Polar Research (E-Journal)
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Late Pleistocene fossil find in Svalbard: the oldest remains of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1744) ever discovered
No full textDuring recent fieldwork in Svalbard, a well preserved subfossil left mandible of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774) was discovered. A 14C age determination shows that it is older than 45 Ky (kilo-years), and an age determination with infrared-stimulated luminescence—together with the stratigraphic position of the bone—suggests that it is of Eemian–Early Weichselian age: 130–110 Ky old. This makes the find the oldest remains of a polar bear ever discovered. Morphological analyses of the mandible suggest that it comes from a fully grown male that was similar in size to extant male polar bears. The comparative study of other available subfossil polar bear remains did not reveal any significant change in size of polar bears during the Late Quaternary
Observing snowmelt dynamics on fast ice in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, with NOAA/AVHRR data and field measurements
No full textTemporal snowmelt dynamics on fast ice in Kongsfjorden/Svalbard are studied for the period 1990–2003, using visible and near-infrared channels of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Long-term radiation data from an adjacent Baseline Surface Radiation Network station, as well as extensive glaciological and meteorological field measurements on the melting ice in 2002 and 2003, are used to validate a snowmelt index derived from the satellite data. This study shows that the remote sensing data are in good agreement with the field observations. However, the temporal variability of atmospheric water vapour has an impact on the snowmelt index, and must be accounted for through atmospheric correction. The analysis of long-term satellite data provides valuable insight into the strength and rate of the snowvolume decay, and reveals a strong interannual variability of the snowmelt intensity. However, a precise date for determining melt onset requires clear-sky AVHRR data throughout the onset period
Review of Point Hope Alaska: life on frozen water, by Berit Arnestad Foote
No full textThis beautifully illustrated book documents three years in the life of Point Hope, Alaska. Point Hope has been a whaling camp site of the Inupiat people for over 2500 years, based on archaeological studies. Up until the 1950s, the settlement here had remained much as it had been since its inhabitants first began having contact with outsiders. Missionaries, school teachers and supplies had arrived from the USA in the 20th century, as the Territory of Alaska started to receive greater attention from the government and people of the “lower 48” states. But in the 1950s, two rather momentous events conspired to change Point Hope, and the rest of rural Alaska. In 1959 Alaska became the 49th state of the Union. One year earlier, the nuclear physicist Edward Teller proposed to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) that they explode an atomic bomb 100 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima in north-west Alaska, in order to create a man-made harbour. The site selected by the AEC was Ogotoruk Creek, 50 km south-east of Point Hope. This proposal seems ludicrous to most people in the 21st century. Indeed, the author’s brother-in-law, Joseph Foote, described it as “harebrained but frightening” in his essay near the start of the book. Nevertheless, the project was adopted by the AEC, under the code name of Project Chariot. The full story of this bizarre chapter in American history has been very well told in Dan O’Neill’s book, The firecracker boys (1994)
Atmospheric monitoring at the Norwegian Antarctic station Troll: measurement programme and first results
No full textThe Troll Atmospheric Station in Antarctica (72°01?S, 2°32?E, 1309 m a.s.l.) was established and put into operation in early 2007. The main foci of the measurement programme are pollution and aerosols in the transition zone between the coastal zone and the inland ice plateau, complementing existing observation programmes along the Antarctic coast and on the Antarctic Plateau. After one year of operation, the monitoring programme is fully operative, and a comprehensive set of data is being analysed. As far as comparable data are available, there is satisfactory agreement between previous and new data. Both aerosol data and measurements of pollution indicate the episodic influence of coastal air masses throughout the year. Background values of medium long-lived pollutants such as CO, O3 and Hg are up to 50% lower than at corresponding Arctic sites (depending on the season), but are still significant. Total ozone and UV doses manifest the recurring Antarctic stratospheric ozone hole, which was moderately severe, but very persistent in 2007. Specific episodes of elevated aerosol concentration and mercury activation are currently under detailed investigation, and will be published separately
Sedimentological, geochemical and palaeontological evidence for a neoglacial cold event during the late Holocene in the continental shelf of the northern South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica
No full textTwo sediment cores obtained from the continental shelf of the northern South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica, consist of: an upper unit of silty mud, bioturbated by a sluggish current, and a lower unit of well-sorted, laminated silty mud, attributed to an intensified Polar Slope Current. Geochemical and accelerator mass spectrometry 14C analyses yielded evidence for a late Holocene increase in sea-ice extent and a decrease in phytoplankton productivity, inferred from a reduction in the total organic carbon content and higher C : N ratios, at approximately 330 years B.P., corresponding to the Little Ice Age. Prior to this, the shelf experienced warmer marine conditions, with greater phytoplankton productivity, inferred from a higher organic carbon content and C : N ratios in the lower unit. The reduced abundance of Weddell Sea ice-edge bloom species (Chaetoceros resting spores, Fragilariopsis curta and Fragilariopsis cylindrus) and stratified cold-water species (Rhizosolenia antennata) in the upper unit was largely caused by the colder climate. During the cold period, the glacial restriction between theWeddell Sea and the shelf of the northern South Shetland Islands apparently hindered the influx of ice-edge bloom species from the Weddell Sea into the core site. The relative increases in the abundance of Actinocyclus actinochilus and Navicula glaciei, indigenous to the coastal zone of the South Shetland Islands, probably reflects a reduction in the dilution of native species, resulting from the diminished influx of the ice-edge species from the Weddell Sea. We also document the recent reduction of sea-ice cover in the study area in response to recent warming along the Antarctic Peninsula
From the editor—endings and beginnings in 2009
No full textAs the International Polar Year (IPY) drew to its conclusion earlier this year, so did the Norwegian–American Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica. Led by Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) director Jan-Gunnar Winther, the first stage of the two-stage expedition took place in the austral summer of 2007/08. The Norwegian–American team travelled from the Norwegian research station Troll to a point about 350 km shy of the South Pole (see my editorial in Polar Research 27[1]). Along the way, they extracted ice cores, planted snow stakes mounted with GPS devices, deployed automatic weather stations, surveyed the route using several types of radar and collected an array of meteorological, glaciological and other data. The journey took two months
The parasitic tick Ixodes uriae (Acari: Ixodidae) on seabirds from Spitsbergen, Svalbard
No full textThe parasitic tick Ixodes uriae was recorded from Brünnich’s guillemots (Uria lomvia) at two colonies on Spitsbergen, the principal island in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Six Brünnich’s guillemots from 30 studied at the Ossian Sars seabird colony were found to be parasitized. A tick was also collected from below the larger Fuglehuken colony. However, ticks were not seen on Brünnich’s guillemots examined at the smaller Krossfjorden colony, and neither were they observed in two black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) colonies (Blomstrandhalvøya and Krykkjefjellet). It is suggested that either the tick has only recently been established in Svalbard or the population has increased from a low level, and has consequently become visible to small-scale sampling studies. Implications for the seabird population of the northern Barents Sea are discussed
Guest editorial—the ballyhoo over polar bears
No full textCritics have said that there’s little or no justification for the focus that polar bears (Ursus maritimus) have received as a threatened species. Recent studies project dramatic reductions in polar bear numbers in just a few decades, in concert with the equally dramatic reduction in critical sea-ice habitat, yet there are undoubtedly ecologically more “important” species in tropical and temperate latitudes that are facing equal or more urgent problems at present
The role of governance in community adaptation to climate change
No full textThe capacity to adapt to challenges such as climate change can be seen as largely determined by socioeconomic context or social vulnerability. This article examines the adaptive capacity of local actors in response to globalization and climate change, asking: how much of the desirable adaptation can be undertaken at a local level, and how much is determined by actors at other levels, for instance, when resource conflicts occur? Drawing on case studies of fishing in northern Norway and north-west Russia, the paper shows that adaptive capacity beyond the immediate economic adaptations available to local actors is, to a considerable extent, politically determined within larger governance networks