Polar Research
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Biologists bag bird barf to study Arctic pollution
(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News via Ottawa Citizen, 6 September 2010) -- Seabird researchers looking for non-invasive ways to collect samples from birds have developed a novel technique for fulmars. To collect samples of their stomach oil, researchers have found that they can hold on to a fulmar and slip a plastic bag over the beak. When the bird projects the oil, the goo flies into a bag, to be transferred later to glass vials and frozen. After the sampling, the fulmar simply returns to the nest. The method doesn’t harm the birds, yet produces samples of the fulmar stomach oil needed to study contaminants.
The oil — made of shrimp and other tiny sea creatures which these High Arctic birds produce to feed their chicks — can be yellow or orange and “it’s a really fishy smelling oil,” said Karen Foster, a graduate student at the University of Ottawa. The fulmars also spit this goo out at intruders. “Anytime you approach these birds, they spew it out at you,” Foster said. If the intruders are other birds, the goo can coat their feathers, prevent them from flying or swimming and even cause them to drown or freeze.
Researchers then analyze the oil, which has been found to contain toxic industrial and agricultural contaminants, such as mercury, PCBs and DDT. Fulmar stomach oil contains many contaminants because as they eat, they convert and concentrate a portion of their fish and shrimp diet into oils. They store the fats in a special stomach, and then cough up the goo into the beaks of their hungry chicks or spit it at predators.
After Foster measured high levels of PCBs and DDT in the stomach oils of two fulmars from Cape Vera on Nunavut’s Devon Island, she wondered whether these elevated concentrations were typical for fulmars in general. So she approached a researcher in Alaska who extracted the stomach oils of fulmars there for study. The oils from 10 fulmars nesting on St. George Island, Alaska also showed similarly elevated levels of PCBs and DDT. The levels were 10 times greater in the fulmar oils than in whole fish and nearly 20 times greater than in whole shrimp, which means fulmar chicks receive a lot of contaminants in their diet. Over time, researchers hope to see if any problems develop with fulmars or if the levels of the contaminants change.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 9 September 2010; 7:51:53 PM – Permalink
Northern decomposition study may expand
(CBC News, 6 September 2010) -- A Yukon-based forensic study on how carcasses decompose in Canada's North has the potential to expand into further research. Yukon RCMP teamed up this summer with entomologists from the Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Ont., to observe how insects help animal carcasses decompose. The entomologists travelled to Whitehorse and recorded insect activity on several animal carcasses that were left to decompose in a secluded area of the local dump.
The research project was conceived by Cpl. Jim Giczi, a Yukon RCMP forensic identification specialist, who said little is known about how bodies decompose in the North. "When it comes to either a sudden death or a homicide investigation, it's another way for us to either corroborate evidence or to gather evidence — to help us, you know, locate bodies or where a body may have been," Giczi told CBC News.
Giczi said the RCMP eventually wants to produce a complete record of how some carcasses interact with the northern environment, from their death to their eventual absorption into the earth. That information could better determine a person's time of death and provide other crucial details in homicide investigations, he said. Research could continue underground Two pig carcasses that were studied as part of this summer's research project have since been buried at the dump.
Giczi said he hopes to scan the area later with ground-penetrating radar to see what the carcasses look like underground. That kind of information could help in searches for shallow graves, he said. "Studies like this have been done before, in particular in Ottawa. But of course, our bedrock is much closer to the surface than there, so there will be more artifacts present," Giczi said. A separate study could look at how plant life is affected in the area where carcasses are buried, he added. "With the carcasses underground, they do provide nutrients which also assist in locating shallow graves because you get … more plants in an area where a body has been buried," he said.
The RCMP says it plans to move forward with a larger partnership that will include the Ontario Institute of Technology, Yukon College, Simon Fraser University in B.C., the Canadian Police Research Centre and the Northern Research Institute.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 6 September 2010; 6:40:18 PM – Permalink
Calls for Arctic university revived by PM's tour
(CBC News, 1 September 2010) -- The Canadian government's recent effort to assert its sovereignty in the Arctic has reignited calls for a university to be created in the North. Canada is the only circumpolar nation that does not have its own Arctic-based university, said Frances Abele, a professor of public policy and administration at Carleton University in Ottawa. Currently, there is no university in Canada's North. Colleges in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon have teamed up with universities elsewhere to offer select degree programs, but in many cases, northern students must travel far from home to pursue their post-secondary education.
"In order for us to have a globally credible claim, we need healthy communities, we need a well-educated northern population and we need a certain degree of social and economic stability in the North," Abele told CBC News. "All of those things would be advanced by the existence of a northern university." Abele said federal money would be required to create a northern university. As well, she said there will have to be a debate over whether a northern university should have one campus or many campuses across the region. "There's no easy answer to it," she said. "Maybe there should be a campus or a university in each territory. "Obviously, with the population size of the North, we'd have to look at the cost of that and how you could do it in a way that was economically feasible."
The idea of establishing a northern university is not new, but the topic has been renewed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's tour of the North last month — the fifth such tour in as many years.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 2 September 2010; 4:55:31 PM – Permalink
Government of Canada supports research on Inuit leadership and governance
(Industry Canada press release, 30 August 2010) -- Iqaluit, Nunavut - Today, the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology), announced the Government of Canada’s support for a comprehensive six-year research and training project on Inuit leadership and governance. This project will for the first time create a recorded history of Canada’s Inuit leadership and develop training for future Inuit leaders. ...
This project, led by Université Laval’s Interuniversity Centre for Aboriginal Studies and Research and in partnership with researchers from universities and colleges across Canada, will receive $1 million over six years through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Community–University Research Alliances program. This funding brings communities and universities together in partnerships to build knowledge in areas affecting Canadians.
Led by Frédéric Laugrand from Université Laval, this new project will take a closer look at Inuit leadership and governance, adopting a multidisciplinary approach that combines anthropology, political science, law, education and linguistics. The project will not only build a context for training but also bring together academics, partners, Inuit and graduate students from Canadian universities with the goal of developing a common and comparative reflection on Inuit leadership and governance issues.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 30 August 2010; 3:14:03 PM – Permalink
Arctic hamlet hopes to bridge gap between North and South
(Patrick White/Globe and Mail, 29 August 2010) -- As Arctic settlements go, Cambridge Bay is a modern, sprawling town featuring many of the amenities southerners crave: gym, library, curling rink – even a golf course. Last week, Ottawa acknowledged that sophistication, awarding Cambridge Bay the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, a cutting-edge residence and lab scheduled to be built within seven years. But despite the cushy new facilities, the 55 researchers set to move in should steel themselves for a strange cultural acclimation. Syd Glawson, mayor of the 1,400-person hamlet along the Northwest Passage, recalls southerners arriving in his town completely ill-prepared for the 24-hour daylight, the absence of water and sewer service, the high-priced veggies, the ongoing struggles with booze, the local obsession with karaoke and, yes, the cold. “Will there be culture shock? You’re darn right there will be,” Mr. Glawson chuckles. ...
Local politicians lobbied heavily for the station, envisioning a generator for jobs, visitors and learning opportunities for local kids. But northern researchers already have a reputation for isolating themselves from the community, according to residents, often exacerbating a latent cultural divide between white professionals and local Inuit. ...
While the research station is not expected to open until 2017, the social upheaval that will come with arrival of dozens of construction workers followed by international scientists is a matter of anticipation and trepidation in the place northerners simply call Cam Bay. ... There's also a worry that the southerners will sequester themselves away from residents, as they have done often in the past. The most glaring example of this exists among the 18-member crew of the local Distant Early Warning line station. They live between the station and the airport, rarely setting foot in the town’s shops.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 29 August 2010; 11:32:27 PM – PermalinkTagged: Arctic, News, Research infrastructure
Polar Law Textbook — Nordic cooperation
(RT @Northern_Clips via Circumpolar Blog, 29 August 2010) Polar Law Textbook — Nordic cooperation http://ow.ly/2wvEb free 245 page PDF #Arctic ISBN 978-92-893-2056-6
A Polar Law Textbook has been published by the Nordic Council of Ministers, which endorsed the Polar Law Textbook project under the Arctic Cooperation Program. Chapters in the textbook generally follow materials from the polar law program offered at the University of Akureyri.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 29 August 2010; 11:26:37 PM – PermalinkTagged: Antarctic, Arctic, News, Publication
3,000-year-old tools unearthed in Labrador
(CBC News, 27 August 2010) -- Workers at a housing project in Sheshatshiu, central Labrador, have uncovered 3,000-year-old artifacts, including tools and weapons. What started as a housing development has evolved into an archaeological dig. "It's a very important time period. It's the time period that's the least studied in Newfoundland and Labrador archeology, so its going to hopefully fill in a lot of gaps and help to answer a lot of questions," said archeologist Scott Neilson, one of the project's leaders. Some of the people working on the project grew up around the area where artifacts are now being found. They said it's rewarding work. "I love it. I really do. There is always a chance of something pretty amazing to be found, so it keeps you interested," said Judy Ashini. She's studying archeology at Memorial University of Newfoundland and grew up near the dig. Ashini showed some of the items that have been found to Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean when she was visiting Labrador in mid-August. The artifacts will be sent to St. John's for dating and returned to Labrador to be displayed there.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 28 August 2010; 11:25:52 PM – Permalink
Cambridge Bay celebrates Arctic research centre
(CBC News, 25 August 2010) -- Residents of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, are surprised and excited to learn that a world-class Arctic research station will be built in their community. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday that Cambridge Bay, a hamlet of about 1,500 in western Nunavut along the Northwest Passage, will be the site of the world-class research facility. "It felt to me like Cambridge Bay just won the Stanley Cup. The cheer that went up was really something to behold," Mayor Syd Glawson told CBC News following Tuesday's announcement. "We worked hard and long for this, and it finally came true." Glawson said he knew something was in the works, given Harper was slated to make some kind of announcement there on Tuesday, but nobody in the hamlet was certain until the announcement made it official. Poor weather prevented Harper from flying out of Churchill, Man., for the scheduled event in Cambridge Bay on Tuesday. The prime minister made the announcement in Churchill instead. Cambridge Bay was chosen over two other Nunavut communities, Pond Inlet and Resolute Bay. All three shortlisted contenders spent the last 18 months vying for the opportunity to host the Arctic research station.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 27 August 2010; 11:02:10 PM – PermalinkTagged: News, Research infrastructure
Possible dinosaur sensation at Svalbard
(Barents Observer, 18 August 2010) -- A team of researchers headed by the well-known scientist Jørn Hurum might have done a historic dinosaur finding at Svalbard. According to the researchers, there are indications that they have found an abnormal fish eagle.
“This fish eagle does not look normal. The skeleton is the most weird and exciting I have ever found of the type,” Hurum told Dagbladet. “This might become the big scientific sensation from here,” he adds. Parts of the Svalbard archipelago has major amounts of dinosaur skeletons.
In June 2007, Hurum and his team made another significant finding at Svalbard. Then they found the biggest and most dangerous sea eagle ever, the pliosaur — "Predator X". This year's mission of the dinosaur experts is completed this week and all findings shipped to the mainland, Forskning.no reports.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 27 August 2010; 10:55:17 PM – Permalink
Arctic research station site chosen
(CBC News, 24 August 2010) -- A small hamlet on the Northwest Passage has been chosen as the home to Canada's High Arctic Research Station, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Tuesday. The western Nunavut community of Cambridge Bay has been chosen over Resolute Bay and Pond Inlet to the east. All three sites were shortlisted in 2009 as possible locations.
"By building this leading-edge research station, we are advancing Canada's knowledge of the Arctic's resources and climate while at the same time ensuring that northern communities are prosperous, vibrant and secure," Harper stated in a release. Harper was supposed to deliver the news Tuesday morning in the hamlet of 1,500, but heavy winds cancelled his flight out of Churchill, Man. Instead, the prime minister made the announcement in Churchill. ...
The High Arctic Research Station was announced in the 2007 throne speech, and $2 million was allocated for the feasibility study on the proposed station in the 2009 budget.
Cambridge Bay is on the southeastern coast of Victoria Island. Pond Inlet is located near the northern tip of Baffin Island in eastern Nunavut, while Resolute Bay is in central Nunavut, on the southern coast of Cornwallis Island.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 24 August 2010; 10:28:21 AM – PermalinkTagged: Arctic, News, Research infrastructure
Ice-trapped pollutants poison polar bears' diets
(Deutsche Welle, 20 August 2010) -- The iconic symbol of the Arctic — the polar bear — is under threat from the twin challenges of climate change and lingering chemical pollutants, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), which are not breaking down in the region's cold waters. A comprehensive review of research on polar wildlife published recently in the journal Science of The Total Environment has concluded that the retreat of sea ice cover in the Arctic as a result of climate change could increase the exposure of species such as polar bears to a range of man-made chemical compounds, including flame retardants and substances used to harden plastics.
Scientists believe that lingering pollutants, locked up in the polar ice for decades, could be released into the ocean as the ice cover retreats. According to estimates, annual sea-ice cover in the Arctic in the northern summer is now between a quarter and a third less than it was 30 years ago. The world's polar bear population is currently estimated to total between 20,000 and 25,000 specimens, despite the Arctic region's vast size. Polar bears are particularly at risk, according to Bjorn Munro Jenssen, a Norwegian eco-toxicologist and polar bear expert who contributed to the review, because they are at the very top of the Arctic food chain.
"These contaminants are bio-accumulated and bio-magnified up the food chain," said Jenssen. "So the higher you are in the food chain, the higher are the contaminants."The fact that a polar bear's favorite meal is seal does not help matters in any way.
"These contaminants accumulate in fat, and the polar bear only eats the fat of the seals," explained Jenssen. "So they are exposed to huge amounts of fat when they eat one seal — and they eat maybe a few hundred or a thousand seals per year — and then it accumulates." Jenssen emphasizes that the contaminants involved are toxic, even in low concentrations. They can affect a polar bear's hormone system and immune system, which is likely to have an influence on the animals' overall reproduction and survival rates.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 22 August 2010; 12:56:17 PM – PermalinkTagged: News, Polar research: Reports and findings
Shared history — Russian archaeologists tour historic sites on peninsula
(Joseph Robertia/The Redoubt Reporter,18 August 2010) -- In summer, many people come to the Kenai Peninsula to live in the now — taking part in fishing, wildlife watching, hiking and all the other outdoor fun the area has to offer. But last week, two Russian visitors came with an eye toward the past, touring the area to learn about what their countrymen did here more than 200 years ago.
The scene then looked much different than now. In Old Town Kenai, next to Veronica’s Coffee Shop, the view is of a lush grass field, law offices and colorful apartment complexes. The scene is tranquil today, with coffee shop customers sipping cups of coffee or tea. Not so in 1797, when a bloody battle between Russians and the Dena’ina, the Athabascan Native inhabitants of the Kenai Peninsula, was fought and the future of this area was forever changed.
Despite that the 60 or so Russians in the fort had the advantage of cannons, mortars and firearms, the Dena’ina — armed with war clubs made of stick and stone — proved to be formidable opponents. Nearly half the Russians in the fort were killed, and the next spring their company pulled out. From then on there were rarely more than a handful of Russians occupying Kenai at any given time.
“Had things gone differently, we might all be speaking Russian right now,” said Kenai Peninsula College anthropology professor Alan Boraas, while telling the battle tale to the two visitors, who were hearing with keen interest the story for the first time.
“In recent years there has been a lot of interest in learning about the American side of our history,” said Vladimur Tuckonov, speaking through his translator, Stan Mishin, of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe.
Tuckonov was one of two archaeologists from Russia who came to learn about the role past kinsmen living in this area played in Russian and Alaska history. For last week’s tour, led by Boraas, Kharinsky and Tuckonov were joined by members of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe and a handful of other state and local history professionals.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 22 August 2010; 11:59:48 AM – Permalink
Borehole network confirms, permafrost is thawing worldwide
(Victoria Barber/Arctic Sounder, 13 August 2010) -- An expanded network of boreholes across the northern hemisphere has confirmed that permafrost throughout polar and sub-polar regions is thawing, say scientists who studied the topic during International Polar Year. "You look at a whole hemisphere and see the patterns everywhere," said Vladimir Romanovsky, a professor with the snow, ice and permafrost group at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, and lead author of a paper documenting the research.
Romanovsky and his colleagues launched a campaign to improve the global network of boreholes for International Polar Year, a science program focused on the Arctic and Antarctic that ran from 2007 to 2009. Boreholes are holes drilled anywhere from 6 feet to over 200 feet into the ground and equipped with sensors to allow scientists to measure soil conditions. The researchers established nearly 300 boreholes, nearly doubling the existing network. "The heart of monitoring is the measuring of the temperatures in boreholes," Romanovsky said.
Using information collected from 575 boreholes located throughout North America, Russia and the Nordic region, researchers found that permafrost temperatures during the International Polar Year were as much as 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Also, they found that the rate permafrost changes decreases the closer it gets to 0 degrees Celsius - basically, cold permafrost thaws more quickly than warmer permafrost. Romanovsky, Sharon L. Smith and Hanne H. Christianson published their findings in the April/June 2010 edition of the science publication Permafrost and Periglacial Processes.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 21 August 2010; 8:20:19 PM – PermalinkTagged: Arctic, News, Polar research: Reports and findings
Linguist on mission to save Inuit 'fossil language' disappearing with the ice
(Mark Brown/The Guardian, 13 August 2010) -- Stephen Pax Leonard will soon swap the lawns, libraries and high tables of Cambridge University for three months of darkness, temperatures as low as -40C and hunting seals for food with a spear. But the academic researcher, who leaves Britain this weekend, has a mission: to take the last chance to document the language and traditions of an entire culture. "I'm extremely excited but, yes, also apprehensive," Leonard said as he made the final preparations for what is, by anyone's standards, the trip of a lifetime. Leonard, an anthropological linguist, is to spend a year living with the Inughuit people of north-west Greenland, a tiny community whose members manage to live a similar hunting and gathering life to their ancestors. They speak a language – the dialect is called Inuktun – that has never fully been written down, and they pass down their stories and traditions orally.
"Climate change means they have around 10 or 15 years left," said Leonard. "Then they'll have to move south and in all probability move in to modern flats." If that happens, an entire language and culture is likely to disappear. There is no Inughuit written literature but a very strong and "distinctive, intangible cultural heritage", according to Leonard. "If their language dies, their heritage and identity will die with it. The aim of this project is to record and describe it and then give it back to the communities themselves in a form that future generations can use and understands." The Inughuits thought they were the world's only inhabitants until an expedition led by the Scottish explorer John Ross came across them in 1818. See also "A year with the polar Inghuit."
Posted by Amanda Graham – 19 August 2010; 4:38:41 PM – Permalink
Underwater terrain poses challenge to Arctic mission
(Randy Boswell/Canwest News Agency, 3 August 2010) -- As they embark this week on a 42-day, bi-national seabed survey of the Arctic Ocean, Canadian and U.S. scientists aboard two government research vessels know they'll have to contend with bone-chilling polar storms, vast stretches of frozen sea and giant, ship-menacing icebergs that have broken free of the pack. But this year -- the third straight summer in which geologists from the two countries will jointly probe the depths of the northern Beaufort Sea -- they'll also be dealing with another of nature's little challenges: a monster space rock big enough to rattle the entire planet, trigger tsunamis across the Arctic coasts of North America and Eurasia, shear off the top of a massive mountain chain and spread debris over hundreds of kilometres.
Fortunately, this meteorite did its damage two million years ago after slamming into the submerged peaks of Alpha Ridge-- a 2,000-km-long undersea mountain chain off of Canada's northernmost shores. But the ancient object, believed to have struck Earth in the central Arctic Ocean about 300 kilometres beyond Ellesmere Island, may yet pose problems for this summer's Can-Am research mission as the experts try to profile a swath of polar sea floor that remains deeply disfigured from that prehistoric extraterrestrial impact. And depending on what the surveyors find, Canada's quest for extended jurisdiction over undersea territory in the High Arctic -- and its claims over a potential treasure house of offshore oil and other resources -- could be helped or hindered by the old asteroid's enduring geological legacy. ...
The Arctic's sunken mountains are proving critical to offshore territorial claims being prepared by all polar nations. Canada, Denmark and Russia have each spent tens of millions of research dollars studying the Lomonosov Ridge that runs from Ellesmere Island and northwest Greenland, past the North Pole and over to central Siberia.
Posted by Amanda Graham – 6 August 2010; 5:35:56 PM – Permalink
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