| 1. |
- Bring, Arvid, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
-
Hydrological and hydrochemical observation status in the pan-Arctic drainage basin
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Polar Research. - : Norwegian Polar Institute. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 28, s. 327-338
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In order to identify and understand the ongoing changes in the Arctic hydrological cycle, and the impacts on the Arctic Ocean, timely and open access to water and water-chemistry data is essential. By synthesizing and analysing all openly accessible water-discharge and water-quality data, we present an updated, quantitative picture of the status of observational data on hydrological and hydrochemical fluxes from the pan-Arctic drainage basin (PADB) to the ocean. We identify and compare the characteristics of monitored and unmonitored areas, and the differences between them, across the continents in the PADB. Results indicate significant gaps in monitoring data for water chemistry, in particular for high-latitude near-coastal areas. The differences in characteristics between monitored and unmonitored areas may bias assessments of hydrological and hydrochemical fluxes to the Arctic Ocean. The reliable identification and understanding of important biogeochemical processes in the PADB require extended monitoring, particularly in high-latitude permafrost ground, and more ready access to harmonized and integrated hydrochemical data.
|
|
| 2. |
- Dalerum, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
-
Diet of wolverines (Gulo gulo) in the western Brooks Range, Alaska
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Polar Research. - : Norwegian Polar Institute. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 28:2, s. 246-253
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Migratory caribou herds are an important component of the North American tundra. We investigated the wolverine (Gulo gulo) diet in the migratory range of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd in north-western Alaska. Within this area, caribou are absent or occur at low densities for large parts of the year, and thus show a strong seasonality in abundance. Analyses of stomach and colon contents suggested that wolverines primarily consumed caribou during the winter, and that the dietary dependence was related more to caribou mortality than to caribou abundance in the area. We also found indications that wolverines may switch between moose and caribou during periods of low caribou abundance, but that such a switch did not affect wolverine body condition. Our results thus support previous observations that wolverines primarily consume ungulates. However, a better knowledge of how alternative food sources are utilized will be necessary to predict the dietary and demographic responses of wolverines to variations in caribou abundance. We also suggest that further efforts should be made to investigate the effects of other ungulate-dependent predators on wolverine feeding ecology, because such predators may function both as competitors and as suppliers of carrion for scavenging.
|
|
| 3. |
- Einarsson, Niels, 1962-
(författare)
-
From good to eat to good to watch : whale watching adaptation and change in Icelandic fishing communities
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Polar Research. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 28:1, s. 129-138
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Arctic and North Atlantic fishing communities may seem unlikely candidates for a viable whale-watching industry, because of the prevalent traditional consumptive attitudes toward marine mammals and their uses. The topic of this paper is the introduction of an internationally growing industry of whale watching in a fishing village in north-east Iceland, and how local inhabitants reconcile opposing views on whales, whaling and the new cetacean tourism. The paper also discusses the conflict between fishermen and marine mammals, and how it is managed in an area where fishing is still a mainstay of the economy, and where marine mammals are seen by many as competitors for scarce resources, and even as pests. This anthropological case study is used to address wider issues of adaptation, community viability and resilience in small resource-dependent coastal settlements, coping with rapid social and ecological change.
|
|
| 4. |
- Gröndahl, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
-
Survey of waste water disposal practices at Antarctic research stations
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Polar Research. - : Norwegian Polar Institute. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 28:2, s. 298-306
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To inform the future practices to be employed for handling waste water and grey water at the Swedish Antarctic station, Wasa, in Dronning Maud Land, the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat took the initiative to survey the practices of the 28 nations with stations in Antarctica. A questionnaire was sent out to all members of the Antarctic Environment Officers Network during the autumn of 2005. Questions were asked about the handling of waste water and grey water, the type of sewage treatment, and installation and operational costs. The response to the questionnaire was very good (79%), and the results showed that 37% of the permanent stations and 69% of the summer stations lack any form of treatment facility. When waste water and grey water containing microorganisms are released, these microorganisms can remain viable in low-temperature Antarctic conditions for prolonged periods. Microorganisms may also have the potential to infect and cause disease, or become part of the gut flora of local bird and mammal populations, and fish and marine invertebrates. The results from 71 stations show that much can still be done by the 28 nations operating the 82 research stations in Antarctica. The technology exists for effective waste water treatment in the challenging Antarctic conditions. The use of efficient technology at all permanent Antarctic research stations would greatly reduce the human impact on the pristine Antarctic environment. In order to protect the Antarctic environment from infectious agents introduced by humans, consideration should also be given to preventing the release of untreated waste water and grey water from the smaller summer stations.
|
|
| 5. |
- Hjort, Christian, et al.
(författare)
-
Mountain-derived versus shelf-based glaciations on the western Taymyr Peninsula, Siberia
- 2008
-
Ingår i: Polar Research. - : Norwegian Polar Institute. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 27:2, s. 273-279
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The early Russian researchers working in central Siberia seem to have preferred scenarios in which glaciations, in accordance with the classical glaciological concept, originated in the mountains. However, during the last 30 years or so the interest in the glacial history of the region has concentrated on ice sheets spreading from the Kara Sea shelf. There, they could have originated from ice caps formed on areas that, for eustatic reasons, became dry land during global glacial maximum periods, or from grounded ice shelves. Such ice sheets have been shown to repeatedly inundate much of the Taymyr Peninsula from the north-west. However, work on westernmost Taymyr has now also documented glaciations coming from inland. On at least two occasions, with the latest one dated to the Saale glaciation (marine isotope stage 6 [MIS 6]), warm-based, bedrock-sculpturing glaciers originating in the Byrranga Mountains, and in the hills west of the range, expanded westwards, and at least once did such glaciers, after moving 50-60 km or more over the present land areas, cross today's Kara Sea coastline. The last major glaciation affecting south-western Taymyr did, however, come from the Kara Sea shelf. According to optically stimulated luminescence dates, this was during the Early or Middle Weichselian (MIS 5 or 4), and was most probably not later than 70 Kya. South-western Taymyr was not extensively glaciated during the last global glacial maximum ca. 20 Kya, although local cold-based ice caps may have existed.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Keskitalo, E. Carina H., 1974-, et al.
(författare)
-
The role of governance in community adaptation to climate change
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Polar Research. - Oslo : Norsk Polarinstitutt. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 28:1, s. 60-70
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The 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.
|
|
| 8. |
- Kohler, Jack, et al.
(författare)
-
A long-term Arctic snow depth record from Abisko, northern Sweden, 1913-2004
- 2006
-
Ingår i: Polar Research. - : Norwegian Polar Institute. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 25:2, s. 91-113
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A newly digitized record of snow depth from the Abisko Scientific Research Station in northern Sweden covers the period 1913-present. Mean snow depths were taken from paper records of measurements made on a profile comprising 10 permanent stakes. This long-term record yields snow depths consistent with two other shorter term Abisko records: measurements made at another 10-stake profile (1974-present) and at a single stake (1956-present). The measurement interval is variable, ranging from daily to monthly, and there are no data for about half Of the winter months in the period 1930-1956. To fill the gaps, we use a simple snowpack model driven by concurrent temperature and precipitation measurements at Abisko. Model snow depths are similar to observed; differences between the two records are comparable to those between profile and single stake measurements. For both model and observed snow depth records, the most statistically significant trend is in winter mean snow depths, amounting to an increase of about 2 cm or 5% of the mean per decade over the whole measurement period, and 10% per decade since the 1930-40s, but all seasonal means of snow depth show positive trends on the longest timescales. However, the start, end, and length of the snow season do not show any statistically significant long-term trends. Finally, the relation between the Arctic Oscillation index and Abisko temperature, precipitation and snow depth is positive and highly significant, with the best correlations for winter.
|
|
| 9. |
- Löwemark, Ludvig, et al.
(författare)
-
Arctic Ocean manganese contents and sediment colour cycles
- 2008
-
Ingår i: Polar Research. - : Norwegian Polar Institute. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 27:2, s. 105-113
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cyclical variations in colour and Mn content in sediments from the central Arctic Ocean have been interpreted to represent climatically controlled changes in the input of Mn from the Siberian hinterland and/or variations in the intermediate and deep water ventilation of the Arctic basins, although a diagenetic origin has not been excluded. A reinvestigation of core 96/12-1pc using an Itrax XRF core scanner confirms that these colour cycles are indeed controlled by variations in Mn content, although changes in the source region of the sediment may override the Mn-colour signal in certain intervals. The prominent Mn cycles show no correspondence to any of the other measured elements. This decoupling of the Mn and the bulk chemistry of the sediment is taken to indicate that the cycles observed are caused by variations in water column ventilation and riverine input rather than variations in sediment source or diagenesis. We therefore conclude that the Mn cycles do represent warm phases with increased ventilation and/or riverine input, and that they therefore could be used for chronostratigraphic correlation between cores from the central Arctic Ocean where traditional isotope stratigraphy is difficult or impossible to establish due to the lack of calcareous microfossils.
|
|
| 10. |
- Möller, Per, et al.
(författare)
-
Glacial and palaeo-environmental history of the Cape Chelyuskin area, Arctic Russia
- 2008
-
Ingår i: Polar Research. - : Norwegian Polar Institute. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 27:2, s. 222-248
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Quaternary glacial stratigraphy and relative sea-level changes reveal at least two glacial expansions over the Chelyuskin Peninsula, bordering the Kara Sea at about 77°N in the Russian Arctic, as indicated from tills interbedded with marine sediments, exposed in stratigraphic superposition, and from raised beach sequences mapped to altitudes of at least up to ca. 80 m a.s.l. Chronological control is provided by accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dating, electron-spin resonance and optically stimulated luminescence geochronology. Major glaciations, followed by deglaciation and marine inundation, occurred during marine oxygen isotope stages 6–5e (MIS 6–5e) and stages MIS 5d–5c. These glacial sediments overlie marine sediments of Pliocene age, which are draped by fluvial sediment of a pre-Saalian age, thereby forming palaeovalley/basin fills in the post-Cretaceous topography. Till fabrics and glacial Tectonics record expansions of local ice caps exclusively, suggesting wet-based ice cap advance, followed by cold-based regional ice-sheet expansion. Local ice caps over highland sites along the perimeter of the shallow Kara Sea, including the Byrranga Mountains and the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, appear to have repeatedly fostered initiation of a large Kara Sea ice sheet, with the exception of the Last Glacial Maximum (MIS 2), when Kara Sea ice neither impacted the Chelyuskin Peninsula nor Severnaya Zemlya, and barely touched the northern coastal areas of the Taymyr Peninsula.
|
|
