Polar Research (E-Journal)
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National and institutional productivity and collaboration in Antarctic science: an analysis of 25 years of journal publications (1980–2004)
No full textJournal publications on Antarctic science were analysed for a period of 25 years (1980–2004) through a set of scientometrics and network analysis techniques. The study is based on 10 942 records (research articles, review articles, letters, etc.) with the word fragment “antarc*” in the title published in 961 international, peer-reviewed journals and retrieved from Thomson Scientific’s Science Citation Index database. During the period under investigation, productivity increased threefold and there was a 13-fold increase in journal publications co-written by authors from different countries. The five nations with the highest output were the USA (with 26.7% of the total output), the UK (13.8%), Australia (9.7%), Germany (8.8%) and Italy (6.0%). The top five institutions in terms of journal publications were the British Antarctic Survey (972 publications), the Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research, Germany (475), the Australian Antarctic Division (312), the University of Tasmania, Australia (305), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA (293)
Wellman’s 1906 polar expedition: the subject of numerous newspaper stories and one obscure film
No full textThe following contribution, by film researchers Jan Anders Diesen and Neil Fulton, is the second piece about Walter Wellman in this issue. Whereas Capelotti et al. (this issue) focus on technical aspects of Wellman’s aborted bid for the North Pole in 1906, Diesen and Fulton look at the media hype surrounding the event. They also describe an obscure short film that includes scenes of Wellman in Svalbard in 1906. Although Wellman’s credentials as a polar explorer can be questioned, there is no doubt that he excelled at publicizing his ambitious schemes to the world
“A cursed affair”—how a Norwegian expedition to Greenland became the USA’s first maritime capture in World War II
No full textLast year, Frode Skarstein contributed an essay to Polar Research in which he related the failed attempt by a coterie of nationalistic Norwegians to annex part of Greenland— “Erik the Red’s Land”—for Norway during the early 1930s. In the following essay, Skarstein tells the story of how the same group of Norwegian nationalists tried to resurrect Norwegian claims to the east coast of Greenland during the Second World War—and how the colliding interests of the Germans and the Americans made for a dramatic finale to the Norwegian adventures in Erik the Red’s Land
Status of black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla), commonguillemots (Uria aalge) and Brünnich’s guillemots (U. lomvia) in Murman, north-west Russia, and Varanger, north-east Norway
No full textRecent published estimates of the numbers of seabirds breeding along the coast of Murman have been partly based on data collected in the 1960s. Counts made in some of the largest colonies in 1999–2005 show that the present populations of black-legged kittiwakes ( Rissa tridactyla ), common guillemots ( Uria aalge ) and Brünnich’s guillemot ( U. lomvia ) in Murman are approximately 110 000 pairs, 10 000–12 000 pairs and 2000–3000 pairs, respectively. In Varanger the numbers are ca. 32 000 pairs, 6000–7000 pairs and 400–500 pairs, respectively. Although there has been a large decline in black-legged kittiwake numbers in the Varanger region since 1980, there is no evidence of a similar decline in Murman at least until 1999. With the exception of one colony in Murman, numbers of common guillemots breeding throughout the region seem to have recovered after suffering a huge decline in 1986/87
Review of The cryosphere and global environmental change, by Olav Slaymaker & Richard E.J. Kelly
No full textThere is no shortage of books on climate change. However, despite the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, we still know surprisingly little about the impact of global environmental change processes (not just climate change) on the broad range of biophysical and sociocultural systems that operate in the cryosphere. This lack of understanding prompts the authors to ask whether the global community cares about the future of the cryosphere, and the people who live within it. Justifying their work by pointing out the interconnectedness of the cryosphere with other components of the Earth, and discussing ongoing policy debates, geographers Olav Slaymaker and Richard Kelly aim to inform international debates on global change, in the broadest sense
Review of Boreal ties. Photographs and two diaries of the 1901 Peary Relief Expedition, edited by Kim Fairley Gillis and Silas Hibbard Ayer
No full textIn Boreal ties, the famously crusty and imperious Robert Peary is referred to as “a peach“. At first this representation might appear to be flagrantly inaccurate, somewhat like calling Dr Frederick Cook—Peary’s not always truthful North Pole adversary—“a bastion of honesty”. But within the context of the book, the description is wholly apt
Marine mammals: evolutionary biology (second edition)
No full textThe ever-popular field of biology that focuses on mammals that evolved to exploit the marine environment has spawned a suite of texts in the last decade. These have been dedicated to the evolution, systematics, morphology, anatomy, physiology, behaviour, sociobiology, ecology and conservation of this well-studied group. Berta et al.’s latest addition to this literature is an impressive advancement of their first edition (2003), and is certainly the only major authored work of its kind [the competing texts are all edited works: Reynolds & Rommel’s Biology of marine mammals (1999); Hoelzel’s Marine mammal biology: an evolutionary approach (2002); and Perrin et al.’s Encyclopedia of marine mammals (2002)]. Although there is considerable overlap and repetition among texts, Berta et al. have deliberately carved out their own niche by focusing heavily on the systematics of the varied taxa this group comprises. The book is unsurpassed as a marine mammal systematics and phylogenetic reference source, with more compiled detail on the evolution of cetaceans, pinnipeds and sirenians than is found in all the other texts combined
Mass balance of three Svalbard glaciers reconstructed back to 1948
No full textA simple model using upper-air meteorological variables in the NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis database is used to model seasonal components of mass balance of three glaciers in Svalbard. The model was originally developed for glaciers in North America, and has been applied to glaciers in Norway, Sweden and Iceland. Over the period for which mass balance data are available for the three Svalbard glaciers, the model fit yields r2 values ranging from 0.46 to 0.61 for winter balance Bw and from 0.56 to 0.59 for summer balance Bs . Sensitivity to + 1 ° C warming was about -0.36 m yr-1 water equivalent (w.eq.), caused mainly by increased ablation and secondarily by shift of precipitation from snow to rain. Sensitivity to a 10% increase in precipitation was about + 0.06 m yr-1 w.eq. The model, calibrated over the period of observations, was used to extend the mass balance series back to 1948. At annual resolution, observed mass balance of the three glaciers correlates poorly with both the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and with glaciers in Norway. Over two multiyear periods, the strongly positive NAO period 1990–1996 and the period afterward, glaciers in both Svalbard and especially Norway showed a pronounced decline in Bw. However, Bs for Svalbard glaciers was not more strongly negative after 1996, in contrast to glaciers in Norway
Strange interlude at Virgohamna, Danskøya, Svalbard, 1906: the merkelig mann, the engineer and the spy
No full textJust over a century ago, the American journalist Walter Wellman first tried to reach the North Pole by airship. Despite the hoopla that surrounded the expedition, it was a fiasco and the attempt became a quirky and somewhat obscure episode in the history of polar exploration. In this issue of Polar Research, we present two complementary contributions about this event. The first paper, below, is a collaboration between Penn State University Abington College archaeologist P. J. Capelotti, engineer and airship historian Herman Van Dyk and Swiss aeronautical historian Jean-Claude Cailliez. It presents new data on the initial operations of Wellman’s attempt to reach the pole in 1906