantic section, which specializes in underwater photography. “Right now, we don’t have any actual presence in the Arctic, except for where we have people living,” said Gary Geling, Defence Research and Development Canada’s lead scientist on the project. “One of the things we really don’t have a good feel for right now is exactly where everything is. … This [new equipment] allows us to know who’s coming in.”

Greenland glacier acceleration levels less than originally feared

Amanda Graham — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:28:14 GMT

(University of Washington and Ohio State University press releases via redOrbit, 4 May 2012) -- Some of Greenland’s glaciers are moving approximately 30% faster than they were a decade ago, contributing to the rising sea level but not reaching worst-case speed levels that experts once feared, a new study published in Friday’s edition of the journal Science has discovered. According to Reuters reporter Deborah Zabarenko, researchers at the University of Washington (UW) and Ohio State University (OSU) studied satellite data from 2000 to 2011. They focused on more than 200 glaciers and discovered that their acceleration levels were not increasing as rapidly as earlier projections had feared. Previously, scientists analyzing the issue had presented a scenario in which the Greenland glaciers would double their velocity between 2000 and 2010, then stabilizing in terms of speed, as well as a second scenario in which their speeds would increase tenfold before stabilizing. Under the first scenario, the sea level would rise by approximately four inches by 2100, and under the second, it would increase by nearly 19 inches by that time, the University of Washington said in a May 3 press release. However, as they point out, those researchers “had little precise data available for how major ice regions, primarily in Greenland and Antarctica, were behaving in the face of climate change.” For the new study, lead author Twila Moon, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and space sciences, and co-authors Benjamin Smith of the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and Ian Howat, an assistant professor of earth sciences at OSU, recorded annual, wintertime changes in the outlet glaciers by using data from the Canadian Space Agency‘s Radarsat-1 satellite, Germany’s TerraSar-X satellite and Japan’s Advanced Land Observation Satellite, and discovered lower-than-anticipated increased in velocity. “’Glacial pace’ is not slow anymore,” Moon told the Associated Press (AP). That said, she added that, “some of the worst-case possibilities that we had imagined are not coming true at this point. So it’s not good news, but it’s not bad news.” Source:

Investigating mysteries of polar bears’ ancestry with a DNA lens

Amanda Graham — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:04:07 GMT

(James Gorman/New York Times, 19 April 2012) -- Polar bears, long thought to have branched off relatively recently from brown bears, developing their white coats, webbed paws and other adaptations over the last 150,000 years or so to cope with life on Arctic Sea ice, are not descended from brown bears, scientists report. Instead, according to a research team that looked at DNA samples from the two species and from black bears, the brown bear and polar bear ancestral lines have a common ancestor and split about 600,000 years ago. The report, published online on Thursday in the journal Science, is the latest attempt to understand the surprisingly murky origins of one of the most familiar animals on earth, and a potent environmental symbol because it is losing the sea ice it depends on to a warming climate. Because of climate change, and threats from shipping, hunting and pollution, the polar bear is listed as “vulnerable,” one level below endangered, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. ... The findings challenge the idea that the bears adapted very quickly, but confirm that they have made it through warming periods and loss of sea ice before. It may have been touch and go for the bears, however, because the authors find evidence of evolutionary bottlenecks, probably during warm periods, when only small populations survived, even though warming was occurring much more slowly than it is now.

Canada's military divers to explore Franklin-era wreck

Amanda Graham — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:01:19 GMT

(CBC News via Eye on the Arctic, 16 April 2102) -- Divers with the Canadian military will make their way under the sea ice to explore a Franklin-era shipwreck. The exercise is part of the annual Operation Nunalivut, which takes place in the High Arctic near Resolute. Divers from three provinces will head down with remote-operated vehicles to look at the HMS Breadalbane. In 1853, the ship sank off Beechey Island in Lancaster Sound. It had been part of the search for John Franklin's lost ships, the Erebus and Terror, and their crews. The Breadalbane's crew had to abandon ship when it became trapped in an ice floe, and the crew was later rescued by another ship. "We don't think anybody's conducted any dive operations on it in about 10 years, and the last time that they did it looked to be in really good shape," said Lt. Col. Glen MacNeil, who is leading the operation. "You could clearly see the outline of the ship and the masts were still there on it with sails so it'll be interesting to see what type of images we get." The Breadalbane is now a national historic site of Canada. Operation Nunalivut ends May 1.

Polar bears in Alaska observed with patchy hair loss and other skin lesions

Amanda Graham — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:11:05 GMT

(U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service press release, 6 April 2012) -- ANCHORAGE — In the past two weeks, 9 polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region near Barrow were observed with alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions. The animals were otherwise healthy in appearance and behavior. The cause and significance of the observed lesions are unknown. Alopecia has been reported in both wild and captive animals in the past. U.S. Geological Survey scientists have collected blood and tissues samples from afflicted polar bears to investigate the cause of the symptoms and determine whether there is any relationship between the symptoms observed in polar bears and those reported for arctic pinnipeds from the same geographical region earlier this year. Research scientists with the USGS made the observations at the start of their 2012 field-work season. USGS observes polar bears annually in the southern Beaufort Sea region as part of a long-term research program. This bear population ranges from Barrow in Alaska east to the Tuktoyuktuk region of Canada. Observations last summer of unusual numbers of ringed seals hauled out on beaches along the Arctic coast of Alaska, and later on, of dead and dying seals with hair loss and skin sores, led to declaration of an Unusual Mortality Event by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on December 20, 2011. Based on observations of Pacific walruses with similar skin lesions at a coastal haulout in the same region during fall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joined the UME investigation. Most walruses exhibiting skin lesions appeared to be otherwise healthy, and whether the symptoms observed in the seals and walruses are related is unknown. Since the initial reports from northern Alaska, ice seals with similar symptoms have also been reported in adjacent regions of Canada and Russia and from the Bering Strait region. Despite extensive testing for a wide variety of well known infectious agents, the cause(s) of the observed condition in walruses and ice seals remains unknown. Advanced testing techniques for unidentified infectious agents is continuing as well as further testing for potential causes including man-made and natural biotoxins, radiation, contaminants, auto-immune diseases, nutritional, hormonal and environmental factors.

Wooly mammoth found in Siberia is remarkably well preserved

Amanda Graham — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:32:37 GMT

(RedOrbit, 5 April 2012) -- A young, entombed wooly mammoth has been discovered in Siberia near the Arctic Ocean. Nicknamed “Yuka,” the mammoth has been described by discoverers as being “remarkably well preserved” despite being cut open by ancient people. Yuka was discovered in Siberia during an expedition funded in part by the BBC and the Discovery Channel and is believed to be at least 10,000 years old. The discoverers believe this finding could possibly provide proof of early human interaction in the Siberian region. Yuka remains in excellent condition, thanks to the freezing cold temperatures of Siberia. In fact, much of the meat is still intact, retaining a pink color. Strawberry blond hair covers the mammoth. Daniel Fisher, curator and director of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology told Discovery News, “This is the first relatively complete mammoth carcass — that is, a body with soft tissues preserved — to show evidence of human association.” Working with an international team of experts, Fisher will help to analyze Yuka and to retrieve genetic samples from the carcass. The team is also conducted carbon dating on Yuka, but believe the mammoth to have died at least 10,000 years ago. They believe the mammoth to have been about 2 1/2 to 4 years old when it died. Judging from wounds found on the mammoth and other cuts and breaks, the team believe Yuka may have fallen prey to lions before humans came along to finish the job. “It appears that Yuka was pursued by one or more lions or another large field, judging from deep, unhealed scratches in the hide and bite marks on the tail,” Fisher said. “Yuka then apparently fell, breaking one of the lower hind legs. At this point, humans may have moved in to control the carcass, butchering much of the animal and removing parts that they would use immediately. They may, in fact, have reburied the rest of the carcass to keep it in reserve for possible later use. What remains now would then be ‘leftovers’ that were never retrieved.” While most of Yuka’s innards are missing, such as organs, ribs, vertebrae, and some meat, the lower parts of each leg and the trunk remain incredibly well preserved.

Northern Sea Route hydrographic survey planned

Amanda Graham — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:10:20 GMT

(News release via MarineLink.com, 1 April 2012) -- Russia [is] to commission Northern Sea Route hydrographic surveys to identify safe-water routes for large ships. Updated charts of the Northern Sea Route without the 'white spots' will be created in 2015-2016, in addition, the Ministry of Transport is planning to organize this year's transfer of jurisdiction from the Ministry of Defence to FSUE 'Hydrographic Enterprise' or in its own subordinate structure, said the deputy director of the Department of State Policy for Maritime and River Transport of Russia, Vitaly Klyuev. "We will increase the hydrographic work in the Arctic to the year 2015-2016 to get a real picture of the depths for safe navigation," he said at a news conference in RIA Novosti, devoted to the preparation of the Russian exposition at the World exhibition "Expo-2012" to be held from May to August in South Korea. According to Klyuyev, surveying the work in the Arctic will be done in conjunction with SCF and Rosatomflot. 'White spots' (areas without depth data) on the charts will not be covered throughout the whole region, but survey work will be concentrated on the Northern Sea Route in the interests of the safe navigation of ship traffic. According to Director of Non-Profit Partnership for the Coordination of Northern Sea Route Vladimir Mickle, over the past 20 years, soundings in the Arctic have been limited because of a reduction in the hydrographic budget. However, in 2011 funding was restored, and for the first time it was sufficient enough for seven survey ships to work on the route.

Arctic explorer’s magnetic measurements ring true

Amanda Graham — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:01:51 GMT

(Ned Rozell / Alaska Science Forum via Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 1 April 2012) -- FAIRBANKS - More than a century ago, Roald Amundsen and his crew were the first to sail through the Northwest Passage, along the way leaving footprints in Eagle, Nome and Sitka. Pioneering that storied route was a dream of Amundsen’s since his boyhood in Norway, but he also performed enduring science on the three-year voyage of the Gjøa. Amundsen, from Norway, was 30 years old when, in the early 1900s, he envisioned and then executed this plan: “With a small vessel and a few companions, to penetrate into the regions around earth’s north magnetic pole, and by a series of accurate observations, extending over a period of two years, to relocate the pole observed by Sir James Ross in 1831.” ... Though the conquest of the Northwest Passage brought Amundsen worldwide fame, his devotion to science was real. Instead of blasting through the passage, he and his crew halted the Gjøa to spend the winter in a bay off King William Island in Canada’s Arctic. There, they set up a base called “Gjøahaven,” or Gjøa Harbor. They killed 100 reindeer for winter meat to feed man and dog, met the local natives, exchanged their wool clothes for furs and watched the ice form on the ocean in early October 1903. They also built a magnetic observatory out of shipping crates. They held it together with nails containing no iron. They covered the hut with tundra to keep out the light, because photographic paper recorded their magnetic observations. Inside the building were four instruments sensitive to variations of Earth’s magnetic field. A few oil lamps heated and lit the observatory, which was so snug that Amundsen and crewman Gustav Wiik probably both suffered heart-muscle damage from carbon monoxide poisoning during the 19 months they faithfully tended the instruments. ... The data set is so good that Charles Deehr, a space physicist and aurora forecaster at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute, who posts forecasts of northern lights at http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast, said the information is similar to data he gets today from satellites parked in the solar wind, a flow of the sun’s particles that excites the aurora into action.

Tiny polar creature must deal with competition

Amanda Graham — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:20:26 GMT

(Nina Kristiansen/Science Nordic, 30 March 2012) -- The notion about Arctic organisms shutting down during winter has been taken for granted until some tiny copepods proved differently. “We don’t know so much about life up there in the Arctic waters during winter because our research voyages are conducted during the summer season,” says Elisabeth Halvorsen, a marine system ecologist at the University of Tromsø. A year-round monitoring station on Svalbard made some observations that caught the attention of scientists. Certain activities were continuing during long Arctic night. This motivated Halvorsen to join in on the research voyage “The Polar Night Cruise” in January this year. It’s rare for researchers to visit distant arctic regions at that time of year. “We were lucky. The extreme storms dubbed “Dagmar” and “Berit” kept the sea from icing over fairly far north,” says Halvorsen. She found that it was far from all peace and quiet and hibernation up there. “On the contrary, we witnessed a great deal of activity. The object of my studies, the copepod Calanus hyperboreus, was already in spring vigour in January.” C. hyperboreus is the largest of three species of the calinus genus of copepods found in Arctic waters. But it isn’t big, only four or five millimetres long. Despite its modest size, the C. hyperboreus is a vital source of food for fish and seabirds. It is most predominant in the Greenland Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

Sea ice project will help bring Inuit knowledge into Arctic Council: ICC

Amanda Graham — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:09:48 GMT

(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News, 29 March 2012) -- The Inuit Circumpolar Council received some good news this past week in Stockholm, Sweden, during a meeting of top officials from the Arctic Council’s eight member nations and its indigenous Arctic participants. The ICC learned that its “Sea ice is our highway” project will move ahead as an official Arctic Council project. This project, funded by Canada, the United States and Denmark, will look at how changes in the Arctic have affected Inuit and how Inuit are adapting to these changes. And it will include interviews “with as many Inuit from Chukotka to Greenland as we can within the budget,” said ICC-Canada’s president Duane Smith in an interview from Stockholm. The resulting document will become part of the Arctic Council’s ongoing Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment work, he said. The ICC project’s approval helps meet the call from the permanent participants, like ICC and the Sami Council, for the inclusion of more indigenous knowledge in the Arctic Council’s work.

AC SDWG accepts ICC project "The Sea Ice is Our Highway"

Amanda Graham — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:47:05 GMT

(Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat via Twitter and FB, 28 March 2012) -- Permanent Participants attending the Arctic Council Senior Arctic Officials Meeting in Sweden. ICC Project "The Sea Ice is Our Highway: An Inuit Perspective on Transportation in the Arctic (to conduct survey of Inuit communities in Greenland, Alaska, Chukotka and Canada, workshop in 2012) has approved this morning under SDWG

Instant Arctic know-how

Amanda Graham — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:52:51 GMT

(Barents Observer, 21 March 2012) -- The Fram Center in Tromsø, Northern Norway, has launched a new blog – Fram Shorts, where scientists from some 20 different institutions will inform about research to an international audience. Through short videos Fram Center staff will present their work on research and surveillance of environment and climate in the Arctic. Fram Shorts is launched as a blog and on You Tube, Facebook and Twitter. www.framshorts.com The Fram Centre is the short name for FRAM – High North Research Centre for Climate and the Environment. The Fram Centre is based in Tromsø, and consists of about 500 scientists from 20 institutions involved in interdisciplinary research in the fields of natural science, technology and social sciences. Read also: Free access to research documents on the High North

DARPA seeks innovative technologies for assured Arctic awareness

Amanda Graham — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:04:28 GMT

(Defence Professionals, 19 March 2012) -- The Arctic region is poised for greater regional significance as polar ice retreats in coming decades. Ship traffic likely will increase during summer months, and commercial activity focused on the sea floor is expected to grow. The Arctic is largely isolated, vast and environmentally extreme. Remote sensing may offer affordable advantages over traditional methods of monitoring the region—aircraft, satellites or manned ships and submarines—due to the great distances in the Arctic. To enable future capability for regional situational awareness and maritime security, DARPA’s Assured Arctic Awareness (AAA) program plans to develop new technologies to monitor the Arctic both above and below the ice, providing year-round situational awareness without the need for forward-basing or human presence. AAA seeks advances in sensor systems and related technologies—such as station-keeping capabilities—that are rugged enough to withstand Arctic conditions, economical to operate and environmentally responsible with minimal impact. DARPA seeks proposals that specifically take the perceived negatives of the harsh polar environment and turn them into positives for a suite of unique Arctic capabilities. “We’re looking for creative ideas for compelling component technologies and a vision for applying them to monitor the region—whether proposers have expertise in the Arctic or not,” said Andy Coon, DARPA program manager.

Russia and Japan to clone a mammoth

Amanda Graham — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:02:24 GMT

(Evgeniya Chaykovskaya/ The Moscow News, 15 March 2012) -- The Russia Academy of Sciences plans to clone a mammoth. The extinct mammal will be cloned by Japanese Kinki University, where scientists have been working on cloning pre-historic animals for 15 years, Interfax reported. The scientists could use Indian elephants as a basis instead of African, because their DNA is the closest to mammoths. The cloning will not be done by notorious South Korean geneticist Hwang Woo-suk, as was previously reported. Hwang Woo-suk was disgraced in the mid-2000s after it was found that he fabricated results of numerous experiments that were later published. Hwang Woo-suk has signed a contract with the North-Eastern Federal University, but only for studying the mammoth, and is unlikely to work on the mammoth cloning, the Siberian branch of science academy announced. The academy of sciences denied that the biological materials for cloning have already been sent abroad, arguing that there were a lot of formalities to take care of first. It will be sent to Kinki University no sooner that autumn. The remains of baby mammoth Yuka were discovered by hunters in the summer of 2010 on the shore of the Laptev Sea in Yakutia, close to Yukagir village (that gave the name to the mammoth). At the moment, the perfectly-preserved remains of the 200-kilogramm animal are stored in a local institute. Two more remains were found next to Yuka – a bison and a horse. The world’s leading palaeontologists examined the remains between Feb. 27 and March 2, and determined the animals’ gender, approximate age, and how long ago they lived. The baby mammoth Yuka was a female, up to 160 cm tall, and was four to five years old. The ancient bison was a four-year-old male, and the horse a five-to-six year old female. The baby mammoth spent 9,000 to 10,000 years in the ground, while the bison and the horse – 3,000 to 4,000. Scientists established that Yuka and the horse were killed by cave lions.

Beijing sends icebreaker to Barents

Amanda Graham — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:53:30 GMT

(Thomas Nilsen/Barents Observer, 13 March 2012) -- China is eyeing the Arctic and increases its presence by announcing a research expedition all along the north coast of Siberia towards the Barents Sea. The icebreaker "Xue Long" sails for the mission in July and Beijing hopes the huge icebreaker will reach the Barents Sea before returning in September. “If the expedition goes according to the plan it will also be the first time for a Chinese icebreaker to reach the Barents Sea,” says Liu Cigui, director of China’s State Oceanic Administration to the news agency Xinhua, reports RIA Novosti. Scientists aboard will carry out oceanic, atmospheric, sea-ice and marine life research along the Northern Sea Route. The icebreaker has earlier sailed the Northwest Passage and done research in the Arctic waters outside the coast of Alaska and Canada. Chinese researchers have earlier criticized the Arctic coastal states for excluding other nations in the north. Last autumn, BarentsObserver quoted an article published in Beijing Review stating “It is unimaginable that non-Arctic states will remain users of Arctic shipping routes and consumers of Arctic energy without playing a role in the decision-making process.” In addition to sending the icebreaker "Xue Long" (Snow Dragon) along the north coast of Siberia towards the Barents Sea, Beijing will also send Arctic researchers to the Yellow River Station on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.

Arctic tree line not moving as fast as thought, despite climate change

Amanda Graham — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:38:15 GMT

(Carey Restino/The Arctic Sounder, 18 March 2012) -- A study released this month by Cambridge University indicates the advance of the treeline in the Arctic is moving slower than previously predicted. The study, which was released March 17 by Gareth Rees, a researcher with the university’s Scott Polar Research Institute, says the relationship between climate change and tree growth is more complicated than initially thought. “To generalize our results, the tree line is definitely moving north on average but we do not see any evidence for rates as big as 2 kilometers per year anywhere along the Arctic rim,” he said in a news release. “Where we have the most detailed information, our results suggest that a rate of around 100 meters per year is more realistic. In some places, the tree line is actually moving south. The predictions of a loss of 40 percent of the tundra by the end of the century is probably far too alarming.” According to the report, Earth’s surface temperature has risen an average of 1.3 degrees F, but the average is greater in the far north. Rees’ study coordinated experts from across various Arctic nations, primarily in northern Europe. But Canada, Alaska, Russia and Scandinavia also participated. “What we are saying is that when you take the step from a climate model to a vegetation model, we may be doing that in a way that exaggerates what is actually happening,” he said. “Furthermore, the response around the Arctic rim is by no means uniform.”

Even in winter, life persists in Arctic seas

Amanda Graham — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:40:40 GMT

(NSF press release 12-034, 22 february 2012) -- Despite brutal cold and lingering darkness, life in the frigid waters off Alaska does not grind to a halt in the winter as scientists previously suspected. According to preliminary results from a National Science Foundation-funded research cruise, microscopic creatures at the base of the Arctic food chain are not dormant as expected. After working aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy for six weeks in waters where winds sometimes topped 70 knots, wind chills fell to -40 degrees and samples often had to be hustled safely inside before seawater froze to the deck, researchers are back in their labs, assembling for the first time a somewhat unexpected picture of how microscopic creatures survive winter in the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Although they have much more work to do before publishing their results, they say they are surprised on a number of fronts, including the discovery of active zooplankton--microscopic organisms that drift or wander in ocean, seas or bodies of fresh water. "The zooplankton community seemed to be quite active, said Carin Ashjian of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the chief scientist on the expedition. "They were feeding at low rates. That was a surprise." Ashjian is scheduled to discuss the preliminary results from the cruise during a session at the American Geophysical Union's 2012 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah this week.

Volcanic origin for Little Ice Age

Amanda Graham — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:52:00 GMT

(Richard Black/BBC News, 30 January 2012) -- The Little Ice Age was caused by the cooling effect of massive volcanic eruptions, and sustained by changes in Arctic ice cover, scientists conclude. An international research team studied ancient plants from Iceland and Canada, and sediments carried by glaciers. They say a series of eruptions just before 1300 lowered Arctic temperatures enough for ice sheets to expand. Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, they say this would have kept the Earth cool for centuries. The exact definition of the Little Ice Age is disputed. While many studies suggest temperatures fell globally in the 1500s, others suggest the Arctic and sub-Arctic began cooling several centuries previously. The global dip in temperatures was less than 1C, but parts of Europe cooled more, particularly in winter, with the River Thames in London iced thickly enough to be traversable on foot. What caused it has been uncertain. The new study, led by Gifford Miller at the University of Colorado at Boulder, US, links back to a series of four explosive volcanic eruptions between about 1250 and 1300 in the tropics, which would have blasted huge clouds of sulphate particles into the upper atmosphere.

Archeologists: Eric the Red brewed ale in Greenland

Amanda Graham — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:26:53 GMT

(Iceland Review, 30 January 2012) -- Archeologists from the Danish National Museum have now proven that Eric the Red, who founded the Icelandic settlement in Greenland at the end of the tenth century AD, and his contemporaries were able to brew ale. There have long been speculations whether the climate in the southernmost part of Greenland was warm enough in the Viking era to growing cereals for brewing ale, the staple beverage of Vikings, make porridge and bake bread, visir.is reports. Now archeologists have found remains of burnt barley in a dunghill that dates back to the time of Eric the Red’s settlement in Greenland and is the first indication of cereal growing in the country’s southernmost part a millennium ago. The Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten states that the archeologists are very proud of their discovery and now intend to move 300 kilos of the dunghill to Denmark for further research. Click here to read an earlier report about barley being grown in Greenland.

Scientists 'in shock' after Canada's premiere icebreaker docked for repairs

Amanda Graham — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:12:36 GMT

(Margaret Munro/Postmedia News, 29 January 2012) -- The icebreaker at the heart of Canada's premier Arctic science program has been pulled from service, leaving researchers scrambling to find other ships to take them to the North. The bright red Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen has become a familiar sight cruising the Arctic. It is a floating home and laboratory for researchers and students studying everything from Inuit health to the transformation underway in the Arctic environment. The ship is also to be featured on Canada's new $50 bill. But it is now docked in Trois-Rivieres, Que., with four of its six engines "non-operational,'' and in need of repairs expected to cost several million dollars and take at least a year. "Numerous repair scenarios are now being considered, but in all cases, the ship will be non-operational until late 2012 or early 2013,'' Martin Fortier, executive director of ArcticNet, said in a memo recently sent to scientists who planned to use the ship this year. "This leaves us with no other option than to cancel the 2012 Amundsen expedition altogether, obviously a major blow to the 2012 ArcticNet ocean program and associated research projects,'' it says. ArcticNet, based at Laval University, co-ordinates and funds Arctic work undertaken by researchers across Canada. Keith Levesque, ArcticNet's co-ordinator for research on the Amundsen, says the engine problems "came out of the blue.'' A routine coast guard inspection in December uncovered cracks in four of the ship's six engine blocks, he said in an interview. Transport Canada inspectors took a look and in January, "deemed that the ship could not sail this summer, or even this winter, and that the engines need to be replaced as soon as possible.'' Nathalie Letendre, a media officer with the Coast Guard, says the Amundsen will not even been used to clear ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which it usually does in the winter months. It is not know how expensive or extensive the repairs job will be, she said, but the ship is expected to be out of action for the year. The cancellation of the 2012 Amundsen expedition comes just months after ArcticNet researchers won a $67.3-million infusion from the federal government to step up northern research. "We are still in shock,'' says John Hughes Clarke, at the University of New Brunswick, who leads an ArcticNet project mapping the seabed.

Eider duck population declining in Arctic as polar bears devour eggs

Amanda Graham — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:30:40 GMT

(Anita Li/Toronto Star, 25 January 2012) -- An Arctic duck is at risk because polar bears have developed a newfound appetite for their eggs, scientists say. The eider populations in Nunavut and Nunavik, Que., are declining partly because the bears have been eating more of their eggs, which are laid on the southern coasts of Baffin Island and Southampton Island. “The bears were essentially eating every single egg on the island(s),” said Samuel Iverson, a field researcher with Environment Canada. “We are seeing just major nest depredation.” Over the past three decades, climate change has caused sea ice to disappear, making it more difficult for polar bears to hunt for seals, their primary prey. To compensate, the bears have been raiding eider nests for food. “These bears might be energy-deficient and more willing to consume resources, which before, weren’t very important to them, but now are piquing the bears’ interest in a way that they haven’t in the past,” he said. “The number of colonies where we saw this happening was much higher than anybody has ever recorded before.” But eating a diet of eggs isn’t enough to sustain the polar bear population in the long-term, Iverson added.

Scientists fire salvo in Canada's bid to control Arctic seabed

Amanda Graham — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:49:12 GMT

(Randy Boswell/Postmedia News via Vancouver Sun, 20 January 2012) -- In the midst of a Cold War-esque spy scandal involving a Canadian naval officer accused of passing secrets to a foreign entity, Canadian scientists have quietly accomplished something likely to prove far more effective than espionage or military posturing in affirming — and extending — Canada's sovereignty in the North: They've published two academic studies about Arctic Ocean geology that lend solid support to the country's ambitious claims for new undersea territory in the region. Canada's formal bid to take possession of vast stretches of Arctic Ocean seabed isn't due until the end of 2013, the deadline for this country's submission to the United Nations agency responsible for approving new offshore territorial claims governed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. And under rules agreed to by all five Arctic coastal countries — Canada, Russia, the U.S., Norway and Denmark — scientific evidence compiled from decades of mapping and analyzing the Arctic sea floor will ultimately determine who controls the rich oil-and-gas deposits and other resources believed to lie below the rapidly retreating polar ice. The recent, peer-reviewed publication of new data bolstering Canada's claims, says the federal government's chief of Arctic mapping, marks another major milestone in a decade-long quest that could eventually add an area of underwater territory to Canada as big as the Prairies. "These are the kinds of papers that analyze the new data," says Halifax-based Natural Resources Canada geoscientist Jacob Verhoef, "and set the stage for what we think are going to be the key components of the submission." The scientific studies wouldn't weave well into the plot of a spy thriller. One of them appeared in last month's Journal of Geophysical Research and is titled: "The Crustal Structure of the Alpha Ridge at the transition to the Canadian Polar Margin: Results from a seismic refraction experiment." The other, appearing as a book chapter in the newly published proceedings of an international geological symposium, is titled: "Submarine Landslides in Arctic Sedimentation." But together with a paper published in 2009 on the bedrock connections between the North American continent and Lomonosov Ridge — an undersea mountain range reaching from Ellesmere Island and northwest Greenland to Siberia — the new studies will help underpin Canada's claims for ownership of huge areas of ocean floor beyond the country's continental shelves.

Special YC course: Learning through Service: Arctic Winter Games 2012

Amanda Graham — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:59:06 GMT

(Yukon College, 19 December 2011) -- Yukon College is piloting a service-learning course this winter that will take advantage of the volunteer opportunity offered by Whitehorse's hosting the 2012 Arctic Winter Games. Essentially, volunteer, come to class, and through academic consideration of the experience and its context, earn university-level Northern Studies elective credits. NOTE: The course outline shown on the linked page is for a different offering of this course. The current outline may be retrieved from the enclosure URL below this post.

Course description: This course is a multidisciplinary service-learning course grounded in Northern Studies. It links the 2012 Arctic Winter Games and academic study through volunteer service to the Games. The course involves four main elements: establishing an academic framework for the service experience that includes preparing a background paper, developing a student-centred approach to thinking about the experience and drawing meaning from it, volunteering in some capacity at the Games, and presenting a thoughtful evaluation and summary of both learning and volunteering experiences.

U.S.-Canada Arctic Ocean survey partnership saved costs, increased data

Amanda Graham — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 04:14:19 GMT

(NOAA News, 15 December 2011) -- A recent mission marked the completion of a five-year collaboration between the United States and Canada to survey the Arctic Ocean. The bilateral project collected scientific data to delineate the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the coastline, also known as the extended continental shelf (ECS). The U.S. has an inherent interest in knowing, and declaring to others, the exact extent of its sovereign rights in the ocean as set forth in the Convention on the Law of the Sea. For the ECS, this includes sovereign rights over natural resources on and under the seabed including energy resources such as: oil and natural gas and gas hydrates; “sedentary” creatures such as clams, crabs, and corals; and mineral resources such as manganese nodules, ferromanganese crusts, and polymetallic sulfides. The 2011 joint Arctic mission spanned nearly six weeks in August and September and was the fourth year to employ flagship icebreakers from both countries, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent. “This two-ship approach was both productive and necessary in the Arctic’s difficult and varying ice conditions,” said Larry Mayer, Ph.D., U.S. chief scientist on the Arctic mission and co-director of the NOAA-University of New Hampshire Joint Hydrographic Center. “With one ship breaking ice for the other, the partnership increased the data either nation could have obtained operating alone, saved millions of dollars by ensuring data were collected only once, provided data useful to both nations for defining the extended continental shelf, and increased scientific and diplomatic cooperation”.

Arctic growing warmer and greener: Annual report card

Amanda Graham — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:57:41 GMT

(ENS, 1 December 2011) -- WASHINGTON, DC - The Arctic is entering a new state with warmer air and water temperatures, less summer sea ice and snow cover, and changed ocean chemistry, finds the annual Arctic Report Card. Less habitat for polar bears and walruses but increased access to feeding areas for whales characterizes the new Arctic pattern. The 2012 Arctic Report Card was prepared by an international team of scientists from 14 different countries and issued today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. "This report, by a team of 121 scientists from around the globe, concludes that the Arctic region continues to warm, with less sea ice and greater green vegetation," said Monica Medina, NOAA principal deputy under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. "With a greener and warmer Arctic, more development is likely," Medina said. "Reports like this one help us to prepare for increasing demands on Arctic resources so that better decisions can be made about how to manage and protect these more valuable and increasingly available resources." The Report Card tracks the Arctic atmosphere, sea ice, biology, ocean, land, and Greenland. This year, new sections were added, including greenhouse gases, ozone and ultraviolet radiation, ocean acidification, Arctic Ocean primary productivity, and lake ice.

A mysterious fork leads to the story of the infamous Greely Expedition

Amanda Graham — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:43:45 GMT

(Cassie Mancer/O Say Can You See? – National Museum of American History, 4 November 2011) -- This story starts with a fork. As a contractor with the Military History Collections Inventory Project, my job is to count things. ... The inventory process requires that we check an object’s unique catalog number, track its location, take measurements and photographs, and then write a short description of the object. The fork itself has little to distinguish it from the other standard-issue Army silverware in our collection. The tag reads: “Fork owned by Lieut. Kislingbury, used at Cape Sabine by Brainard.” ... I wanted to confirm that I was reading the handwriting correctly before I updated our description, so I began with an Internet search. That is how I learned the story of the 25 men of the Greely Expedition, also known as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. ... Second Lieutenant Frederick Kislingbury, the owner of the fork, was second-in-command of the expedition party, and Sergeant David L. Brainard was chief of the enlisted men. Brainard and two companions would go on to accomplish the secondary goal of reaching a new "Farthest North." The expedition established a research station named Fort Conger at Lady Franklin Bay and began collecting hourly meteorological measurements such as temperature, wind speed, and barometric pressure. ... The fork has made a lasting impression on our team, and it’s especially poignant that the fork is from an expedition where so many died of starvation. The legacy of the tragic Greely Expedition remains relevant today, as the scientific measurements the members took while enduring unrelenting hardships are now being used by scientists to study climate change. ... In addition to the fork, the Division also has records and personal papers, photographs, flag fragments from Lady Franklin Bay, and scientific specimens from the expedition. Many of these objects were donated to the museum by David Brainard, others by John P. Kislingbury, Lieutenant Kislingbury’s brother; additional objects related to the expedition were loaned to the museum by Greely’s children.

Russia's Medvedev vows to boost Arctic exploration

Amanda Graham — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:22:50 GMT

(Vladimir Isachenkov/AP via Yahoo! News, 11 November 2011) -- President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that Russia must invest more in the Arctic amid tough competition from other nations for the region's mineral riches. Medvedev said in televised remarks to workers in the fareastern city of Khabarovsk that Russia will take the necessary security steps and other moves to protect its interests in the polar region. "We simply must continue our research of the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic in general, because if we fail to do that other countries will take control," Medvedev said. "It's our shores, and it's our sea." "We will defend our interests in the region, naturally including security issues," he added. Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway have all been trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic, believed to hold up to a quarter of the Earth's undiscovered oil and gas. With shrinking polar ice opening up new opportunities for exploration, Russia, Canada and Denmark have said they would file claims with the United Nations that an undersea 1,240-mile (2,000-kilometer) mountain range that crosses the polar region called the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of their respective territories.

New dinosaur species discovered in Alaska, named in honor of Ross Perot

Amanda Graham — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 06:29:09 GMT

(Yereth Rosen/Alaska Dispatch, 8 November 2011) -- When paleontologist Tony Fiorillo made one of the most stunning dinosaur discoveries in Alaska, a NOVA television crew was there to capture the moment. But it now turns out that the skull he unearthed in front of the cameras in 2006, a highlight of the 2008 NOVA documentary “Arctic Dinosaurs,” was more significant than previously thought. The skull and associated bones from a steep bank of the Colville River in Alaska's Arctic are from a species of horned dinosaur that has not been documented anywhere else. Years of research by Fiorillo, curator of the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, and painstaking reconstruction by Ronald Tykoski, the museum’s chief fossil preparator, confirmed that this was a type of pachyrhinosaurus -- a relative of triceratops -- that had not been found anywhere else. “Obviously, it’s a tremendous thrill to have that level of photo-documentation at the moment of discovery. And this enhances it. This is the wildest dream possible,” he said. They have named the dinosaur species Pachyrhinosaurs perotorum, in honor of former presidential candidate Ross Perot and his family, major benefactors of the Dallas museum. Fiorillo and Tykoski detailed their findings in a scientific journal, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, and over the weekend in Las Vegas at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting.

Canada mulls climate monitoring cuts despite Arctic ozone hole

Amanda Graham — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 07:57:31 GMT

(Margo McDiarmid/Eye on the Arctic via Alaska Dispatch, 6 November 2011) -- Three leading Canadian atmospheric scientists are urging MPs and senators to think very carefully before they agree to cuts to ozone monitoring in Canada. Prof. Thomas Duck, an expert in polar atmospheric research at Dalhousie University in Halifax, was one of the scientists who met over breakfast with 30 MPs and senators Tuesday in Ottawa to talk about Canada's role in monitoring the ozone layer and to explain the surprise discovery of a huge hole over the Arctic. "Our visit comes at a time when the government is considering cuts to Environment Canada that will impact programs that protect the health and safety of Canadians," Duck told journalists after the breakfast. ... This latest discovery comes at a time when more than 760 people at Environment Canada are waiting to hear about their jobs. The employees were sent letters in the summer warning their positions could be eliminated as part of overall government cuts. They include scientists who run the ozone monitoring. Duck said the message to the MPs and senators Tuesday was to not rush into cuts.

Rare coin gives currency to Chinese-First Nations link

Amanda Graham — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:19:42 GMT

(Randy Boswell/Postmedia News in The Vancouver Sun, 31 October 2011) -- A 340-year-old coin from China has been unearthed by archeologists near a planned gold mine in the Yukon, shedding fresh light on historic trade links between 17th-century Chinese merchants, Russian fur traders and First Nations in the northwest corner of North America. The coin is etched with traditional Chinese characters indicating it was minted during the Qing Dynasty reign of Emperor Kangxi, who ruled China from 1662 to 1722. But other information stamped on the money piece — which has a large central hole and four smaller ones — shows it was minted in China's Zhili province between 1667 and 1671. The coin was discovered during a dig near Western Copper and Gold Corp.'s proposed Casino mine site about 300 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse. A heritage impact assessment for the Vancouver mining company was being conducted by Ecofor Consulting Ltd., based in B.C. and the Yukon, when the find was made. Ecofor team leader James Mooney spotted the metal object as a co-worker dug into the ground on a height of land south of the Yukon River. "I was less than a metre from our archeologist Kirby Booker when she turned over the first shovel of topsoil and I caught sight of something dangling from the turf," Mooney said in a statement. "It was the coin — the neatest discovery I've ever been part of." Subsequent research revealed that it was just the third historic Chinese coin ever found in the Yukon, though many more have been recovered at archeological sites in coastal Alaska. "The coin adds to the body of evidence that the Chinese market connected with Yukon First Nations through Russian and coastal Tlingit trade intermediaries during the late 17th and 18th centuries, and perhaps as early as the 15th century," the statement said. Russian traders seeking furs from North American wildlife — including the sea otter, seal and beaver — are known to have exchanged tobacco, tea, kettles and other goods (some obtained from Chinese traders) with the Tlingit peoples of coastal Alaska.

Umka: A domed city in the Russian Arctic

Amanda Graham — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:33:16 GMT

(Malte Humpert/Arctic Institute, Center for Circumpolar Security Studies, 28 October 2011) -- Plans for the construction of an enclosed ultra-modern city on the New Siberian Island group are taking shape. The Arctic city of Umka, to be located a mere 1,000 miles from the North Pole, will house up to 5,000 residents, primarily soldiers, border guards, scientists, and oil and gas industry workers. The costs of the project are estimated at between $6.4 - $8 billion. According to the architects Umka will be a "fully functioning city and research facility, complete with its own self-sufficient food production, a near-zero waste handling system." The settlement will be modeled after a fictional Moon city or an isolated space station and will allow researchers to live in the region for longer periods of time rather than for short expeditions. The residents will be completely isolated from the harsh environment and live under a vast climate-controlled dome 1.2 kilometers long and 800 meter wide. The now-released designs bear resemblance to the Biosphere 2 project constructed in Oracle, Arizona between 1987 and 1991. This artificial, materially closed ecosystem was used to study the possible use of closed biospheres in, e.g., space colonization.

For Inuits dealing with climate change, science can be slow and bumbling

Amanda Graham — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:05:13 GMT

(Carol Berry/Indian Country, 25 October 2011) -- An Inuk woman practicing a traditional craft finds the sealskin she’s working with doesn’t have the nice fur of times past and it has rotten patches that tear easily. Her husband finds that hunting seals is more difficult than in the past because the formerly stable edge of an ice-floe has broken off and fewer seals are there. He carries a gun as protection against increasing numbers of polar bears. They are among Native people in the circumpolar North who experience climate change in their everyday lives and for whom conventional science, despite its ability to describe the change, sometimes has been unhelpful. One Inuk hunter accuses wildlife biologists of “meddling [that] is causing problems” by putting radio collars on bears so they “can’t hunt properly” or using helicopters that destroy animals’ hearing. Carcasses of over-drugged bears have been found, he says, and wildlife policies “make our lives difficult” even though “we know our wildlife intimately.” His and others’ experiences are told in Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, the last film in the Eighth Annual Indigenous Film & Arts Festival, presented Oct. 12-16 by the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management (IIIRM), Denver. The festival’s theme was “Adaptation: Finding Balance in a Changing World.” Mervyn Tano, IIIRM president, said both ground-level science and science policy are needed to “cut through some of the conventional wisdom” to discern, for example, what the role should be of wildlife biologists crafting wildlife regulations. Government inflexibility in wildlife rules is difficult to change, one scientist found after doing research in the remote northwest interior of Alaska. Shannon McNeeley, with the Integrated Science Program, National Center for Atmospheric Research, conducted a post-film panel with Tano and talked about changes in moose behavior patterns with climate change. ... That change is indeed occurring is documented by the film’s co-director, Zacharias Kunuk, who interviewed elders on Baffin Island, located in the eastern part of Nunavut in the Canadian polar North. Environmental change “is dangerous to people worldwide—it affects both Inuit and Southerners,” said Mary Simon, Inuk, Canada’s first Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs. “These big money-makers in the world are all contributors to climate change.”

Arctic sea ice continues decline, hits second-lowest level

Amanda Graham — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:24:11 GMT

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center press release via Science Daily, 6 October 2011) -- Last month the extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean declined to the second-lowest extent on record. Satellite data from NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado in Boulder showed that the summertime sea ice cover narrowly avoided a new record low. The Arctic ice cap grows each winter as the sun sets for several months and shrinks each summer as the sun rises higher in the northern sky. Each year the Arctic sea ice reaches its annual minimum extent in September. It hit a record low in 2007. The near-record ice-melt followed higher-than-average summer temperatures, but without the unusual weather conditions that contributed to the extreme melt of 2007. "Atmospheric and oceanic conditions were not as conducive to ice loss this year, but the melt still neared 2007 levels," said NSIDC scientist Walt Meier. "This probably reflects loss of multiyear ice in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas as well as other factors that are making the ice more vulnerable." ... While the sea ice extent did not dip below the 2007 record, the sea ice area as measured by the microwave radiometer on NASA's Aqua satellite did drop slightly lower than 2007 levels for about 10 days in early September, Comiso said. Sea ice "area" differs from extent in that it equals the actual surface area covered by ice, while extent includes any area where ice covers at least 15 percent of the ocean.

Did the orientation of the continents hinder ancient settlement of the Americas?

Amanda Graham — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:21:26 GMT

(Wiley-Blackwell press release via EurekAlert! 21 September 2011) -- In an intriguing original look at the history of the first Americans, a new study finds evidence that the north-south orientation of the American continents slowed the spread of populations and technology, compared to the east-west axis of Eurasia. The research, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, is part of a special section which explores who the first Americans were and how they were able to settle in the last great unexplored habitat. The research, by Sohini Ramachandran and Noah Rosenberg, from Brown University and Stanford University respectively, uses genetic information to explore the effects of continental axes and climates on human migration and adaptation across the Americas. "It has been proposed that the east-west orientation of the Eurasian landmass aided the rapid spread of ancient technological innovations, while the north-south orientation of the Americas led to a slower diffusion of technology there," said Ramachandran. "Our research develops this idea, arguing that continental orientation influenced migration patterns and played an important role in determining the structure of human genetic variation and the distribution and spread of cultural traits." The research supports the idea that technological diffusion was accelerated across Eurasia because populations with the same latitude experience similar climates, making adaptation to new locations easier for domesticated animals, plants and consequently humans. Alternatively, migrating along lines of longitude involves adapting to new climates.

Arctic sea ice coverage second lowest on record: report

Amanda Graham — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:51:53 GMT

(Yereth Rosen/Reuters, 14 September 2011) -- ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sea-ice coverage across the Arctic Ocean has dwindled to its second-lowest level since satellite records started in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Areas of the Arctic with at least 15 percent sea-ice as of Saturday totaled 1.68 million square miles, slightly above the record-low of 1.61 million square miles recorded in 2007, the center said. Yet to be determined is whether the reported sea-ice cover will be the lowest for the year. Annual minimums are usually reached around mid-September. "We're getting close, but there's still the potential for further loss of ice," said Walt Meier, a research scientist at the Boulder, Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center. Ice coverage could diminish either through more melt or from winds or both, Meier said. However, some areas, including those near the North Pole, were showing signs of ice growth, he said. "Probably there's a little bit of both going on - there's melting and refreezing," he said. At least one other institution has reported that this year's Arctic ice coverage was the lowest on record. A report issued last week by the University of Bremen in Germany said sea-ice coverage on September 8 fell below the 2007 minimum. The University of Bremen researchers use finer-resolution measurements that can better distinguish smaller areas of ice and open water, Meier said. But that university's methodology also has some drawbacks, he said.

$4M study to look at North's thawing permafrost

Amanda Graham — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:32:56 GMT

(CBC News, 12 September 2011) -- A major four-year research project looking at global warming's impact on permafrost and how it will affect Arctic development is getting underway. Laval University in Quebec City is leading the $4-million study with a grant from the federal government. The ADAPT project will look at melting permafrost and snow conditions and their impact on the landscape, water and wildlife in the North. Fifteen researchers, ranging from engineers to hydrologists, will also study how these changes are affecting communities and natural resource development and exploitation. The 10-university team of scientists will use the information to come up with an adaptation strategy. The research sites are located throughout the three territories, Nunavik in northern Quebec and Nunatsiavut in Labrador. The researchers will collaborate with teams from other countries around the world. Long-time Arctic researcher Warwick Vincent, a Laval University biologist and director of the multi-university Centre for Northern Studies, is leading the project.