ALBERT

Beschreibung: Many writers have presented Joseph Elzéar Bernier (1852–1934) as a hero whose key role in establishing Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic islands was unjustly downplayed by the government he served. According to this view, the sector claim that Bernier made on 1 July 1909 is the true foundation of Canada's title to the archipelago. This article draws on government files to assess civil servants’ attitude to his sovereignty-related activities. It also describes the role played by James White, whose more sophisticated and effective sector concept predated Bernier's and served as the basis for the official sector claim made in June 1925. The evidence indicates that government officials in the 1920s were well justified in their doubts about Bernier's pretensions. However, even though they rejected his version of the sector theory and resented the campaign of self-glorification on which he embarked after his retirement, their personal relations with him were good, and they took considerable trouble to ensure what they considered to be an appropriate degree of recognition for him. The article therefore clarifies the differences between Bernier's rhetoric and reality, particularly with regard to the sector principle.

Beschreibung: Energy companies and builders of energy transportation infrastructure find it difficult to evaluate Arctic natural gas development. Their business critical decisions require the assessment of not just technical risks but intangible issues regarding the future and past interactions of an energy system. These concerns call attention to the problem of time. In this article, I examine three types of time from which efforts to commercialise Alaska natural gas are drawn into the temporality of global energy markets: (1) volatility time, in which price spikes determine outcome; (2) government time, in which law and regulation assist in commercial enterprise, and; (3) entrepreneurial time, in which individuals of industry take initiative. These types of expectation in Alaska natural gas development correspond consequently to three methods for fixing time and space. In short, they are three development time-spaces or chronotopes. By offering these forms of time, taking place between 2000–2005, this article draws attention to concrete visualisations of constructing a pipeline to deliver natural gas from Alaska to continental United States. I argue that these efforts represent precise and well-marked steps and reflect a specific course of development, passing from self-confident ignorance, to self-reflective consultation and finally to genuine understanding.

Beschreibung: The artist Pavel Nikolayevich Mikhailov (1786–1840) took part in the Antarctic expedition of the Imperial Russian Navy commanded by Captain F.F. Bellingshausen from 1819 to 1821. The author was invited to view the collection of Mikhailov's work, from two expeditions, that is held at the Russian Museum, St Petersburg. The Bellingshausen pieces in the collection are described, and their relationships to the smaller collection of Mikhailov's work for the Bellingshausen expedition, held at the State Historical Museum in Moscow, to the lithographs in the Atlas volume of Bellingshausen's published narrative, and to the various versions of Mikhailov's images that have been published in the 20th and 21st centuries, are discussed.

Beschreibung: The volume variation of a glacier is the actual indicator of long term and short term evolution of the glacier behaviour. In order to assess the volume evolution of the Austre Lovénbreen (79° N) over the last 47 years, we used multiple historical datasets, complemented with our high density GPS tracks acquired in 2007 and 2010. The improved altitude resolution of recent measurement techniques, including phase corrected GPS and LiDAR, reduces the time interval between datasets used for volume subtraction in order to compute the mass balance. We estimate the sub-metre elevation accuracy of most recent measurement techniques to be sufficient to record ice thickness evolutions occurring over a 3 year duration at polar latitudes.The systematic discrepancy between ablation stake measurements and DEM analysis, widely reported in the literature as well as in the current study, yields new questions concerning the similarity and relationship between these two measurement methods.The use of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) has been an attractive alternative measurement technique to estimate glacier area and volume evolution over time with respect to the classical in situ measurement techniques based on ablation stakes. With the availability of historical datasets, whether from ground based maps, aerial photography or satellite data acquisition, such a glacier volume estimate strategy allows for the extension of the analysis duration beyond the current research programmes. Furthermore, these methods do provide a continuous spatial coverage defined by its cell size whereas interpolations based on a limited number of stakes display large spatial uncertainties. In this document, we focus on estimating the altitude accuracy of various datasets acquired between 1962 and 2010, using various techniques ranging from topographic maps to dual frequency skidoo-tracked GPS receivers and the classical aerial and satellite photogrammetric techniques.

Beschreibung: When the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955–1958 advance party sailed from the Millwall Docks in November 1955, bound for the Weddell Sea, their departure was the product of five years of intensive effort on the part of Vivian Fuchs to achieve the first overland crossing of the Antarctic continent. This paper investigates the many obstacles that had to be overcome leading up to Theron sailing and explains the manner in which they were overcome by the Fuchs-Wordie-Clifford triumvirate. The British Foreign Office was particularly opposed to the expedition with the office's focus on sovereignty rather than science while an alternative proposal from Duncan Carse raised a unique set of difficulties. The withdrawal from involvement by the Scott Polar Research Institute Director, Colin Bertram, indicated further disaffection. Most important, if political and financial goals were to be met, was the need for participation by several Commonwealth countries of which New Zealand was the essential partner. Fortunately, the vigorous efforts of a few Antarctic enthusiasts in New Zealand were successful in moving their government to assert its long dormant position in the Ross Dependency. New Zealand's commitment turned the tide of commonwealth apathy towards the TAE. Although the TAE preceded the IGY, events, including the dominating IGY presence of the United States, caused the two projects to become tightly interwoven. For these reasons the years leading up to the departure of Theron were as intriguing as the crossing journey itself.

Beschreibung: This article takes a normative approach to explore what and how we might learn from existing indigenous governance arrangements in the Arctic and how they may contribute to the larger debates over Arctic governance and who decides. It begins with a brief exploration of the existing literature regarding co-management; particularly what some legal scholars have defined as post-Westphalian resource management as well as engaging ongoing discussions about co-management as it pertains to the Arctic. It then turns to the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC) as a case study and possible starting point for governing newly emerging resource management issues in the Arctic. Specifically, this article will look at how the governance framework of the AEWC might be applicable for the current governance discussions regarding Arctic offshore oil and gas development. Lastly, this paper will offer preliminary reflections as to how a post-sovereign resource management approach could contribute to the broader theoretical debates concerning who owns the Arctic and who decides. Specifically it offers one possible way to envisage the future of a strengthened Arctic Council operating in a world where states are not the only actors participating in the governance of the Arctic.

Beschreibung: The Antarctic Treaty has been the principal governing force in Antarctica since 1961. The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Protocol) requires that all past and present work and waste-disposal sites are cleaned up unless doing so would cause greater environmental damage or the site is considered to be a monument of significant historical importance. Despite this requirement, legacy waste issues remain unresolved in parts of Antarctica. Clean-up operations in Antarctica are complicated by a combination of restricted access, extreme weather, financial limitations and logistical constraints. Further complications arise at sites such as Wilkes Station, where the requirement for clean-up coexists with the desire to preserve potentially valuable heritage items.Several buildings and artefacts with potential heritage value remain at Wilkes Station. However, Wilkes Station is not officially designated as a historic site or monument under the Antarctic Treaty, nor is it a national or world heritage place under Australian domestic legislation. Consequently the buildings and relics at Wilkes Station are afforded little protection under the existing relevant domestic and international legislative frameworks.This paper uses Wilkes Station as a case study of the complexities associated with conducting clean-up operations at contaminated sites with informal heritage value in Antarctica. The legislative and environmental considerations surrounding clean-up operations at Wilkes Station are also investigated. Furthermore, we argue the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to operations which facilitate the clean-up of legacy waste and preservation of the potential heritage values at Wilkes. Finally, we recognise that the complexities discussed in this paper have wider applicability and we investigate the relevance of these issues to other Antarctic contaminated sites with formal or informal heritage value.

Beschreibung: For some time, Inuit have made it clear that they wish to play a more substantial role in research with implications for themselves and their territory. To understand how researchers communicate and relate to each other, cultural analysis is often employed. Although cultural differences are relevant to understanding problems in the conduct of research, limiting differences to these realities is overly deterministic and essentialist. Many differences arising in the research process are products of social constructions found in Canadian culture and, increasingly, in Inuit communities. The paper re-examines the complexities of cross-class relations, focusing on how different relations to money, as a proxy for other relations characteristic of the capitalist mode of production, consumption and commodification, impact Inuit interaction with western-educated researchers. Using the Nanisiniq Arviat History Project in the community of Arviat, Nunavut Territory Canada, as a case study, the paper is a qualitative analysis of miscommunication resulting from cross-class differences. The Nanisiniq project was a two-year participatory action research project bringing Inuit youth and elders together to rediscover, interpret and apply knowledge of their history and culture to contemporary social issues affecting them.

Beschreibung: Each year Polar Record calls upon numerous scholars to assist in the demanding and intensive refereeing and peer-review procedures for manuscripts submitted for publication. These individuals give generously of their time and expertise to help ensure that a high academic quality is maintained in Polar Record. During the preparation of the four issues for 2013, the following individuals participated in the review and refereeing process. Our deep appreciation for their assistance is offered to all.

Beschreibung: Icy environments (glacial ice and sea ice) can be complex ecosystems, supporting a diversity of communities. In particular, the μ-environments in which bacteria and algae are found are poorly understood. One important habitat is the liquid trapped in the ice, either as veins and triple junctions inherent in the ice structure or as liquid inclusions. μ-Raman spectroscopy is an analytical tool with the potential to characterise qualitatively and quantitatively these liquid μ-environments especially with respect to molecular anions such as nitrate, sulphate, bisulphate and MSA. Using a model system for glacial ice, splat-cooled samples were prepared from aqueous solutions of these anions at varying concentrations (50–75 mM total sulphate, 30–200 mM nitrate, and 10–55 mM MSA). Concentrations of these anions in the vein liquid were measured directly and non-destructively at –15 °C using μ-Raman spectroscopy. In agreement with predicted concentrations in glacial ice veins, it was found that typical ionic concentrations in veins are quite high, with mean concentrations ranging from 0.23 M to 3.5 M depending on anion type and initial concentration. For sulphate solutions, it was also possible to measure vein pH's directly. The observed pH in these systems was extremely low, in some cases ~1. The results of these model studies as well as the implications for ice vein concentrations in natural systems of polycrystalline ice are discussed.

Beschreibung: We present an update of the ‘key points’ from the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) report that was published by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 2009. We summarise subsequent advances in knowledge concerning how the climates of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean have changed in the past, how they might change in the future, and examine the associated impacts on the marine and terrestrial biota. We also incorporate relevant material presented by SCAR to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, and make use of emerging results that will form part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report.

Beschreibung: Lieutenant de vaisseau Joseph René Bellot, (1826–1853) participated, as second-in command, in Lady Franklin's private expedition in search of her missing husband on board Prince Albert, under the command of Captain William Kennedy in 1851–1852. Having wintered at Batty Bay on the east coast of Somerset Island, Kennedy and Bellot sledged south in the spring of 1852, to Bellot Strait, which they discovered. Having passed through the strait, they crossed Peel Sound, and continued west across Prince of Wales Island to Ommanney Bay, then back across Prince of Wales Island, north to Cape Walker, and back to Batty Bay via the north coast of Somerset Island and Prince Leopold Harbour. They discovered no trace of the missing Franklin expedition. In 1853 Bellot again volunteered to go to the Arctic, this time as supernumerary on board the supply ship Phoenix, Captain Edward Inglefield. From Beechey Island, Bellot volunteered to carry dispatches north up Wellington Channel to Captain Sir Edward Belcher who was in that vicinity. Having been driven out of sea on an ice-floe, Bellot disappeared during a gale, and it is assumed that he was blown off the ice into the water and was drowned. Memorials to Bellot may be found on Beechey Island, at Greenwich, England and at Rochefort, France, but probably the most enduring memorial to him is the name ‘Bellot Strait’, applied by Kennedy to the narrow strait between Somerset Island and Boothia Peninsula which represents an integral component of one variant of the northwest passage.

Beschreibung: An experimental linear mixture modelling using ground spectroradiometric measurements in the Kola Peninsula, Russia has been carried out to create a basis for mapping vegetation and non-vegetation components in the tundra-taiga ecotone using satellite imagery. We concentrated on the ground level experiment with the goal to use it further for the classification of multispectral satellite imagery through spectral unmixing. This experiment was performed on the most detailed level of remote sensing research which is free from atmospheric effects and easy to understand. We have measured typical ecotone components, including Cetraria nivalis, Betula tortuosa, Empetrum nigrum, Betula nana, Picea abies and rocks (nepheline syenite). The result of the experiment shows that the spectral mixture is indeed formed linearly but different components have different influence. Typical spectral thresholds for each component were found which are significant for vegetation mapping. Spectral unmixing of ground level data was performed and accuracy was estimated. The results add new information on typical spectral thresholds which can potentially be applied for multispectral satellite imagery when upscaling from high resolution to coarser resolution.

Beschreibung: Tourism in Antarctica has grown substantially over recent decades and has diversified into different activities and modes of transport. This paper presents a first attempt to explore the implications of this diversification trend for Antarctic tourist experiences, wildlife and onsite management. Evidence from a passenger survey, participatory observations and expert interviews using video elicitation has been collected during, and in the context of, a diving expedition cruise. The data suggests that significant differences can be detected in the way divers and non-divers experience aspects of the trip, most notably regarding guides. The results also indicate that diverse activities generate a broader variance in attitudes and behaviours, which may have repercussions for wildlife, site use and onsite management. Given the diversification trend it is timely and necessary to revisit and consistently enforce site guidelines and visitor guidelines with an eye on multi-activity trips. In addition, further studies on the implications of this trend are needed by means of case studies, surveys looking at a wider range of tourist trips, and monitoring programmes assessing wildlife behaviour and impacts.

Beschreibung: The Antarctican Society, based in the United States, has produced a medallion (Fig. 1) in recognition of the centennial of the discovery of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen and Captain Robert Falcon Scott, in 1911 and 1912, respectively. This item is representative of both expeditions.

Beschreibung: Further progress is reported concerning the preservation of Belgica, currently a wreck in Norwegian waters.

Beschreibung: Remote sensing has provided evidence of vegetation changes in Arctic tundra that may be attributable to recent climate warming. These changes are evident from local scales as expanding shrub cover observed in aerial photos, to continental scales as greening trends based on satellite vegetation indices. One challenge in applying conventional two date, satellite change detection in tundra environments is the short growing season observation window, combined with high inter-annual variability in vegetation conditions. We present an alternative approach for investigating tundra vegetation and surface cover changes based on trend analysis of long-term (1985-present) Landsat TM/ETM+ image stacks. The Tasseled Cap brightness, greenness, and wetness indices, representing linear transformations of the optical channels, are analysed for per-pixel trends using robust linear regression. The index trends are then related to changes in fractional shrub and other vegetation covers using a regression tree classifier trained with high resolution land cover. Fractional trends can be summarised by vegetation or ecosystem type to reveal any consistent patterns. Example results are shown for a 3 000 km2 study area in northern Yukon, Canada where index and fractional changes are related to growth of vascular plants and coastal erosion.

Beschreibung: With the melting of sea ice in the Arctic, the potential for higher shipping access has markedly changed. Shipping activity in the Arctic is increasing, including tourism and exploration activities, underlining the need for reliable communication and monitoring. This article examines the interactions between climate and sea ice change, the patterns of cruise ship tourism through Arctic Canada and the interest of operators to increase their activities in the cruise tourism market in the region. Since 1995, the melting of the summer pack ice in the offers the possibilities of increased shipping in this region while encouraging speculation regarding the potential of the northwest passage (NWP) and the Canadian Arctic to become a major cruise maritime highway. Integrating research from both human and transport geography, this article presents an analysis of vessel movements. It also analyses perceptions of charters and cruise ship operators and of their interests in the cruise tourism market. Discussion is focused on issues associated with the lack of available vessels and maritime infrastructure, regulations in the Canadian arctic waters, security and search and rescue. This research could prove useful for communities, and policy makers, as well as the cruise sector itself, with regard to response to change in these remote locations.

Beschreibung: The history of biotic exploitation for the continental margin (shelf and slope) of the Antarctic Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) is reviewed, with emphasis on the period from 1970 to 2010. In the Antarctic Peninsula portion, marine mammals were decimated by the 1970s and groundfish by the early 1980s. Fishing for Antarctic krill Euphausia superba began upon the demise of groundfish and now is the only fishing that remains in this region. Surveys show that cetacean and most groundfish stocks remain severely depressed, harvest of which is now prohibited by the International Whaling Commission and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). On the other hand, krill fishing in this region is underway and in recent years has contributed up to 72% of the Southern Ocean catch, depending on fishing conditions and the CCAMLR conservation measures in force. Elsewhere along the Antarctic continental margin, marine mammals were also severely depleted by the 1970s, followed directly by relatively low-level fisheries for krill that continued until the early 1990s. Recently in these areas, where fin-fishing is still allowed, fisheries for Antarctic toothfish Dissostichus mawsoni have been initiated, with one of this fish's main prey, grenadiers Macrourus spp., being taken significantly as by-catch. Continental margin fishing currently accounts for ~25% of the total toothfish catch of the Southern Ocean. Fishing along the Antarctic continental margin, especially the Antarctic Peninsula region, is a clear case of both the tragedy of the commons and ‘fishing down the food web’.

Beschreibung: Research undertaken between 1960 to 1990 into what was once a rock painting tradition in Finland, lacked a clear understanding of parallels between the painted figures found at rock painting locations in the southern and central areas of the country, and the motifs painted on the heads of Sámi shaman divination drums from Lapland. However, due to the discovery and analysis of the content of more rock painting sites in Finland from 1990 up to the present, a more comprehensive framework has emerged in which scholars from across different academic disciplines have discovered many more similar characteristics linking the rock paintings and drum symbolism. These recent findings point towards the survival of a nature based sacrificial religion from the Stone Age era in Finland. The source of this was shamanistic in its essence, and is seen portrayed on rock and boulder formations by hunters similarly to how figures were illustrated on drum heads by the Sámi shamans from the nomadic era of the 17th and 18th centuries in Lapland. This more recent recognition strengthens the argument for Sámi involvement in the creation of rock paintings in Finland.

Beschreibung: On 12 May 2011 at the seventh ministerial meeting, the member states of the Arctic Council (AC) signed the Arctic SAR agreement, the first legally binding agreement negotiated under the auspices of the AC. Its objective is to strengthen search and rescue cooperation and coordination in the Arctic. The purpose of this article is to explore why an agreement on search and rescue under the auspices of the AC has been negotiated; what its key features are; and lastly, how it is and will be implemented. It is argued that the SAR agreement is more important for the AC than for Norway. It has had limited practical consequences in that country. The agreement may be politically and symbolically significant but it has neither financially nor organisationally changed Norwegian search and rescue policy.

Beschreibung: In recent decades, the mining industry has expanded globally especially in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Mines often boost rural economies, but may have also negative impacts on environment and local livelihoods, such as tourism and reindeer herding. That is why acceptability and undeniable right to operate – the social licence (SL) to mine has become more and more important in mining related discussions. We examine empirically issues relating to SL in two mining projects in Finnish Lapland, Hannukainen in Kolari and Suurikuusikko in Kittilä. The main results emphasise the importance of transparency in mining operations and the continuity of communications with local stakeholders in building and maintaining the SL to mine. If the transparency of operations is lacking and issues come to publicity only via the media, this may affect the public image of a company and finally challenge its SL to operate and, in the long term, potentially effect the financing decisions of mining investors. We show that acquiring and keeping up a SL links not only to the developments in the actual mining site, but is also connected to processes taking place in other localities. These connections may emerge in various scales; between various local communities, mining companies and global financing principles, for instance. We use and propose ‘multi-sited ethnography’ as a method to describe and better understand complex linkages which may effect the SL to mine.

Beschreibung: The accompanying table gives a pragmatic indication of current national interests in polar research and other activities through association of states with four international agreements. Two of these are inter-governmental treaties and the two committees are non-governmental scientific organisations. One of each pertains to the Arctic and the others to the Antarctic. Each agreement has two classes of association, which are indicated in the table.

Beschreibung: The predominantly Inuit Arctic region of Nunavik in the Province of Québec, Canada, currently needs to address major challenges and opportunities. The region needs to develop more employment and wealth creation opportunities without sacrificing the vital land-based subsistence sector that provides food security, sustains cultural identity and provides social and economic stability. A decision about a new direction needs to be taken soon as major mining projects are developing at a rapid pace. In this paper we first assess existing socioeconomic and living conditions data to evaluate the state of social well-being in the region. In addition we report and analyse information from an economic forum in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik in April 2010. The purpose of the forum was to provide an opportunity for regional and local stakeholders to obtain information on specific economic opportunities for Nunavik and to discuss their merit for the communities. Based on our data evaluation and the outcomes at the forum we identify a possible sustainable development feedback envisioning process and discuss possible sustainable development directions for Nunavik.

Beschreibung: This article presents a model for the analysis of the domestic-international nexus of Arctic politics. It offers a preliminary attempt at mapping the domestic politics of Arctic boundary disputes in Canada. It explores the potential impact of domestic politics on such disputes by identifying the interests of domestic stakeholders in the Canadian Arctic. The paper views maritime boundary negotiations as a ‘two-level game’ in which negotiations occur internationally and domestically. The paper argues that the domestic level negotiation is contingent on how the issues are ‘framed’ between policymakers and their constituents. The paper identifies ways that domestic actors can reduce the number of acceptable outcomes in a two-level game, thereby impeding cooperation.

Beschreibung: This article focuses on one potential motivation for a state's behaviour in international affairs, namely status-seeking, in order to shed light on Norway's Arctic politics and to discuss the role of hierarchies in Arctic politics more generally. The idea that a state's political elite seek national security and economic gain is well established in international relations (IR) literature. However, another key motivation of human behaviour – seeking status and respect – is frequently overlooked as a potential factor shaping states’ behaviour. The argument begins with a brief review of post-cold war Arctic politics followed by a discussion of the status-related literature in IR. Norway's position in the Arctic Council (AC) and in bilateral relations with Russia is then examined, with particular attention paid to the extent to which other Arctic states acknowledge and confirm Norway's status claims. Norway's status as an information provider, a convener and a bridge to Russia gives the country a degree of influence in Arctic multilateral settings. Given the Arctic region's relatively peaceful nature and the emphasis on circumpolar cooperation, space has been made for creative approaches to status. Size and military or economic greatness are not always decisive factors for taking a lead in today's Arctic politics.

Beschreibung: In addition to the visits to Beechey Island referenced in my recent article (Hansen 2010), M'Dougall also describes his visit to Beechey Island (in Resolute with De Bray) from Tuesday 10 August 1852 (mistakenly given as 11 August) to Sunday, 15 August (M'Dougall 1857: 78–87). He gives his version of the inscriptions of the three Franklin expedition headboards. While he follows the mistaken placement order as in Osborn and The Illustrated London News of 4 October 1851 (Osborn 1865: 90; The Illustrated London News 1851b), comparison of the inscriptions with both Kane (Kane 1854: 163) and the photo of the Torrington headboard in Powell (Powell 2006: 330, Fig. 10) now lead me to conclude that M'Dougall's rather than Kane's version of the Franklin headboards inscriptions are probably the most accurate of the contemporary accounts.

Beschreibung: The introduction of the ‘western diet’ marked a decline in omega–3 fatty acids rich foods and a concurrent increase in saturated and omega–6 fatty acids that persists today. Historically, circumpolar people have had a low incidence of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease and this has been largely attributed to polyphenolic compounds and omega–3 fatty acids offered from subsistence foods. In this report, we studied sled dogs as an Arctic sentinel species for monitoring the effect of a changing diet on lipid profiles along the Yukon River. Subsistence fed village sled dogs along the Yukon River, maintained largely on salmon were compared with a control kennel maintained on commercial food. Profiles showed higher levels for long chain omega–3 fatty acids in village subsistence fed dogs compared to control dogs and an opposite trend for omega–6 fatty acids, establishing baseline levels for follow up studies. A comparison with data for previously published mercury levels from the same cohort of dogs revealed a positive correlation with alpha–linolenic fatty acid and a negative correlation with linoleic fatty acid. Food and nutritional security is a concern in the Arctic as the impacts of climate change and transport of contaminants become obvious. This study supports not only the nutritional value of a subsistence diet but also the utility of sled dogs as a sentinel for human dietary change.

Beschreibung: Due to poor weather conditions including common heavy cloud cover at polar latitudes, daily satellite imaging is not always accessible. Nevertheless, fast events including heavy rainfall inducing floods appear as significant in the ice and snow budget while being ignored by satellite based studies since the slower sampling rate is unable to observe such short phenomena. We complement satellite imagery with a set of ground based autonomous automated high resolution digital cameras. The recorded oblique views, acquired at a rate of 3 images per day, are processed for comparison with the spaceborne imagery. Delaunay triangulation based mapping using a dense set of reference points provides the means for an accurate projection by applying a rubber sheeting algorithm. The measurement strategy of identifying binary information of ice and snow cover is illustrated through the example of a particular flood event. We observe a snow cover evolution from 100% to 44.5% and back to 100% over a period of 2 weeks.

Beschreibung: The Edge Anglican church (originally St Alban's) in the northern Hobart suburb of Claremont has above its main altar a triptych stained glass window, a memorial to Robert Falcon Scott R.N. New information suggests that the designer/manufacturer was Auguste Fischer of Melbourne, a close associate of the church's architect, Alan Cameron Walker of Hobart. The window was promised by Mrs Edith Knight at the laying of the foundation stone of the church in July 1913, five months after Scott's death became known to the world. Lady Ellison-Macartney attended the ceremony. She was Scott's sister and wife of the recently appointed governor of Tasmania, Sir William Ellison-Macartney. Other members of Scott's family were also living in Hobart at the time. The Ellison-Macartneys and their daughter Esther attended the dedication of the window on 17 October 1915. Admiral E.R.G.R. Evans, second in command of Scott's expedition, spoke to The Royal Society of Tasmania on 29 March 1930, on the topic of Scott's last Antarctic venture.

Beschreibung: On theBelgicaexpedition (1897–1899), Dr F.A. Cook described a disease that he called ‘polar anaemia’ and on this expedition it affected most of the expedition members and caused one death. The symptoms were shortness of breath, abnormalities of the pulse and oedema (swelling of the legs) and the disease was clearly cardiac failure. During the heroic age of Antarctic exploration a similar disease affected at least eight other expeditions causing five other deaths. This disease was very similar (and probably identical) to a disease affecting (mostly) Scandinavian seamen and called ‘ship beri-beri’. Both diseases were almost certainly what is now called wet beri-beri due to thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency though most sufferers were probably also vitamin C deficient and some may have had both beri-beri and scurvy. It may have been exacerbated by invalid diets. This paper describes the disease and how it was considered and treated at the time.

Beschreibung: The Russian South Pole expedition carried out in 1819–1821 was an early milestone in the scientific exploration of the Antarctic. The expedition took place under the command of the Baltic German Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. Bellingshausen came from the Island of Saaremaa in Estonia. The Russian empire, and followed by the Soviet Union, did not attach much importance to Bellingshausen's expedition. It was only after World War II as the question of the Antarctic received close attention that the Bellingshausen expedition received political significance in the Soviet Union. The fact that the expedition really took place was used by the Soviet Union to claim rights to the Antarctic and also to argue for its participation in Antarctic exploration (see Tammiksaar 2007; Bulkeley 2011). In the early stages of exploration of the continent, Estonians were given the opportunity to carry out investigations there. The first Estonian research programme in the Antarctic, on noctilucent clouds, was elaborated by the astronomer Charles Villmann. Altogether some tens of Estonians have visited the southern continent performing investigations in earth sciences, atmospheric physics, hydrology and ecology of surface waters and the human influence on them. They have also carried out isotope studies of the ice sheet to reconstruct environmental conditions in the past.

Beschreibung: Distributions of gymnosomatous pteropods,Spongiobranchaea australisandClione antarctica, were determined at six sites along a latitudinal gradient in western Antarctica Peninsula shelf waters using vertically stratified trawls. Hydrographic data were collected at the same sites with conductivity-temperature-depth casts, and correlations of explanatory variables to gymnosome distributions were determined using statistical analyses performed in Matlab, a high level programming software to conduct numerical computation and visualisation. Explanatory variables included sampling site, latitude, longitude and depth, seawater temperature, salinity and density, Southern Ocean Antarctic Surface Water, Winter Water, Upper Circumpolar Deep Water and warm transitional waters, as well as oceanographic remote sensing data for coloured dissolved organic matter, chlorophyllaconcentration, normalised fluorescence line height, nighttime sea surface temperature, photosynthetically active radiation, particulate inorganic carbon, particulate organic carbon, daytime sea surface temperature and daily sea ice concentration. Hydrographic data revealed that warmer water masses were prevalent along the western Antarctic Peninsula, and the distributions of both gymnosome species were primarily influenced by water masses, temperature, sampling site and latitude. As a consequence, distributional shifts of gymnosomes are predicted in response to the current warming trends.

Beschreibung: This note considers the latest iterations to the Arctic Council following the May 2013 ministerial meeting in Kiruna, Sweden. While new state observers including China and Japan were admitted, the European Union's application was deferred and the entire list of non-governmental and intergovernmental organisation applicants was rejected without consideration. Although time-based pressures may have been a factor, the failure to consider the non-state entities’ applications has the effect of reinforcing the impression that the Arctic Council is and will remain a state-centric body.

Beschreibung: Sir John Franklin's widow, Jane Franklin, planned a biography of her husband in the years following the disappearance of his expedition. In this project she was directly assisted by her niece and amanuensis Sophia Cracroft. This biography never came to fruition, but it did result in an unpublished manuscript history of the Franklin family, dated 1853, which Cracroft shared with Franklin's early biographers. The manuscript provides an interesting account of the Franklin family, including the detailed circumstances of the failure of the Boston and Spilsby Bank in 1804, which caused great financial and emotional stress. The final section of the manuscript provides an account of John Franklin's early naval career and Arctic expeditions.

Beschreibung: In order to explore further Japan's Ainu policy, this reply firstly outlines the differences in opinions that between Dr. Nakamura and myself, and secondly addresses some of the main points of my paper published in this journal. Dr. Nakamura takes into consideration domestic circumstances instead of international human rights law, while I emphasise that Japan's international obligations lies in its adherence to international human rights law and that domestic law must conform to international obligations for the Ainu. My paper chronologically summarises Japan's post-war Ainu policy and investigates who and what has influenced this policy and the law.

Beschreibung: In the summer of 1880, the British explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith made the first reconnaissance of the western reaches of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa [Franz Josef Land] in the specially built polar research vessel Eira. This was the first expedition to go ashore in the archipelago after its acknowledged discovery by Weyprecht and Payer in 1873. Combined with his brief reconnaissance in 1881 before Eira sank near Cape Flora, Leigh Smith added a total of 41 place names, 37 of which are still in use, to its geographic nomenclature during his two expeditions, 1880 (39 place names) and 1881–1882 (2). The 1880 names were a post-expedition collaboration, between Leigh Smith and Clements Markham, Secretary of the Royal Geographic Society (RGS). Leigh Smith provided the names of colleagues and scientists who had either been with him in 1880 or on one of his earlier expeditions to Svalbard, or those of favoured relatives, while Markham, along with Sir George Nares as an RGS peer reviewer, added the names of particularly influential individuals in geographical circles as well as a variety of museum curators who identified natural history collections returned by the expedition. Additionally, two place names are connected to the Dutch Willem Barents expedition of 1879.

Beschreibung: This commentary reviews Maruyama's article ‘Japan's post-war Ainu policy: why the Japanese Government has not recognised Ainu indigenous rights?’ (Maruyama 2013a), published in this journal. Maruyama criticises the government for its reluctance to enact a new Ainu law to guarantee indigenous rights, even after Japan's ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). However, in actuality, the government is searching for the foundation of new Ainu policies in the existing legal frameworks and trying to guarantee some elements of indigenous rights. Japan's case suggests the possibility of realising indigenous rights without the enactment of a specific law.

Beschreibung: The roots of a British Antarctic policy can be traced, paradoxically, back to the establishment of a meteorological station by the Scottish Antarctic Expedition in the South Orkneys, in 1903, and the indifference of the British Government to its almost immediate transfer to the Argentine Government. It was from that modest physical presence upon Laurie Island that Argentina came increasingly to challenge British claims to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands Dependencies (FID), first in the late 1920s and then more extensively in the second world war. This challenge shaped British policy for the next forty years, with further complications caused by overlapping territorial claims made by Chile and the possible territorial ambitions of the USA. Britain's eventual response, at the height of World War II, was to establish permanent occupation of Antarctica from the southern summer of 1943–1944. This occupation was given the military codename Operation Tabarin. However, it was never a military operation as such, although monitoring the activities of enemy surface raiders and submarines provided a convenient cover story, as did scientific research once the operation became public. Whilst successive parties, rich in professional scientists, considerably expanded the pre-war survey and research of the Discovery Investigations Committee, their physical occupancy of the Antarctic islands and Peninsula was essentially a political statement, whereby the Admiralty and Colonial Office (CO) strove to protect British territorial rights, whilst the Foreign Office (FO) endeavoured to minimise disruption to Britain's long-standing economic and cultural ties with Argentina, and most critically, the shipment of war-time meat supplies. In meeting that immediate need, Tabarin also provided the basis from which Britain's subsequent post-war leadership in Antarctic affairs developed.

Beschreibung: This book (Schwarzenbach 2011) has a strange and remarkable history, which explains the fact that it has now been published in 2011, 58 years after the fieldwork on the project that was undertaken in the summer of 1953.

Beschreibung: The aim of this study was to determine the differences in cellulolytic activity of soils around the coastal lowlands of the southwestern part of Wedel Jarlsberg Land (west Spitsbergen). Two positions (Calypso and Skilvika) representing typical soil types in this area were chosen for investigation. Within the area of Calypso, arctic brown soils formed from loamy sands with a significant addition of coarser gravel and pebble fractions occur. The Skilvika position represents the arctic gley soils of a loamy texture, with significant content of silt, associated with the occurrence of cell grounds created under the strong influence of cryogenic processes. Cellulolytic activity of the soils was determined by a gravimetric method involving estimation of a weight loss of cellulosic material buried in the surface soil horizons. The investigation showed significant differences in the cellulose decomposition rate between the two research locations. The cellulolytic activity of arctic brown soils –0,412–0,656 g*g−1*year−1 during the vegetation season (Olson's k = 0,231–0,563), was twice higher than the activity in the case of Skilvika gley soils –0,185–0,310g*g−1*year−1 during vegetation season (k = 0,089–0,131). This should be attributed, among other factors, to the grain size distribution, thereby determining more favourable water-air conditions of soils within the area of Calypso.

Beschreibung: The Thule region in north Greenland formerly supported a population of musk-oxen (Ovibos moschatus). Radiocarbon dating of bones of this mammal collected on the terrain surface and from archaeological sites has yielded late Holocene ages, indicating that the species was a late immigrant to this part of Greenland. The species may have arrived at a time when the area was uninhabited, and it had at least a thousand years to spread south, before the Late Dorset people arrived. The heavy glaciation of Melville Bugt in the late Holocene was probably the main reason that the musk-ox did not disperse south to west Greenland. The population of musk-ox in the region may have peaked during the Medieval Warm Period, and the species survived during the occupation of the region by the Late Dorset people. The size of the population may have declined during the beginning of the Little Ice Age, and musk-ox was probably exterminated from the region shortly after the arrival of the mobile Thule people.

Beschreibung: The full extent of the height and scale of the Sentinel Range, Antarctica, was not known until reconnaissance flights and scientific traverses in the International Geophysical Year (IGY), 1957–1958. These explorations revealed the range to be twenty miles in length, with a large number of high peaks culminating in Mt. Vinson, the highest on the Antarctic continent at nearly 4900 meters. The discoveries captured the interest of the U.S. and world mountaineering communities setting off a competition to achieve the first climb of Vinson. The challenge was tempered only by the range's remoteness from the coast of Antarctica and the formidable logistics of mounting a mountaineering expedition. The US which had the most advanced ski-equipped cargo aircraft, had an established post-IGY policy that prohibited adventure expeditions that could divert logistic resources from the scientific programme. This paper discusses Mt. Vinson competition within the US and international climbing communities, mounting national pressures to achieve the first climb, and a reversal in policy by the US Antarctic Policy Group that resulted in the 1966–1967 American Antarctic Mountaineering Expedition's first ascents of Vinson and five other high peaks. Today, between 100 and 200 persons climb Mt. Vinson each austral summer.

Beschreibung: This article studies the role of observers under both the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) and the Arctic Council (AC) before the Nuuk ministerial meeting that took place in May 2011. In this meeting, the AC actors were able to find consensus on criteria for admitting new observers, an issue that has received much media attention, given that China and the European Union, for example, are queuing to become observers in the AC. It is of importance to examine the content of these recently adopted Nuuk observer rules and their potential to impact decision-making on whether the external actors can be included as observers. Moreover, this article studies how, if at all, the Nuuk observer rules might affect the position of the AC in the broader setting of circumpolar cooperation.

Beschreibung: A cold-tolerant fungal strain Thelebolus microsporus was investigated for the first time for its pigment and fatty acid production. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis confirmed the presence of carotenoid pigment. Gas chromatography observations showed the presence of major fatty acids: myristic acid (14:0), palmitic acid (16:0), stearic acid (18:0), heptadecanoic acid (17:0), linolenic acid (18:3) and linoleic acid (18:2). Of these, linolenic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid, was present in substantial quantity, suggesting that it may have a role in adapting the fungus to low Antarctic temperatures by modulating membrane fluidity. The commercial application of linolenic acid is as a food supplement for humans suffering from eczema, cardiovascular disease and diabetic neuropathy. Another fatty acid, linoleic acid, a precursor of 1-octen-3-ol, is the principal aromatic compound in most fungi and has also been documented in this strain. Screening of the fungal culture for extracellular enzyme activity for amylase, protease, lipase, chitinase and cellulase was carried out. The isolate showed maximum α-amylase activity at 20°C, suggesting effective applications as a detergent additive, in textile processing and in the food industry.

Beschreibung: The academic study of local and regional history in Sweden took on a quite new form and significance in the 18th century. Humiliating defeats in wars had brought the kingdom's period of greatness to an end and forced the crown to re-evaluate the country's position and image and reconsider the internal questions of economic efficiency and settlement. One aspect in this was more effective economic and political control over the peripheral parts of the realm, which meant that also the distant region of Kemi Lapland, bordering on Russia, became an object of systematic government interest. The practical local documentation of this area took the form of dissertations prepared by students native to the area under the supervision of well known professors, reports sent back by local ministers and newspaper articles. The people responsible for communicating this information may be said to have functioned as ‘mimic men’ in the terminology of H.K. Bhabha. This supervised gathering and publication of local information created the foundation for the nationalist ideology and interest in ordinary people and local cultures that emerged at the end of the century and flourished during the 19th century.

Beschreibung: Each year Polar Record calls upon numerous scholars to assist in the demanding and intensive refereeing and peer-review procedures for manuscripts submitted for publication. These individuals give generously of their time and expertise to help ensure that a high academic quality is maintained in Polar Record. During the preparation of the four issues for 2011, the following individuals participated in the review and refereeing process. Our deep appreciation for their assistance is offered to all.

Beschreibung: Radiocarbon age determinations on marine shells in lateral moraines and other deposits several kms behind the present day termini of tidewater outlet glaciers from the Prince of Wales Icefield, east-central Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Arctic Canada, as well as tidewater glaciers from two nearby ice-caps, show that these glaciers have fluctuated considerably through the Holocene, both in length and in thickness. The terminus of Leffert Glacier, for which the best documentation is available, has been more than 20 km west of the position that it occupied in 1898–1899, when it was mapped for the first time. Leffert Glacier was much reduced in size for a period of several thousand years, between roughly 6450 and 185014C years BP. Other major outlet glaciers that have experienced significant fluctuations of their termini during the Holocene are: 1) MacMillan, Ekblaw and Tanquary glaciers in the Baird Inlet area, 2) Stygge Glacier and adjacent unnamed glaciers at the head of Jokel Fiord, 3) Benedict Glacier at the head of Sawyer Bay and 4) Parrish Glacier, the southernmost outlet glacier from the Agassiz Ice Cap. Of the glaciers investigated, only Alfred Newton Glacier, south of Cape Herschel, has surged during the period of field observation (1977 to 2009), and this glacier is now receding from the position attained in a surge which commenced in 1981. The terminus of Ekblaw Glacier, at the head of Baird Inlet, is now well forward of the position it occupied in 1950, when the first aerial photograph coverage was achieved.

Beschreibung: At the start of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration there was great confusion concerning the cause of scurvy. It was known that it was related, in some way, to food but it was uncertain as to how, and there were two main theories. The first was that it was caused by a deficiency of fruit and vegetables and the other that it was caused by a toxic material in tinned foods. In addition, older theories that it was caused by dirt and damp still carried weight and Almroth Wright had proposed that scurvy was caused by too much acid in the blood. An additional confusion was that vitamin C deficiency was often combined with other vitamin deficiencies and so other diseases might be labelled as scurvy. The discovery of vitamins occurred over the same period but, as with all new scientific concepts, the knowledge that scurvy was caused by a vitamin deficiency took time to be universally accepted. It was generally accepted by about 1920, although some people did not accept it until vitamin C has been isolated in 1932.

Beschreibung: Antarctica is a rugged, austere, and yet stunningly beautiful continent with charismatic fauna including several species of penguins, whales, and seals. Mass media, writings from the early explorers, and modern film all describe firsthand experiences as delightful, beautiful, challenging, humbling, and even awe-inspiring. This dramatic allure of Antarctica now fuels one of the fastest growing tourism markets in the world with over 30,000 visitors annually traveling to the continent. Despite the fact that Antarctic tourism has occurred for over 30 years, little research has investigated the psychological and affective influence of these immersive tourism experiences in the Antarctic environment. This study explored visitors' affective judgments regarding their Antarctic tourism experience. An onsite post experience survey was administered to Antarctic tourists to investigate their satisfaction with a range of tour attributes. In addition, the researchers used the open-ended question, “How did this Antarctic experience affect you?” to explore tourists’ affective response to their interaction with the Antarctic tourism environment. These open ended responses were coded using a priori themes generated from Kellert's environmental values typology. Additionally, each response was analysed for the presence of an awe experience. Further analysis revealed that tourists described five sub-dimensions of an ‘awe’ experience (nature-human relationship, spiritual connection, transformative experience, goal clarification, and sense of feeling humbled), with many individuals experiencing multiple dimensions of awe. Consequently, this analysis reveals that the impact of an Antarctic tour experience is powerful, rich, and extremely complex.

Beschreibung: This paper develops a simple method for the detection of ‘vegetation anomalies’, locations where the amount of vegetation, estimated through the use of the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), is significantly lower than expected on the basis of topographic factors alone. The method is developed and tested using satellite imagery from the area around the town of Monchegorsk on the Kola Peninsula, Russia. This area has been subject to heavy levels of airborne industrial pollution for many years and the intended purpose of the method is to allow the extent of pollution damaged vegetation to be estimated with as few operational decisions as possible by the data analyst, thus suiting it for automation and for the analysis of time-series of satellite images. While the work described in this paper is to some extent preliminary, it does establish that spatial variations in the NDVI of undisturbed vegetation can, at least in the study area, be modelled satisfactorily using topographic variables, and that negative departures from this modelled variation are very strongly associated with industrially mediated damage.

Beschreibung: During the explorations of Pourquoi-Pas?, commanded by Jean Baptiste Charcot, in the Southern Ocean in the period 1908–1910, Ensign R.-E. Godfroy collected, between latitudes 64°09'S and 70°05'S, eleven samples of air, according to instructions given by Muntz and Luné (1911) for measuring the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere. The samples were later analysed in the laboratories of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, Paris using basically the same methods as for the samples collected by the French First Polar Year expedition 1882–1883 (Baker 2009). The maximum concentration of CO2 was 255 ppm, the minimum 145 ppm (the sample taken at sea at 69°30'S) and the mean 205 ppm. The average of the concentrations in the samples made by the French first IPY expedition at Bahia Orange was 256ppm and the minimum was 231 ppm.

Beschreibung: The Arctic region is widely recognised to be one of the most sensitive to climate change. Here, the consequences of current trends will be felt most keenly; ice cap melting and thinning and the consequent implications for sea level rise and loss of habitat may be profound. Yet these regions remain amongst the most poorly chronicled. Recent advances in satellite monitoring and instrumental observations now provide valuable information, but this record extends over little more than half a century. For earlier times, the record is, at best, patchy and inconsistent. This is not, however, to imply that all such data and information have been recognised and fully exploited. This is far from the case and this paper draws attention to largely overlooked documentary sources that can extend our knowledge of the far North Atlantic climate back to the late eighteenth century. These documents consist of the logbooks of sailing ships navigating those hazardous waters in the late eighteenth and early- to mid-nineteenth centuries.This paper focuses specifically on those logbooks kept on board Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) ships on their regular annual voyages between the UK and Hudson's Bay between 1760 and 1870. The information they contain is shown to be detailed, reliable and of unique character for the period and place. The style and form of presentation of the logbooks is reviewed and particularly those aspects that deal with the daily meteorological information they contain. Attention is also drawn to the high degree of homogeneity found in the logbooks in terms of presentation and methods of preparation, rendering them directly and helpfully comparable one with another. A specific example is offered of the benefits of using these data and it is proposed that this set of logbooks, when taken collectively and, embracing as it does over a century from 1750 provides a matchless, substantial and uniformly reliable source of oceanic weather information for the far North Atlantic for what can be regarded as the ‘pre-instrumental’ period (before 1850).

Beschreibung: Willi Dansgaard, a great pioneer of climate research, died on 8 January 2011 at the age of 88. He was born on 30 August 1922 and grew up in the centre of Copenhagen where his parents had an engraving shop. He finished his university degree in physics, mathematics and astronomy in 1947 with a gold medal award for a thesis on X-ray dosimetry at the Biophysics Laboratory of the University of Copenhagen. From 1947 to 1951 he was employed by the Danish Meteorological Institute where he worked in geomagnetism and meteorology. In 1947–1948 he spent a year at the geomagnetic observatory in Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland, and this led to a life long affection for that country.

Beschreibung: Alf Howard, (Fig. 1) died on 4 July 2010. He was the last surviving member of Sir Douglas Mawson's 1929–1931 British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) that made further extensive claims to sovereignty defining the limits of what was to become Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) in 1933. He was also the last survivor to have served aboard the coal-fired three-masted wooden ship Discovery built in Dundee for Captain Robert Falcon Scott's 1901–1904 National Antarctic Expedition.

Beschreibung: Determining the present precise location of Amundsen's tent is a function of 1) the precision of Amundsen's navigation in 1911, 2) the flow of ice since then, and 3) the amount of burial by intervening snow fall. These factors are discussed and it is concluded that the best location that can be given for the tent in December 2011 is 89° 58′ 51″ S, 46° 14′ E, and lying 17 m below the present snow surface. The uncertainty in the position is 0.3 km, and is mainly related to uncertainties in the original positioning. It can be concluded with high certainty that the tent lies between 1.8 and 2.5 km from the South Pole.

Beschreibung: Passion for the Antarctic is the third scene of Tangled destinies, a play written by Jason Kendall Moore, directed by María Angelica Luzzi, and performed by Daniela Meneses and the author. It opened on 17 July 2010, in Valparaíso, Chile, where it will run through the first week of September. The Center for Hemispheric and Polar Studies has funded its production to generate interest in U.S.–Chilean relations in the Antarctic and elsewhere.

Beschreibung: Preserving biodiversity and establishing healthy and thriving populations of predator animals are the expressed aims of many wildlife and ecosystem conservation projects and initiatives. However, such conservation strategies are often in conflict with the traditions, practices and land-use priorities of local communities. This article concentrates on the situation concerning the predation of reindeer (mainly by wolves) in Finland's southeast reindeer herding area and its immediate vicinity, but makes reference to the broader situation of predation and reindeer herding in Finland. Based on analysis of statistics and interviews with local stakeholders, the research findings refer to the intermingled contradictions related to conceptual, statistical and other management relevant knowledge and resulting problems, for example, in conservation hunting licensing. The article concludes that the wolf comprises a complex case for nature conservation initiatives and sustainable reindeer husbandry and that, in practice, it has particular implications compared to other policy approaches to dealing with the problem of animal predators. The article ends with some theoretical considerations as to whether we can improve our understanding of modern human-environment relations by deriving ideas from the actor-network theory debates.

Beschreibung: The Arctic pole of inaccessibility (API), defined as the point on the Arctic Ocean that is farthest from any land, is commonly asserted to lie at 84° 03′ N, 174° 51′ W. We show that the true position is 85° 48′ N, 176° 09′ E, over 200 km from the traditional location. The reason for this error is unknown.

Beschreibung: The present study was conducted to measure the elemental concentration and bacterial deposition in the firn-cores at the Midre Lovénbreen glacier, Svalbard. Firn-cores up to 1m deep were collected and divided into three subsections. These were subjected to elemental analysis using inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICPMS). In all 20 elements were analysed. The crustal enrichment factors calculated for these elements on the basis of Fe values, demonstrate that the elements have derived from both crustal and anthropogenic sources. For certain elements there also exists a possibility of input from sea salt spray. Total bacterial counts in these firn samples ranged from 1.03 × 105to 3.67 × 105per ml of meltwater. Culturability of these bacterial cells, in comparison to the total count was very low. At 4°C the maximum culturability was

Beschreibung: After learning in the first week of September 1909 that the North Pole had been claimed, the career and prospects of the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen hung in the balance. Scheduled to lead an exploration of the north polar basin, Amundsen suddenly found himself without adequate funding or a clear objective. His self-described ‘coup’ to turn southwards and reach for the South Pole was perhaps the most dramatic and best-kept secret in the history of polar exploration. Amundsen shared his decision only with a very select few, including his brother and manager, Leon Amundsen, a scene dramatised in the 1985 television mini-series The last place on earth. The location used in the film is identified at the unusual grave markers of the Ingier family outside Oppegård kirke in Oppegård, Norway, about five km from the site of Amundsen's home on Bunnefjorden, a branch of Oslofjord.

Beschreibung: Prolonged chasing of an adult reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) by a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) was observed both on land and in the sea, in Magdalenefjorden, northwest Spitsbergen. Polar bears were also observed catching black guillemot (Cepphus grylle) in the sea in northwest Spitsbergen and feeding on chicks in the arctic tern (Sterna paradisea) colony in Hornsund, southwest Spitsbergen. While feeding on seabird species is unsurprising, the prolonged chasing of adult reindeer is unusual for polar bear hunting behaviour. The few documented cases of polar bear hunting reindeer consist of either surprising and killing resting/sleeping prey or stalking and a short rapid chase of the reindeer. Our observations describe new feeding habits of polar bears that may be in response to decreasing seal availability due to shrinking sea-ice cover in the Arctic.

Beschreibung: The loss of the expedition ship SY Endurance, and the subsequent dispersal of staff and crew, resulted in very little scientific information emerging from the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–1917. Among surviving records were the charts and diaries maintained by the ship's master, F.A. Worsley. During the voyage in January 1915 along the ice cliffs of the Weddell Sea coast, Worsley recorded the ship's daily progress, soundings and trawling and dredging activities, and also daily encounters with seals, whales and seabirds, On 12 January he noted a group of fledgling emperor penguin chicks (Aptenodytes forsteri) on an ice foot, clearly a remnant of what was then only the third-known breeding colony of the species. Shackleton's first published account of the expedition mentioned the chicks only in a brief note (one that was omitted from later editions), and no further report covering Worsley's observations appeared in scientific literature. In consequence the discovery of the breeding colony and records of emperor penguin distribution along the Weddell Sea coast have since been overlooked by avian biologists, regrettably including the present author. This paper discusses the identity of the colony, Worsley's observations that foreshadowed the later discovery of more breeding concentrations along the coast, and a possible reason why colonies occur at points of particular glaciological disturbance.