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Tag: Arctic Portal

  • Young Earth Scientists Congress 2009

    The first Young Earth Scientist conference will be conducted in Beijing China 25-28 October. The Arctic Portal will monitor this event closely and repost videos within this page. which will be recorded at the Congress roundtable sessions. The recordings should start appearing Monday the 26. October and keep coming until the end of the week.

    The conference will focus on global climate, environmental and geological challenges facing today’s society, and aims to establish an interdisciplinary global network of individuals committed to solving these challenges.

    The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed January 2007 to December 2009 as the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE). This supports UN sustainable development targets by promoting wise and sustainable use of Earth materials and encouraging better planning and management to reduce risks for the world’s inhabitants. Making Earth Science knowledge available for the society and promoting proper education and commitment to young generations of earth-system scientists are the two key focus points of IYPE.

    The Y.E.S. Committee aims to organize the First World Congress aimed at young (up to 35yrs) scientists and professionals working in the field of Earth sciences. The congress also will involve young political leaders, representatives of civil society and worldwide organizations. The Congress was first proposed by members of the Italian Geological Society and is strongly supported by the IYPE Committee-Italy, Italian Geological Survey, IYPE Corporation and IUGS.

    The recordings have been posted and can be seen here.

    Climate Change in the Polar Regions and its Global Impact

    • Dr. Liz Thomas, British Antarctic Survey, Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), U.K.
    • Mr. Ragnar Baldursson, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Iceland
    • Dr. Dave Schneider, National Center for Atmospheric Research, U.S.A.
    • Dr. Hamish Pritchard, British Antarctic Survey, U.K.
    • Dr. Hughes Lantuit, International Permafrost Association, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany
    • (no ppt available)Dr. Jianping Li, Deputy Director and Professor, National Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, China

    Natural Resources and Energy Sustainability

    • Prof. Ochir Gerel, Mongolian University of Science & Technology, Mongolia
    • Dr. Ian Duncan, Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas, U.S.A.
    • Dr. Yutaek Seo, CSIRO Petroleum Resources, Australia
    • Dr. Gavin Mudd, Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Australia

    Natural Hazards

    • Dr. Yi Wang, Institute for Sustainability and Peace, United Nations University, Japan
    • Mr. Rudy Montero Mata, Risk Assessment Group Environmental Agency, Cuba
    • Mr. R. Krishna Kumar, National Geophysical Research Institute, India
    • Dr. Maria G. Honeycutt, Geological Society of America

    Industry-Academic Linkages

    • Dr. P. Patrick Leahy, American Geological Institute, U.S.A.
    • Dr. Bernard J. Pierson, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia
    • Mr. Anthony L. Cortis, Shell Upstream International Exploration, China
    • Dr. Diane Doser, University of Texas, El Paso, U.S.A.

    Issues Facing Global Geoscience Education and Research

    • Dr. Jacques Varet, BGRM, French Geologic Survey, France
    • Dr. G. Randy Keller, University of Oklahoma, U.S.A.
    • Mr. Edmund Nickless, The Geological Society of London, U.K.
    • Dr. Robert Ridky, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S.A.
    • Ms. Sarah Gaines, UNESCO, France

    Transfer of Credentials / International Licensure

    • Mr. Andrew Waltho, Vice President, Australian Institute of Geoscientists, Australia
    • Mr. Oliver Bonham, Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists, Canada
    • Dr. Manuel Regueiro, Geological Survey of Spain, Spain
    • Dr. Robert A. Stewart, LFR/Arcadis, U.S.A.
    • Mr. Stephen M. Testa, California State Mining and Geology Board, U.S.A.

    Women in the Geoscience Workforce

    • Prof. Ezzoura Errami, African Association of Women in Geoscience, Morocco
    • Prof. Ochir Gerel, Mongolian University of Science & Technology, Mongolia
    • Ms. Soumaya Ayadi, African Association of Women in Geoscience, Tunisia
    • Ms. Laurie Scheuing, Association for Women Geoscientists, U.S.A. (VIRTUAL SPEAKER)
    • Mrs. Juliette Tea-Yassi, African Association of Women in Geoscience-Cote d’Ivoire, Cote d’Ivoire
  • International Polar Year – IPY Legacy

    International Polar Year – IPY Legacy

    International polar year logo

    Polar areas have always interested both scientists and adventurers for their remoteness and harsh climate, but in recent years it has become clear that the Arctic and Antarctic play a significant role in the earth’s ecosystem and are in a keyrole to both predict the impact of climate change and bear the consequences of it.

    International Polar Year (IPY) is an international cooperative research initiative first introduced in 1882, with an objective to provide scientific information about the fundamentals of meteorology and geophysics as well as further people’s knowledge on the Polar Regions. Due to the fact that the IPY webpage has recently been relocated and updated by the Arctic Portal we have decided to overview the history of the IPY and some of the good work carried out by the IPY and it’s programs.

    Short History of the IPY

    The initial idea of international cooperative polar research came from an Austro-Hungarian explorer and naval officer Lt. Karl Weyprecht who was a scientist and co-commander of the Austro-Hungarian Polar Karl WeyprechtExpedition of 1872-74. Weyprecht realised that a comprehensive polar research could not be a task of one nation only, but should involve a coordinated international effort. He recognized that a time of mere geographical discovery had past and a series of coordinated expeditions dedicated to scientific research should be undertaken to further peoples understanding on fundamentals of meteorology and geophysics. Unfortunately, he died before the international research became a reality, but his inspiration led to an establishment of the largest coordinated series of scientific expeditions ever undertaken in the Arctic during the 19th century, or to what is now known as the First International Polar Year.

    First International Polar Year, 1881-1883

    Eleven nations took part in establishing fourteen principal research stations across the Polar Regions. Twelve research stations were located in the Arctic, along with at least 13 auxiliary stations, and two in the Antarctic. A vast amount of information was gathered between 1881 and 1884, but in the lack of a centralized coordination of analysis and publication of the results no fundamental discoveries were made as a result of the first IPY. Each state published their observations independently and the International Polar Commission dissolved in the aftermath of the project.

    Nevertheless, the First International Polar Year demonstrated that joint international scientific research was possible and set a precedent for the coming international scientific events.

    Second International Polar Year, 1932-1933

    The Second International Polar Year was both proposed and promoted by the International Meteorological Committee. The main objective of the second research initiative was to investigate the

    International Geophysical Year

    global implications of the newly discovered “Jet Stream” and to conduct magnetic, auroral and meteorological observations at a network of research stations in the Arctic and Antarctic. Some 40 countries participated in the establishment of 40 permanent observation stations in both Arctic and Antarctic. Following, the data collected during the two-year period became the foundation of the International Meteorological Organization and promoted further research, such as the International Geophysical Year (IGY), 1957-1958, often called the third International Polar Year, which celebrated the 75th and 25th anniversaries of the First and Second IPYs.

    Third International Polar Year, 2007-2008

    Neumayer StationThe latest International Polar Year, organized through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), took place in 2007-2008. It was gigantic international multidisciplinary collaborative with around 10 000 scientists and 50 000 other participants from over 60 countries. Main objectives of this megaproject were to significantly increase the scientific knowledge and understanding of the polar areas, especially the wide-ranging and significant impacts of climate warming in the Arctic and Antarctic, and to conduct research projects beyond the resources of individual countries. In addition, the Polar Year aimed at educating a new generation of polar scientists and engineers and raise awareness of the public and policymakers of the importance of the polar areas for the entire planet. The disciplinary breadth of the third IPY far exceeded the previous Polar Years of 1882, 1932 and the 1957 IGY providing more comprehensive picture of the polar areas.

    IPY legacy

    Learning from the previous IPYs and from the lack of continuity between the IPYs, it was decided that this time the outcome of the immense research should be captured in a form accessible to all. It was also clear to the participants, that the polar areas were such large and important for the earth’s ecology that the research could not only be conducted in short random periods, but it should be continuous process of information collection, implementation and education.

    What has become an IPY legacy includes activities such as observatory and research programs in the Polar Regions, educational opportunities, student and early career researcher initiatives and data and information sharing programs. The IPY Legacy will foster the international scientific cooperation to a higher level and promote a wide scale scientific knowledge and information sharing for the benefit of the generations to come.

    To learn more about the Third International Polar Year 2007-2008, please visit the IPY 2007-2008 homepage or read the IPY 2007-2008 Joint Committee Summary Report

    To search the IPY projects, please visit the IPY Project Database

    To learn more about the IPY scientific data, please visit the IPY Data and Information Services (IPYDIS)

  • CAFF Flora Group and Arctic Lichen Distribution Map

    CAFF Flora Group and Arctic Lichen Distribution Map

    CAFF – Flora group

    arctic flowerTraditionally, conservation and research activities for arctic plants have not been well coordinated in terms of common direction, concerns, reporting, and information exchange. Governmental and non-governmental groups have been organized bilaterally. Therefore, plant conservation and research activities have not had a fully circumpolar perspective.

    During the next few decades the Arctic will be strongly affected by forces within and from outside the region, including the impacts of global climate change, resource development, changes in numbers of wildlife species, increases in permanent residents, and burgeoning tourism.

    The relatively simple and often fragile arctic ecosystems are dramatically altered through changes to the species composition of the vegetation, destruction of wetlands, and thawing of ice-rich permafrost, as well as through feedbacks of these effects to global hydrologic and atmospheric systems. To preserve plant diversity, conservation programs must be guided by the biological requirements of species and ecosystem components as biological diversity ensures a healthy biosphere.

    Traditionally, conservation and research activities for arctic plants have not been well coordinated in terms of common direction, concerns, reporting, and information exchange. Except for two CAFF action items, Panarctic Flora Project (PAF) and Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Mapping Project (CAVM), governmental and non-governmental groups are often organized bilaterally. Therefore, plant conservation and research activities have not had a fully circumpolar perspective.

    Arctic Lichen Data Map

    Arctic LichenWith the creation of the CAFF Flora Group (CFG) within the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) of the Arctic Council, it is ensured that scientists, conservationists, and managers interested in arctic flora and vegetation have a forum to promote, facilitate, and coordinate conservation, management, and research activities of mutual concern. Conservation of rare and endemic arctic plants is one of the roles of Caff Flora Group. Adequate knowledge of all plants present in the Arctic and their distribution within the Arctic is a prerequisite for satisfactory preservation of arctic diversity.

    As part of this task, a list of all lichens (1610) and lichenicolous fungi (250) recorded in the Arctic is presented in the Arctic Lichen Distribution Map on the Arctic Portal. For this purpose the Arctic has been divided into 28 regions with separate lists for every region. The highest lichen diversity is found in West Greenland, 851 species. Well investigated arctic regions of considerable size generally contain about 5-600 species of lichens. 133 species of lichens appear endemic to the Arctic according to present knowledge. That means they are not found anywhere outside the Arctic. 15 species of lichens have been recorded in all of the 28 arctic regions.

    To view the Arctic Lichen Distribution Map, please click here.