WCRP Corner

The upcoming CUAHSI cyberseminar series will focus on snow

Friday, February 7, 2014 (3:00pm ET)

Title: The World of Arctic Snow
Presenter: Dr. Matthew Sturm, University of Alaska, Faribanks, Geophysical Institute

Friday, February 14, 2014 (3:00pm ET)

Title: Assessing Snow and Snowmelt Runoff in Remote Mountain Ranges
Presenter: Dr. Jeff Dozier - University of California, Santa Barbara, Bren School of Environmental Science Management in conjunction with Dr. Anne Nolin - Oregon State University, Department of Geosciences

Friday, February 21, 2014 (3:00pm ET)

Title/Topic: Snowmelt processes in forests: Apparent paradoxes and implications for advancing hydrologic understanding in complex terrain
Presenter: Dr. Timothy E. Link - University of Idaho, Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences

Friday, March 7, 2014 (3:00pm ET)

Title/Topic: Large-scale Snow Extent over Northern Hemisphere Lands
Presenter: Dr. David A. Robinson - Rutgers University, Department of Geography

Details, including instructions on how to connect, can be found here:

http://www.cuahsi.org/2014cyberseminars.aspx

The Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP) will be hosting three webinars.

February 18, 2014 at 10am (AKDT ): Historical Sea Ice Atlas For Alaska Waters

Speaker: John Walsh of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Lena Krutikov of the Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning (SNAP)

Register and more information

March 11, 2014 at 10am (AKDT): What Do Alaskans Need?: A Review of Documents Addressing Research Needs Related to Climate Change

Speaker: Corrie Knapp (Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy - ACCAP)

Register and more information

April 22, 2014 at 10am (AKDT): NOAA Climate.gov: An Audience-Focused Approach to Public Communication

Speaker: David Herring, Director of Communications & Education, NOAA Climate Program Office

Register and more information

If you have any questions please contact Tina Buxbaum at 907-9-474-7812 or by email at tmbuxbaum@alaska.edu.

The Belmont Forum has released a call for proposals on Arctic Observing and Research for Sustainability as part of its 2014 International Opportunities Fund to encourage interdisciplinary and trandisciplinary science. The call seeks to bring together integrated teams of natural scientists, social scientists, and stakeholders to develop projects that utilize existing Arctic observing systems, datasets and models to evaluate key sustainability challenges and opportunities in the Arctic region.

This funding opportunity will support projects that advance research utilizing and developing both the relevant information streams and the sustainability science necessary to assess, predict, inform, and communicate resilient pathways. The call focuses on four themes relevant to observing and sustainability that hold particular urgency in the Arctic: the natural and living environment, the built environment and infrastructures, natural resource management and development, and governance. Recognizing that the Arctic is a highly interdependent system, these themes are not unrelated and projects may address interactions amongst these themes.

Three types of submissions are being sought – small collaboration grants, synthesis projects, and research proposals. Available funding for meritorious projects is 13 million euros, comprising contributions from Canada, China, France, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, the Nordic Council of Ministers, Norway, Russia, the United States of America, and the World Ocean Council. Possibilities for collaboration with non-participatory countries exist as well. All proposals require collaboration amongst three or more countries and integrate across natural and social sciences while also including end-users, policy-makers, or other relevant stakeholders in the project. A researcher matching tool is available on the Belmont Forum website to better enable connection between interested international proposers.

For more information about research themes, national priorities and agency contacts, proposal submission documents, and to access the researcher matching tool, please visit the funding website: http://igfagcr.org/cra-2014-arctic-observing-and-research-sustainability . Proposals for this funding opportunity are due 31 July 2014.

by Katriina O'Kane

Profiles from the Arctic, a web-documentary series about research in the Canadian high Arctic, was released today at http://www.arcticprofiles.ca. Distributed over the next several months as a set of 25 profiles, it will bring life to science and field stories from the Arctic, and discuss the importance of conducting research in this challenging environment.

 

The series will feature interviews conducted with prominent scientists, students, and staff who work around Resolute Bay’s Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP), an important research facility and logistics’ centre in the Canadian high Arctic. New profiles will be released regularly, in which the audience can engage with audio clips, short videos, and photographs.

 

A key message of the series is the urgent need for more research in the Canadian Arctic. As the Arctic warms, there is growing interest in developing resources and introducing other forms of economic activity such as shipping. Yet questions remain unanswered about how landscapes and animals across the North will respond. Researchers are helping to answer those questions, studying subjects like contaminants, bacteria, permafrost, glaciers, sharks, lakes, a meteor impact, narwhals, and more. Their field work exposes them to encounters with polar bears and wolves, and offers them a chance to visit some of the most spectacular landscapes in Canada. This web-documentary series is a rare chance to get an intimate view of what researchers do, and the challenges they face.

 

To explore, visit: www.arcticprofiles.ca 

 

1 - Catherine Girard is a master’s student at the University of Montreal, studying contaminants in food and their digestion by the body. She will be one of the researchers profiled for the web-documentary series: www.arcticprofiles.ca (Katriina O’Kane / Canadian Polar Commission)

 

2 - The PCSP (pictured) is an important research station and logistic's centre in the Canadian high Arctic, located near Resolute Bay, Nunavut (Katriina O’Kane / Canadian Polar Commission).

 

3 - Marie-Claude Williamson (right) prepares to have her photograph taken, while Katriina (left) holds up a reflector to balance out the strong Arctic sun (Evan Hall / Canadian Polar Commission).

 

4 - George Benoit (left) is the warehouse manager at the PCSP, and has been working up in Resolute Bay for 40 years. Christopher Omelon (right) is a scientists studying bacteria-mineral interactions. Both will be profiled in the web-documentary series (Evan Hall / Canadian Polar Commission).

 

The April 15, 2014 deadline to nominate a title for the William Mills Prize is fast approaching.

The William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books was established in memory of William Mills, a core member of Polar Libraries Colloquy during its middle years and a consummate polar librarian as well as author.
The book prize honors the best Arctic or Antarctic nonfiction books published throughout the world. The prize consists of $300 US and the right to use the William Mills Prize logo when advertising the winning book.
Qualifications for Nomination
1. The book must be nonfiction, about the Arctic or Antarctic.
2. The book may be any type of substantive work of nonfiction, or reference resource. Textbooks, anthologies, edited works, and other small-scale efforts will not be considered unless they are truly outstanding contributions to polar literature.
3. The book must have been published for the first time within the two calendar years before the Colloquy at which the award will be given. The timeframe for the 2014 award is January 2012 to December 2013. Re-releases, translations of older materials, and updated editions will not be eligible.
4. The official language of the Colloquy is English. For this reason books must be published in an English language version to be eligible.
Nominations should include information such as the title, author(s), publisher and date of publication, as well as a statement from the nominator explaining why the the book should be considered for the prize and what value the title brings to polar literature.
For more information about the William Mills Prize, or to submit nominations, please email millsprize@gmail.com
The deadline to submit a nomination is April 15, 2014.
A list of previous William Mills prize winners is available at http://arcticcentre.ulapland.fi/polarweb/plc/mills.asp

The editors of "Witness the Arctic" invite article suggestions for future issues, including the spring 2014 issue that will be published in mid-June. Welcomed topics include Arctic sciences, data management, related agency updates, and policy or international news.

"Witness the Arctic" is a newsletter that serves an audience of Arctic scientists, educators, agency personnel, and policymakers. It provides information on current Arctic research efforts and findings, significant research initiatives, science education, national policy affecting Arctic research, international activities, and profiles of institutions with major Arctic research efforts. The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS) publishes three issues of the newsletter per year with funding from the NSF's Arctic Sciences Section.

"Witness the Arctic" editors welcome suggestions for news items or short articles appropriate for the newsletter and relevant to its audience. Articles should provide information of interest to a broad cross-section of the Arctic and climate change research community. Editors will work with individuals to develop articles based on the suggestions received."

To provide suggestions for articles, please email Betsy Turner-Bogren
( betsy@arcus.org).

For further information about Witness the Arctic, please see:
 http://www.arcus.org/witness-the-arctic.

Or contact:
Betsy Turner-Bogren
Email:  betsy@arcus.org

Young researchers interested in conducting research in the atmospheric sciences, glaciology, geosciences and microbiology (excluding marine microbiology) at, or near, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station (located in Dronning Maud Land in East Antarctica at 71.57°S 23.20°E) are encouraged to apply.

Applicants must be either doctoral researchers or researchers who have completed their PhD within the past 10 years and should submit an original research proposal for a project which will include field campaigns operating from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station during two austral summers (2014–15 and 2015–16). Please note that the successful applicant will continue to work at their current research organisation.

The deadline for applications is Thursday April 10, 2014.

A joint initiative of the InBev-Baillet Latour Fund and the International Polar Foundation, the €150,000 research grant aims to promote scientific excellence in Antarctica and underscores the crucial role polar science plays in furthering our understanding of the Earth and how it functions.

Detailed information and application documents are available at: http://www.polarfoundation.org/projects/detail/inbev_baillet_latour_fellowship

For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at: fellowship@polarfoundation.org.

With the objective of to encourage, recognize, promote and reward young people who demonstrate, through videos, the importance of activities from Brazil in Antarctica the Navy of Brazil promoted a video contest. The target audience were students (15-19 years) of High school of Basic Education. Four students were selected and the prize is a trip to Antarctica for the students (two from private education and two from public education) and four teachers! The selection, from more than 200 videos, was performed by a judging panel which the APECS-Brazil took part. Students will to Antarctica in March and they will experience the logistics of travel and arrival in Antarctica, know the structure that Brazil has in the region, as well as participate in research activities together with researchers from Brazilian Antarctic Program.