Polar Research (E-Journal)
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Review of The last of the Arctic voyages. Being a narrative of the expedition in H.M.S. Assistance. Vol. 1-2, by Edward Belcher
No full textOf all the polar heroes of the 19th century, Sir John Franklin might be regarded as the most tragic one. He was appointed the commander of a well-organized Arctic expedition in 1845, equipped with all that should be needed for surviving in the frozen wilderness, included two ships loaded with a thousand books and three years’ worth of food supplies. His order was to sail through and to map the North-west Passage. But he never returned with his men. Their fate will forever be a mystery. Though there were reports on some of his men from indigenous people in the years after, the greatest mystery is what caused the deaths of Franklin and his men. One hundred and forty years later, in 1997, one of many discovery expeditions concluded that blade-cut marks on the bones of some of the crew found on King William Island proved the rumours to be true, that the Franklin expedition ended in cannibalism.
(Published: 20 December 2013)
Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 23457, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.2345
Review of LASHIPA: History of Large Scale Resource Exploitation in Polar Areas, edited by Louwrens Hacquebord
No full textThis collection of papers reflects the results of two separate but related research projects: the International Polar Year (IPY) project History of Large Scale Resource Exploitation in Polar Areas (LASHIPA) and a European Science Foundation Collaborative Research (EUROCORES) 2006—10 BOREAS project entitled Colony, Empire, Environment: a Comparative International History of Twentieth Century Arctic Science (CEE). The collected papers were given at a workshop in St. Petersburg, Russia, in November 2009, where most of the participants were doctoral students gathered to offer the results of their research for the first time.
(Published: 11 March 2013)
Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 20610, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.2061
Is there a ‘‘new normal’’ climate in the Beaufort Sea?
No full textSince 2007, environmental conditions in the Beaufort Sea have appeared to be consistently different from those in the past. Is a ‘‘new normal’’ climate emerging in the region? Sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) have been notably warm during the summer, leading to delayed freeze-up in the fall along with large surface air temperature (SAT) anomalies due to the release of stored ocean heat to the atmosphere. In the autumn of 2011 and 2012, SST and SAT anomalies in Arctic marginal seas were the largest observed in the Northern Hemisphere. Since 2007, there has been an increase in easterly winds, which has helped set the stage for Arctic amplification by advecting sea ice out of the region and enhancing surface stratification due to the offshore transport of fresh water from the large Mackenzie River discharge plume. These winds are linked to an intensification of the Beaufort High and are evident throughout the troposphere. Their occurrence has undoubtedly contributed to the acceleration of sea-ice loss and surface warming in the Beaufort Sea, with additional impacts likely throughout the ecosystem.
Keywords: Arctic change; sea ice; Beaufort Sea; Mackenzie River; Arctic amplification; atmospheric circulation
(Published: 17 October 2013)
To access the supplementary material for this article, please see Supplementary files in the column to the right (under Article Tools).
Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 19552, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.1955
Hydrological response of a High-Arctic catchment to changing climate over the past 35 years: a case study of Bayelva watershed, Svalbard
No full textOur study considers climate change and its influence upon the hydrology and water balance of the glacierized Bayelva watershed in Svalbard. We find that changes are most noticeable within the last 10 years, when winters have become warmer and wetter. The change is most significant during the shoulder months, especially September, when the transition from summer ablation to winter accumulation is taking place. Winter rainfalls, when extreme, produce ground icings and runoff outside the summer period. Dependent upon summer air temperatures, these icings may either melt and produce additional runoff or persist until the following hydrological year. These processes have a direct influence upon the water budget. They represent sources of error for water-balance calculations that either ignore winter runoff events and/or assume water storage is negligible. We show that even when the watershed is underlain by permafrost and accommodates cold-based glaciers, storage can no longer be ignored. Furthermore, we find that the use of a precipitation gradient correction of 19% per 100 m, a gauge catch correction and glacier massbalance data (for snow accumulation and icemelt runoff) should be used for accurate water-balance calculations. We also find that despite sustained glacier retreat, annual runoff volume showed no trend during 1989-2010. Discharge is more variable and longer during the last decade due to the winter rainfalls. Finally, flow recession analyses reveal increasingly efficient evacuation of meltwater from the catchment and the increasing occurrence of a delayed flowpath through the glaciers’ forefield.
Keywords: Arctic hydrology; water balance; rain on snow; extreme events; Svalbard; climate change
(Published: 1 August 2013)
Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 19691, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.1969
Better late than never? Interannual and seasonal variability in breeding chronology of gentoo penguins at Stranger Point, Antarctica
No full textRapid climate change recorded in the western Antarctic Peninsula confronts species with less predictable conditions in the marine and terrestrial environments. We analysed the breeding chronology and nesting site selection of gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) at King George Island (Isla 25 de Mayo), Antarctica, during four seasons in which differences in snow presence and persistence on the ground were observed. We recorded an overall delay as well as seasonal asynchrony at the beginning of reproduction for those years with higher snow deposition. A redistribution of breeding groups was also observed. Nevertheless, the population breeding success and chicks’ weight at fledging remained relatively constant, despite the delay in breeding chronology, the increased duration of foraging trips during the guard stage and the decreased weight of stomach contents during the crèche stage. We suggest that the plasticity of their trophic biology, along with the flexibility of their breeding phenology and relocation of breeding groups, may be complementary reasons why gentoo penguin populations in the region have remained stable in spite of the changing conditions currently registered.Keywords: Antarctica; breeding delay; breeding phenology; snow; Pygoscelis papua; Euphausia superba (Published: 13 May 2013)Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 18448, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.1844
Reading and thinking about International Polar Years: five recent books
No full textWithin the polar science community the Polar (and Geophysical) Years represent signal events. We often read, largely within geoscience literature, that those events represented positive and dramatic steps forward in international science. From five recent books - two historical compilations and three personal narratives - augmented by interviews with a few key participants, a more cautious picture emerges, of remarkable successes but also of occasional or even persistent missteps and deficiencies. An improved understanding of the IPY concept and experience can provide useful guidance for future polar and global science.Keywords: International Polar Year; International Geophysical Year; international science; history of polar science(Published: 1 April 2013)Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 20789, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.2078
Summer CO2 evasion from streams and rivers in the Kolyma River basin, north-east Siberia
No full textInland water systems are generally supersaturated in carbon dioxide (CO2) and are increasingly recognized as playing an important role in the global carbon cycle. The Arctic may be particularly important in this respect, given the abundance of inland waters and carbon contained in Arctic soils; however, a lack of trace gas measurements from small streams in the Arctic currently limits this understanding.We investigated the spatial variability of CO2 evasion during the summer low-flow period from streams and rivers in the northern portion of the Kolyma River basin in north-eastern Siberia. To this end, partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) and gas exchange velocities (k) were measured at a diverse set of streams and rivers to calculate CO2 evasion fluxes. We combined these CO2 evasion estimates with satellite remote sensing and geographic information system techniques to calculate total areal CO2 emissions. Our results show that small streams are substantial sources of atmospheric CO2 owing to high pCO2 and k, despite being a small portion of total inland water surface area. In contrast, large rivers were generally near equilibrium with atmospheric CO2. Extrapolating our findings across the Panteleikha-Ambolikha sub-watersheds demonstrated that small streams play a major role in CO2 evasion, accounting for 86% of the total summer CO2 emissions from inland waters within these two sub-watersheds. Further expansion of these regional CO2 emission estimates across time and space will be critical to accurately quantify and understand the role of Arctic streams and rivers in the global carbon budget.Keywords: Arctic streams and rivers; CO2 evasion; inland water surface area; Kolyma River; pCO2; Siberia(Published: 5 December 2013)Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 19704, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.1970
Microzooplankton along a transect from northern continental Norway to Svalbard
No full textIn the framework of the Italian International Polar Year project entitled Evolution of a Glacial Arctic Continental Margin: the Southern Svalbard Ice Stream-dominated Sedimentary System, a study was carried out on microzooplankton distribution and biomass along a south-to-north transect extending from northern Norway to the Svalbard Archipelago, from 65° to 78°N. Tintinnids, heterotrophic dinoflagellates, aloricate cilates and micrometazoans were the main groups observed in the samples collected at 17 surface stations from 9 to 13 July 2008. Total microzooplankton abundance ranged from 17 to 438 ind l⁻¹. Tintinnids and heterotrophic dinoflagellates were the most abundant organisms, ranging from 1.5 to 292.5 ind l⁻¹ and from 0 to 232 ind l⁻¹, respectively. Micrometazoans (mainly copepod nauplii) reached a maximum of 45.5 ind l⁻¹, whereas aloricate ciliates were scarce at all stations. Microzooplankton carbon content ranged from 0.87 to 5.18 μg C l⁻¹. In particular, tintinnids and micrometazoans made up the largest part of the microzooplankton biomass. Parafavella denticulata, Parafavella gigantea, Acanthostomella norvegica and Ptychocylis obtusa were the most common species among tintinnids, whereas Leprotintinnus pellucidus was recorded in only one station close to Svalbard. Protoperidinium was the most representative genus among heterotrophic dinoflagellates. The community of naked ciliates was dominated by Strombidiidae and Holotrichia. A clearly increasing gradient in both abundance and number of taxa was observed from south to north, with the temperature decreasing from 13.3 to 2.5°C.Keywords: Microzooplankton; North Atlantic Current; Svalbard; tintinnids; dinoflagellates(Published: 24 May 2013)Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 19306, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.1930
Using visible reflectance spectroscopy to reconstruct historical changes in chlorophyll a concentration in East Antarctic ponds
No full textThe visible reflectance spectroscopy (VRS) and chlorophyll a concentration were determined in three sediment profiles collected from East Antarctica to investigate the potential application of VRS in reconstructing historical changes in Antarctic lake primary productivity. The results showed that the appearance of a trough at 650–700 nm is an important marker for chlorophyll a concentration and can therefore be used to distinguish the sedimentary organic matter source from guano and algae. The measured chlorophyll a content had significant positive correlations with the trough area between 650 and 700 nm, and no distinct trough was found in the sediments with organic matter completely derived from guano. Modelling results showed that the spectra spectrally inferred chlorophyll a content, and the measured data exhibit consistent trends with depth, showing that the dimensionless trough area can serve as an independent proxy for reconstructing historical fluctuations in the primary production of Antarctic ponds. The correlation of phosphorus (P) with measured and inferred chlorophyll a contents in ornithogenic sediments near penguin colonies indicates that the change in primary productivity in the Antarctic ponds investigated was closely related to the amount of guano input from these birds.Keywords: Reflectance spectroscopy; ornithogenic sediments; chlorophyll a; Antarctic ponds; primary productivity; VRS.(Published: 27 December 2013)Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 19932, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.1993
Elevation and volume changes of seven Dickson Land glaciers, Svalbard, 1960-1990-2009
No full textMelting Svalbard glaciers have been recognized as an early indicator of climate change. Large parts of Svalbard remain insufficiently investigated, including Dickson Land, in the quasi-continental interior of Svalbard. In this study, elevation and volume changes of seven glaciers located in the Pyramiden region are assessed by analysing contour lines from 1960 topographic maps and photogrammetrically derived 1990 and 2009 digital elevation models. Mass loss was documented for all seven glaciers. In the period 1960-1990, their average elevation change rate was -0.49 m a-1, while in the more recent period, 1990-2009, it was more negative at 0.78 m a-1, caused by a significant equilibrium line altitude shift with post-1990 rise in summer temperatures. Large variation in elevation change rates between individual glaciers was found and is attributed mainly to aspect and hypsometry. This highlights the importance of choosing a representative sample when investigating mass balance of whole regions. Evidence of a rapid increase in thinning rates in the upper parts of the studied glaciers, linked to decreasing albedo in former accumulation zones, was also found.Keywords: Central Svalbard; Dickson Land; Pyramiden; glacier thinning; geometry changes; glacier volume(Published: 8 October 2013)Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 18400, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.1840