ALBERT

Description: During the IPY, two international hands-on training workshops were held at the Otto-Schmidt Laboratory for Polar and Marine Research at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. These workshops were under the conference heading of IMPETUS, meaning to be the catalyst for new collaborations between young Russian researchers and their international counterparts. IMPETUS 2007 provided insights into the latest techniques and methods used in permafrost research in fields as diverse as permafrost modeling, investigations of mountain ice segregation, bubbling from thermakarst lakes, and submarine permafrost. It brought together experts to provide young investigators with a multidisciplinary and cross-border perspective on permafrost research, a much needed approach in a discipline marked by strong research history yet strongly entangled within national boarders. IMPETUS 2008 focused on the latest techniques and methods used in polar ocean observation in research fields including nutrient and primary production monitoring, data transmission, remote sensing in oceanography and meteorology, sea-ice monitoring, seafloor mapping and Arctic drilling, coastal sediment dynamics, and climate modeling. It brought together experts to provide young researchers with a cross-border perspective in polar ocean research, a needed approach in a field characterized by the presence of many different, partially overlapping disciplines. Both IMPETUS workshops improved existing and built up new collaborations and networks including the whole range from early to senior career scientists. The success of these workshops highlights the need for a ‘sense of belonging’ among scientists beyond the traditional nationally and disciplinarily established boarders.

Description: Arctic coastal zones serve as a sensitive filter for terrigenous matter input onto the shelves via river discharge and coastal erosion. This material is further distributed across the Arctic by ocean currents and sea ice. The coastal regions are particularly vulnerable to changes related to recent climate change. We compiled a pan-Arctic review that looks into the changing Holocene sources, transport processes and sinks of terrigenous sediment in the Arctic Ocean. Existing palaeoceanographic studies demonstrate how climate warming and the disappearance of ice sheets during the early Holocene initiated eustatic sea-level rise that greatly modified the physiography of the Arctic Ocean. Sedimentation rates over the shelves and slopes were much greater during periods of rapid sea-level rise in the early and middle Holocene, as a result of the relative distance to the terrestrial sediment sources. However, estimates of suspended sediment delivery through major Arctic rivers do not indicate enhanced delivery during this time, which suggests enhanced rates of coastal erosion. The increased supply of terrigenous material to the outer shelves and deep Arctic Ocean in the early and middle Holocene might serve as analogous to forecast changes in the future Arctic.

Description: C51A-0489: The terrigenous carbon export into the Arctic shelf systems is a major component of the Arctic Organic Carbon (OC) cycle. Mac Guire et al.(2009)in their review on the Arctic Carbon Cycle recommendate to strengthen observations and design the research sector of 'scaling' that is a key challenge to link the processes observed and understood on fine scales to larger scales, e.g., needed for modeling. Here, remote sensing observations can become important tools. Recent development of satellite ocean color sensors such as MODIS, SeaWiFS, MERIS has been accompanied by an increased effort to establish Ocean Colour (OC) algorithms (e.g., for chlorophyll, suspended matter, coloured dissolved organic matter). The ‘OCoc-from Ocean Colour to Organic Carbon’ project (IPY-project 1176), funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), is an Ocean Colour study joined with the Arctic Coastal Dynamics ACD network and Arctic Circum-polar Coastal Observatory Network ACCO-Net (IPY-project 90). OCoc uses MERIS data for synoptical monitoring of terrigenous suspended and organic matter in the late-summer ice-free waters of the Laptev See region. MERIS Reduced Resolution (RR)-LIB data are processed towards optical aquatic parameters using Beam-Visat4.2 and the MERIS Case2 Regional processor for coastal application (C2R). Calculated aquatic parameters are optical coefficients and calculated concentrations of chlorophyll, total suspended matter and coloured dissolved organic matter absorption from the water leaving reflectances. The Laptev Sea is characterized by a very shallow topography and considerable Regions of Fresh water Influence ROFIs. The maximum river discharge of the Lena River, the second largest Arctic river in terms of annual fresh water discharge happens during the spring ice-breakup in June. Fluvial systems serve as point sources for high fluxes of dissolved and particulate terrigenous materials. The Laptev Sea coast is a highly dynamic mainly sedimentary ice-rich system that delivers vast amounts of interstorage carbon and old carbon from syncryogenic deposits. Initial comparisons with expedition data (cDOM, transparency, SPM, turbidity, chlorophyll) from the German-Russian TRANSDRIFT expeditions and from German-Russian expeditions at the Laptev Sea Coast (2008 to 2010) are presented. MERIS-C2R optical parameters such as the first attenuation depth, ’Z90’, seem adequately to represent true conditions. Whereas the derived concentration parameters seem to be overestimated. The synoptic information of the optical MERIS-C2R parameters offers an immediate wealth of information. The spatial patterns of the processed MERIS C2R time series show the inter-annual scale of the atmospherically driven circulation patterns. On event scales, we need to investigate if weather patterns potentially contribute to short pulses and circulation patterns.

Description: Understanding the responses of tundra systems to global change has global implications. Most tundra regions lack sustained environmental monitoring and one of the only ways to document multi-decadal change is to resample historic research sites. The International Polar Year (IPY) provided a unique opportunity for such research through the Back to the Future (BTF) project (IPY project #512). This article synthesizes the results from 13 papers within this Ambio Special Issue. Abiotic changes include glacial recession in the Altai Mountains, Russia; increased snow depth and hardness, permafrost warming, and increased growing season length in sub-arctic Sweden; drying of ponds in Greenland; increased nutrient availability in Alaskan tundra ponds, and warming at most locations studied. Biotic changes ranged from relatively minor plant community change at two sites in Greenland to moderate change in the Yukon, and to dramatic increases in shrub and tree density on Herschel Island, and in sub-arctic Sweden. The population of geese tripled at one site in northeast Greenland where biomass in non-grazed plots doubled. A model parameterized using results from a BTF study forecasts substantial declines in all snowbeds and increases in shrub tundra on Niwot Ridge, Colorado over the next century. In general, results support and provide improved capacities for validating experimental manipulation, remote sensing, and modeling studies

Description: Fifty young researchers from 14 countries met in St. Petersburg, Russia, to learn about the latest methods used in permafrost research and engineering and to discuss future plans to address climate change issues in permafrost areas. This workshop was an official International Polar Year (IPY) event organized jointly by the Otto Schmidt Laboratory for Polar and Marine Sciences (OSL) in St. Petersburg, the Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN), and the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). The workshop provided insights into the latest techniques and methods used in permafrost research in fields as diverse as permafrost modeling, investigations of mountain ice segregation, bubbling from thermokarst lakes, and submarine permafrost detection. It brought together experts to provide young investigators with a multidisciplinary and cross-border perspective on permafrost research, a much needed approach in a discipline marked by strong research history yet strongly entangled within national borders. Presentations and speaker biographies are now available on the conference Web site (http://pyrn.ways.org/activities/pyrn-meetings/2007-saint-petersburg).