1928 research outputs found
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Bering Strait and Arctic Transits
Full text linkThis report provides a summary of AIS equipped vessel transits in 2024 and makes comparisons to data gathered over the past decade
Archaeology of whaling in the Arctic prehistory
Full text linkThis paper explores the archaeology of whaling in Arctic prehistory, focusing on the emergence and development of whaling as a central component of cultural ecology among prehistoric Inuit and related societies. Drawing on archaeological evidence from key sites across Alaska, the Chukchi Peninsula, and the Bering Strait region, the study examines how whaling technologies and practices evolved alongside climatic fluctuations, ecological shifts, and social transformations. Integrating ethnographic insights and paleoclimatic data, the study argues that Inuit engagement with whales was not only a subsistence strategy but a long-term, historically contingent relationship that shaped and was shaped by broader cultural systems
Ecosystem assessment of the Central Arctic Ocean: Description of human activities, its pressures, and vulnerability of the ecosystem.
Full text linkPressures occur in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) as a result of both local human activities, such as research and ship traffic from tourism and the military, and distant global sources that arrive via means such as air, rivers, and ocean currents.
Contaminants, non-indigenous species, marine litter (including microplastics), artificial noise pollution, nutrient and organic enrichment, extraction of species, extraction of non-living resources, physical seabed and sea ice disturbance, artificial light pollution, unintended injury and mortality in open water, and human presence on ice are the 11 local, direct human-induced pressures recognized as relevant for the CAO. Pressures from global sources include contaminants, litter, and non-indigenous species that enter the ocean from global sources. Both categories of pressure are included in this report. The impact of climate change originating from human activity (the pressure “heating”) is included as climate-related effects on the ecosystem.
Ice prokaryotes and viruses, water column and seabed prokaryotes and viruses, ice algae, phytoplankton, ice invertebrates, zooplankton, pelagic squid, soft-bottom and hard-bottom benthos, sympagic-, mesopelagic-, and demersal/bentho-pelagic fishes, polar bear, ringed seal, bowhead whale, narwhal, beluga whale, transient-, seasonal resident- and ice obligate-sea birds were identified as groups or species that represent relevant ecosystem components of the CAO. Most of these taxonomic groups have populations that are widely distributed across the entire CAO, while a few groups have limited distributions on the seabed (hard-bottom benthos), in the water column (whales), or along the ice edge (ice-obligate seabirds and ringed seal). While most ecosystem components are present inside the CAO year-round, some few components (whales and migratory and seasonally resident seabirds) are only present for a few months each year.
Some of the relevant pressures introduced by local sources in the CAO are anticipated to have impacts on all (e.g. contaminants), some (e.g. artificial noise pollution), or only a few (e.g. nutrient and organic enrichment) ecosystem components in the CAO
Inter-Nord
Full text linkInter-Nord 24 is largely dedicated to Alaska. On the front and back covers feature three Yup’ik masks brought back to Pennsylvania by Moravian missionaries in the early 20th century. They are now held in the collections of the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth, PA, USA, to which we are grateful for granting permission to publish these images. The front cover also includes a photograph from a series taken by Bruce Jackson during his field trip with Jean Malaurie to Nome and its region in 1997. Many thanks to Bruce for letting us reprint several of his images.
The issue’s contributions dedicated to Alaska include three peer-reviewed scientific articles, two student research papers from the University of Vienna based on field work, introduced by Peter Schweitzer and Olga Povoroznyuk, and two interviews: one with Iñupiaq contemporary artist Aisa Warden conducted by Daniel Chartier and the other with Mrs Lyn Trodahl Chynoweth, daughter of a Moravian missionary who grew up at Nunapitsinghak, site of the Moravian Children’s Home on the Kwethluk, a tributary to the Kuskokwim river, conducted by Benjamin Ferguson, as well as polar readings offered by Muriel Brot.
Inter-Nord 24 also pays homage to British poet and anthropologist Tom Lowenstein who passed away in March 2025 in his 84th year. Tom was notably the author of the acclaimed volume Ancient Land: Sacred Whale (1993, republished 1999). We are grateful to his literary executors to have authorised us to republish two longer excerpts, accompanied by translations into French for which we would like to sincerely thank Professor Hélène Aji of the École normale supérieure in Paris. Hélène had translated these poems on the occasion of the international conference “Problèmes arctiques : environnement, sociétés et patrimoine/ Arctic problems: environment, societies and heritage” organised by Jean Malaurie and myself at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris in March 2007 during the Fourth International Polar Year. Tom was one of the invited speakers, contributing a paper about his then forthcoming history of Point Hope, Alaska, Ultimate Americans (University of Alaska Press, 2008) published in Inter-Nord 21 (2011, pp. 149-152). Tom has published a fascinating volume about his field work, The Structure of Days Out (2021) which has not received the attention it deserves so far. Farewell to the poet!
Inter-Nord 24 also features three other peer-reviewed scientific articles in the section entitled “Varia”, illustrating the fact that we are open to scientific papers on any topic in relation to the Arctic. It also contains a viewpoint. Many thanks to all contributors
Inter-Nord
Full text linkOn 5 February 2024, Professor Jean Malaurie passed away at his home in Dieppe at the age of 101. Having refused to join the compulsory work service (STO – Service du travail obligatoire) of the Nazi occupant in 1943, he went into hiding, joining the Résistance movement, an act of recalcitrance which characterized him profoundly and which was to entitle him to military honours during his funeral. The ceremony took place at the Saint-Louis-des-Invalides Cathedral in Paris on 14 February 2024, followed by the military honours and eulogy pronounced by the French Minister of Higher Education and Research, Professor Sylvie Retailleau.
It is with emotion that the editorial board of Inter-Nord wishes him farewell, paying a last tribute to the President of honour of our journal which he had founded with historian Fernand Braudel at the CNRS in the 1960s. We are publishing in French and English the homily of Father Geoffroy de la Tousche, the final remarks by Jean Malaurie’s son Guillaume and the minister’s speech, as well as a homage published in Le Canard enchaîné and a letter of condolences by Mrs Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.
Inter-Nord 23 continues in the interdisciplinary and intersectorial vein which has been its imprint introduced by Jean Malaurie right from the start, trying to propose bilingual versions of texts as far as possible. The current issue contains a special section with three scientific research articles on Iceland, two of which were first presented at the annual Humanities conference of the University of Iceland in 2023. These texts are accompanied by graphic works of the Icelandic artist Thóra Sigurðardóttir. Many thanks to Thóra for letting us publish some of her intriguing artwork discussed in a stunning piece by the Icelandic poetess Sigurbjörg Thrastardóttir.
In the creative writing section, we are also publishing two pieces by the Quebecois author Monique Durand about the Faroe Islands and interviews with Alaskan author Nancy Lord and the journalist Olivera Tornau. Other contributions include a viewpoint signed by four UArctic Chairs, an original French research project and some reviews of Malaurie’s and other works
Arctic Art & Culture
Full text linkThe popular science review includes the materials about educational research, scientific and practical activity of the team from the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, their partners, and the Northern Forum regions, the participants of the North and Arctic intercultural communication
Contributions to the knowledge of Antarctodon sobrali (Mammalia: Astrapotheria) from the Eocene of Antarctica
Full text linkThe Astrapotheria constitutes one of the five orders of extinct South American native ungulates, with a fossil record that also extends to the Eocene of the Antarctic Peninsula. In contrast to the abundant specimens known for litoptern Sparnotheriodontidae and metatherians, astrapotheres are represented by scant remains assigned to the endemic Antarctodon sobrali and indeterminate astrapotheres, restricted to levels 35Cu0 and 35n of the Cucullaea I Allomember of the La Meseta Formation. The discovery of a lower molar assignable to this species in the Eocene levels of Seymour (Marambio) Island, enables a revision of the diagnosis and the homologies of the dental characters used to describe this taxon. A reanalysis of its phylogenetic relationships reveals the nearly simultaneous presence of basal astrapotheres in the early Eocene of Itaboraí (Brazil), Patagonia, and West Antarctica. These taxa are characterized by lacking dental specializations usually associated with more abrasive diets like terminal forms of Uruguaytheriinae and Astrapotheriinae. Antarctodon appears to have thrived on the Antarctic continent during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum within the paleoclimatic context of a hot-house world. Unlike present conditions in Antarctica where no terrestrial mammals inhabit, the early Eocene climate was characterized by warmer temperatures and a biologically diverse environment rich in primary producers, dominated by Nothofagus forests, encompassing both deciduous and evergreen forests, which supported a diverse assemblage of continental vertebrates
Polymetamorphism of the ultrahigh-temperature granulites in the Rauer Group, East Antarctica: new evidence from zircon SHRIMP U-Pb ages
Full text linkThe Rauer Group is located on the eastern margin of the early Paleozoic Prydz Belt in East Antarctica, and the typical ultrahigh-temperature (UHT, >900 ℃) granulites outcrop on Mather Peninsula. However, the timing of UHT metamorphism and P–T path of the UHT granulites have long been debated, which is critical to understanding the tectonic nature and evolution history of the Prydz Belt. Thus, both a sapphirine-bearing UHT metapelitic granulite and a garnet-bearing UHT mafic granulite are selected for zircon SHRIMP U-Pb age dating. The results show that metamorphic zircon mantles yield weighted mean 206Pb/238U ages of 918±29 Ma and 901±29 Ma for the metapelitic and mafic granulites, respectively, while zircon rims and newly grown zircons yield weighted mean 206Pb/238U ages of 523±9 Ma and 532±11 Ma, respectively. These new zircon age data suggest that the UHT granulites may have experienced polymetamorphism, in which pre-peak prograde stage occurred in the early Neoproterozoic Grenvillian orogenesis (1000–900 Ma), whereas the UHT metamorphism occurred in the late Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic Pan-African orogenesis (580–460 Ma). This implies that P–T path of the UHT granulites should consist of two separate high-grade metamorphic events including the Grenvillian and Pan-African events, which are supposed to be related to assembly of Rodinia and Gondwana supercontinents respectively, and hence the overprinting UHT metamorphic event may actually reflect an important intracontinental reworking
Promoting China-U.S. Arctic education cooperation: challenges, opportunities and recommendations
Full text linkArctic education refers not only to the teaching, but also to research, communication, dissemination as well as popularization of knowledge related to the Arctic. This article reviews joint efforts between Chinese and American educators and researchers to promote cooperation and understanding in Arctic education and research, and examines the facing challenges of China-U.S. Arctic education cooperation which include current political or economic tensions between the two countries, the differing perspectives and priorities on Arctic policy, the disproportion in Arctic scientific research, different research methodologies and discourse system in social science. This article also argues that there are opportunities for the two countries to cooperate in Arctic education. Common goals and interests in the Arctic, Arctic-dedicated institutions with significant Arctic research capabilities and partnerships around the world provide foundations for Arctic education cooperation. The implementation of a new science-based Arctic treaty of the Arctic Council is an opportunity for China-U.S. Arctic education cooperation. As for future cooperation, it suggests that in addition to promoting the direct bilateral cooperation, cooperation within international cooperation platforms and mechanisms, especially within the Arctic Council also needs to be further promoted