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National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs
"The arctic regions are among the most sensitive
to environmental change, and have exceptionally long natural climate records,
and thousands of years of human settlement. This interplay provides a
unique basis for integrated research on global systems and human adaptation."
Click here for the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs Website
Why We Must Study the Arctic
"We must study the Arctic
basically to understand the area and its climate and to predict climate
change. Models suggest that the earliest onset of warming will occur
in the polar regions, and that such changes will be the largest in polar
regions. Just as important...people live there! Ninety percent of
the world's population resides in the Northern Hemisphere. There
will be a significant socio-economic impact (positive or negative) created
through getting the correct answer to the questions: Is the world undergoing
man-induced global climate change, or are the observed environmental changes
the early part of a natural, decadal cycle? Arctic peoples depend
on marine and terrestrial mammals, a decline in which would affect subsistence
lifestyles.
Furthermore, the Arctic
Ocean is the world's "weather engine"; it is one of the major
influences on the world's climate. It is an extremely complicated
area with Atlantic, Pacific and continental fresh water mixing.
Very few observations exist for this area and, therefore, prediction skill
is very poor. The Arctic Ocean and adjacent land areas combine to
create the most complicated environment on earth...also the most poorly
understood. For example, knowledge of Arctic Ocean geology and tectonics
is hardly greater than equivalent to "pre-plate-tectonics" knowledge
of the rest of the world. Current scientific understanding of the
Arctic Ocean bottom lags behind the rest of the world by 40 years (e.g.
we know more about the topography of Venus and Mars than about the bathymetry
of the Arctic Ocean). Fundamental oceanographic measurements, such
as salinity, carbon cycles, biology, are totally unknown in some regions.
We lack a clear understanding of the Bering Sea...an ecosystem that yields
50% of U.S. table fish and a fishery valued at $2.2 billion in 1998."
Taken from a speech by George B. Newton, Chairman of the United States
Arctic Research Commission. Why We Must Study the Arctic, presented
to the Barrow Science Communicators Tour, Barrow, Alaska. September
6, 2000.
Learn more about the duties, goals, and priorities of the U.S.
Arctic Research Commission
Arctic Research Consortium of the United States
Rapid changes are...taking place in arctic societies,
especially in political and economic systems, and these processes are
more apparent and less affected by extraneous influences in the Arctic
than many other areas of the world. From a high-level of self-sufficiency
in the recent past, arctic peoples now are incorporated into national
states and the global economy. In many places, such as Alaska, Greenland,
and Canada (where the new territory of Nunavut is being formed), arctic
peoples are gaining political and economic power. In other places, such
as Russia, arctic residents are struggling to cope with massive political
and economic changes. In the U.S., recent welfare reforms have implications
for the viability of many arctic communities. Throughout the world, changes
in markets for oil, minerals, forest products, and marine resources are
having far-reaching consequences for subsistence and commercial activities.
The ways in which these changes take place and the variations in the processes
and outcomes need to be understood.
Opportunities in Arctic Research: Final Report. Arctic Research
Consortium of the United States (ARCUS), Fairbanks AK. October 1998.
Arctic Research in A Circumpolar Context
The Arctic includes some of the most extreme environments
on the planet. Radical changes in temperature and the amount of
daylight alternately constrain and stimulate arctic terrestrial and marine
ecosystems. People around the circumpolar North have coped successfully
over millenia with this environment, accumulating an extensive body of
environmental knowledge as well as keen awareness of ecosystem changes.
The Arctic's physical and biological systems are regulated by processes
that offer numerous opportunities for advancing basic knowledge.
The Arctic and its residents
appear to be particularly vulnerable to environmental, social, and economic
changes. For example, climate model studies suggest that the arctic environment
will react particularly sensitively to global climate change (Manabe and
Stouffer, 1994). Research results show that arctic climate and ecosystems
are indeed changing substantially and that these changes are having impacts
on people living in and outside the Arctic. Some changes appear to have
begun as early as the 1970s, but many have only become significant in
the 1990s; many of these changes are documented by data collected in the
Barrow area (Maslanik et al., 1996). The observed changes and the processes
that cause them appear to be linked to changes in the whole Northern Hemisphere,
involving physical characteristics in the atmosphere, ocean, and on land.
Early indications suggest that the physical changes also are causing changes
in the arctic biosphere. Because many of the Arctic's human populations
are tied to the natural environment, they are sensitive to changing conditions
(Gibson and Shullinger, 1998).
Rapid changes also are
taking place in arctic societies, especially in political and economic
systems. From relative self-sufficiency in the recent past, arctic peoples
now are incorporated into national states and the global economy. In many
places, arctic peoples are gaining political and economic power (Korsmo,
1999). In other places, such as Russia, arctic residents are struggling
to cope with massive political and economic changes (Fondahl, 1998).
Throughout the world, changes in markets for oil, minerals, forest products,
and marine resources are having far-reaching consequences for subsistence
and commercial activities (Chance and Andreeva, 1995).
Current research in the
Arctic increasingly takes an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to
such regional and global problems. Major arctic research efforts are directed
at investigating the Arctic as part of the global system, including:
- Documenting major changes apparent in the
arctic atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean,
- Estimating arctic freshwater flux and its
effects on productivity and circulation of the Arctic Ocean and the
global ocean system,
- Understanding ecosystem dynamics on many
scales, including the harvestable fisheries and wildlife resources so
important to the people of the Arctic,
- Quantifying snow/ice albedo effects on energy
budgets,
- Determining whether arctic ecosystems are
sources or sinks for carbon and quantifying the resulting trace gas
dynamics, and
- Understanding the human populations in the
North, particularly through the prehistory of the Arctic, the lifeways
of indigenous peoples, and their responses to social and economic change.
These investigations require geographic as well as disciplinary
integration as researchers elucidate process dynamics at local and regional
scales and compare results from different locations around the Arctic.
Scientific projects increasingly encompass the circumarctic region as
a whole, requiring better year-round access to the Arctic and stimulating
international collaborations. Expansion of current U.S. research
efforts (which are small in comparison to the region's size and global
importance) would allow documentation and understanding of the changes
that are already taking place, how they are impacting the human population,
and how people living in the Arctic can adapt to these changes (Schlosser
et al., 1997).
The Future of an Arctic Resource: Recommendations from the Barrow Area Research Support Workshop. 1999. Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS), Fairbanks, AK. pp 15-17.
Contaminants
Arctic Pollution Issues
"The Arctic is a focus for major atmospheric, riverine,
and marine pathways which result in the long-range transport of contaminants
into and within the Arctic. The Arctic is, therefore, a potential
contaminant storage reservoir and/or sink. Various processes remove
these contaminants from the atmosphere, oceans and rivers and make them
available to plants and animals. Food chains are the major biological
pathways for selective uptake, transfer, and sometimes magnification of
contaminants by Arctic plants and animals, many of which are subsequently
consumed by Arctic peoples."
"Current understanding of transport processes and
the ability to quantify them is inadequate. In particular, determination
of transport processes and their relative importance or magnitude within
and between compartments (air, land, water, ice, sediments and biota)
is essential."
Arctic Pollution Issues: State of the Arctic Environment Report.
Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. 1998.
Pg viii, x.
View/download the entire report or learn
more about AMAP
Effects of Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Arctic
"Although Arctic
biota contain a range of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), particularly
organochlorines (OCs), there has previously been little knowledge of the
biological effects of these substances in Arctic species."
"...A research program directed at immunology and
immunosuppression in the species identified as most at risk is a high
priority given the fact that very little is known about these species.
Similarly, research on reproduction in key Arctic species should be done,
particularly with reference to the possible sensitivity of species with
delayed implantation, including mustelids, seals and polar bear.
More research into the toxicology of known OC compounds and the major
bioaccumulated components of toxaphene, MeSO2-PCB and —DDT
metabolites, chlordanes and less persistent, current use OC pesticides,
are required in species at risk, particularly fish and marine mammals
in order to be able to better assess biological effects. Research
to establish thresholds data for Ocs, particularly for use in wildlife
should be a priority.
More research into the effects of multiple stressors
is required. In particular, the effects of starvation and other
environmental stressors combined with mobilization of lipid-associated
OCs may be an important exposure pathway."
De Wit, C. A., et al. 1997. An Overview of the AMAP Assessment of Persistent
Organic Pollutants in the Arctic: Biological Effects. In: The
AMAP International Symposium on Environmental Pollution of the Arctic,
Volume 1 (Eds. Reiersen, Lars-Otto, et al). Arctic Monitoring
and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. June 1997. 432 pp.
Sea Ice and Global Change
"Global change modeling requires and adequate understanding
of the mechanical, electromagnetic, optical, and thermal properties of
sea ice, as well as its capacity to transfer solutes through the ice sheet,
to support biological activity, and to entrain and transport contaminants.
The manner in which sea ice forms produces a characteristic microstructure
and a unique and complex flaw structure, both of which exert major influences
on all of these characteristics and processes."
Anon., 2001. Physical Properties and Permeability of First-Year
Sea Ice. Witness the Arctic 8 (2): 12.
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to Witness the Arctic or download the entire Winter 2000/01 (Vol.
8 No. 2) edition
Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation
"Before 1996, most studies of arctic ozone showed
rather small impacts in comparison to the very large ozone losses recorded
over Antarctica; during the winters of 1995-96 and 1996-7, however, researchers
found evidence of major ozone losses over the Arctic. In addition,
more frequent episodes of extremely low ozone levels, particularly during
the springtime, have been reported. The interrelated issues of ozone
depletion and UV exposure in the arctic environment present interesting
research challenges and are likely to have serious human and ecosystem
impacts."
Cahill, C. and E. Weatherhead. 2001. Ozone Losses Increase Possible
UV Impacts in the Arctic. Witness the Arctic 8 (2): 1-2.
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to Witness the Arctic or download the entire Winter 2000/01 (Volume
8 Number 2) edition
Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus)
Behavior
"It is encouraging that we know enough about bowhead
whale behavior to be able to define our areas of ignorance, and perhaps
what techniques are desirable to overcome this lack of knowledge...we
know practically nothing about life in late fall and winter. A dedicated
program of aerial surveys, behavioral data gathering from the air, and
radio tracking will help. We do not know how bowhead "social sounds"
and song fit into their social behavior, movement patterns, and mating
strategies; and we do not yet know anything definitive about the latter.
Photography for individual recognition and long-term studies of known-age-and-sex
whales would be helpful here. Photogrammetric work, coupled with photo-identification,
promises eventually to give better age-size information. Sex is not easily
determined by visual observation, however, and cytogenetic sexing from
skin samples of known animals will likely help to elucidate social behavior
and mating patterns in the future (Jeffreys, et al. 1985, Matthews, et al. 1988). These techniques are especially difficult and expensive
to carry out on bowhead whales, but if the past 10 yr are a good indication
of the great amount of knowledge we can amass on bowhead (and other) whales
in a relatively short time, then the next 10 yr promise to open up even
more sophisticated insight as we strive to learn enough about great whales
to place them well into the framework of knowledge on other mammals."
Wursig, B. and Clark, C. 1993. Behavior. In: The Bowhead Whale (Eds. J. Burns, J.J. Montague, C.J. Cowles). Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence,
Kansas. 192.
Feeding Ecology
"Only some of the areas
used by bowheads for feeding have been studied. Satellite telemetry and
research on stable isotope ratios may help identify feeding areas, describe
feeding behavior, and allow a more accurate assessment of the significance
of different regions for the energetics of various age and sex classes
of whales. Until a comprehensive picture of the annual feeding cycle is
obtained, evaluations of the significance of particular areas for feeding,
or of the potential effects of displacement from those areas, will be
tenuous."
"...Prior to their decimation by commercial whalers,
bowheads of the Bering Sea population summered, and presumably fed, in
the Bering and Chukchi seas, as well as the Beaufort Sea. In those
areas, especially in the Bering Sea, they were part of a very complex
food web involving many species of invertebrates, fishes, seabirds, and
marine mammals, including several other species of planktivorous baleen
whales (Frost and Lowry 1981b ). Presently, bowheads do not share
their primary summer feeding grounds with any other species of baleen
whale. If bowheads are to regain their former abundance, it is likely
that they will have to reoccupy portions of their summer feeding grounds
that were abandoned decades ago. Why do bowheads leave the highly productive
Bering Sea each year, just prior to the spring bloom, and migrate 3,000
km to the less productive Beaufort Sea for the summer feeding season?
This is but one of the many important questions about bowhead feeding
ecology that remain to be answered, and that should be addressed by future
studies of bowhead whales and the ecosystems in which they live."
Lowry, L. F. 1993. Foods and Feeding Ecology. In: The Bowhead
Whale (Eds. J. Burns, J.J. Montague, C.J. Cowles). Allen Press, Inc.,
Lawrence, Kansas. 233-234.
Excerpts from The
Future of an Arctic Resource: Recommendations from the Barrow Area Research
Support Workshop. 1999. Arctic Research Consortium of the United States.
Fairbanks, AK. 22, 24, 26, 28-29.
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