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SCAR Newsletter: Issue 12, October 2007
SCAR Business News
Update on the Organisation of XXX SCAR in Russia, 2008
XXX SCAR will comprise three sets of meetings: SCAR science business meetings from July 5-7, the joint SCAR/IASC IPY Open Science Conference from July 8-11, and the SCAR Delegates meeting from July 14-17. The first two are in St Petersburg and the last one is in Moscow. The theme for the conference is Polar Research - Arctic and Antarctic Perspectives in the International Polar Year, and it has been adopted by the IPY Joint Committee as the first of a series of 3 IPY conferences (the others will be in 2010 in Norway and in 2012 TBA). The first day will include a new element, a prestigious SCAR lecture named the Weyprecht Lecture after the man who invented the IPY concept back in 1875 before the first IPY (1882-83). Further details are available in the First Circular.
SCAR President takes new appointment
As of 1st September, Chris Rapley, President of SCAR and Director of the British Antarctic Survey, will take up the post of Director of the Science Museum in South Kensington, London. Chris is thrilled at the prospect of taking on the leadership of such a cherished national institution, especially as the task he has been set is to make it the most admired museum of its type in the world. This will include building the museum's international profile and reputation, strengthening its national position and being the benchmark for best practice.
Update on the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS)
A meeting to develop a Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) was held in Bremen on 1st - 3rd October.
The importance of the Southern Ocean to the global climate system and the uniqueness of its ecosystems are well known. The region is remote and logistically difficult to access and thus is one of the least sampled regions on the planet. Design and implementation of an observing system that encompasses physical, biogeochemical and ecological processes is therefore a formidable challenge.
Thirty two participants from backgrounds as diverse as Marine physics, ecosystem studies and the tourist industry discussed various aspects of the observing system during the three days. At various times people split into different groups to focus on particular aspects of the system, for example biogeochemistry or the cryosphere and sea ice. During these times they looked at the main science questions that any hypothetical observing system should aim to answer and the types of measurements that would be needed in order to do so. The state of the observing system and gaps were also examined. Cross group interaction was actively encouraged and each group reported back on progress at regular intervals.
A plan for production of a SOOS document, with lead authors identified as responsible for writing sections and identifying others to do so, was drawn up. This will be worked on over the next few months, with the idea that a near final draft document will be discussed at the SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference being held in St Petersburg in July 2008.
For further details see: http://www.clivar.org/organization/southern/expertgroup/SOOS.htm or email Mike Sparrow (mds68@cam.ac.uk)
Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML)
The publication of scientific papers from the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) is well advanced, with over 20 papers in 2007. However the scientific highlight of the year was the publication in Nature by Angelika Brandt's team on significant additions to our knowledge of Antarctic deep-sea biodiversity. The recent German cruises have discovered over 700 new species in the isopod crustaceans alone. With efficient data flow, it may be expected that thousands of new species might be discovered, especially when microbes become integrated in the system.
A major accomplishment of the CAML team was the culmination of work to obtain the maximum amount of ship-time through the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties; 18 research vessels will participate in CAML during the International Polar Year (IPY) in 2007/08. The decision by the New Zealand government to fund a CAML voyage in the 2007/08 Antarctic season (NZ$ 6.5 million) was particularly pleasing.
Guided by the Science Statement, in 2007 CAML finalized for all voyages the uniform sampling protocols, the development of an expedition module for at-sea data acquisition and an integrated approach to publicity. In data management, CAML has made substantial contributions to ), SCAR's Marine Biodiversity Information Network (MarBIN), which is the Antarctic regional node of the international Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS). The data portal now hosts 26 original datasets (394,172 geo-referenced species records) and is growing rapidly.
Facilitating the rescue of the historical circum-Antarctic marine biodiversity data from the Zoological Institute and Shirshov Institute in Russia has been a particularly valuable and gratifying addition to the database, saving this heritage for future generations.
A barcode coordinator was appointed in April to manage sequence data for CAML projects over the next three years. Funding for SCAR-MarBIN has been extended until 2010 through the generosity of the Belgian Government. It will provide a significant legacy of IPY by access to the data needed to improve our overall understanding of marine biodiversity and its role in ocean ecosystems.
International Antarctic Earth Sciences meeting
The first major polar science conference of the IPY was held in Santa Barbara, California, from August 26-31, 2007. This was SCAR's International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences (ISAES), the 10th in a series of 4-yearly international geoscience meetings that bring geologists, geochemists, paleontologists and geophysicists together to explore the land beneath the ice. NSF provided major co-sponsorship for the meeting. 400 people attended, from some 30 countries, to address the evolution of Antarctica and its role in the Earth's climate system from the perspective of the geosciences. Each of the 4 days began with two keynote talks in a single plenary session, addressing Antarctic geoscience topics in a pan-Antarctic way, after which talks continued in 4 parallel sessions supported by poster sessions. Geologically, Antarctica is one of the last scientific frontiers on Earth, not least because most of its rocks are hidden beneath the ice sheet. Small amounts of new information can provide big breakthroughs. New ideas abounded, and stimulated vigorous discussions. The proceedings are already published electronically on the Internet and can be accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1047/. 961 researchers from 34 countries wrote the 326 research papers and extended abstracts that are now available for download in the Online Proceedings, which gives an impressive description of the scope and breadth of involvement by Antarctic geoscientists in the collaborative research presented at this SCAR-sponsored syposium. For information on SCAR's Standing Scientific Group on Geosciences (SSG-GS) see http://www.scar.org/researchgroups/geoscience/
World Conference on Marine Biodiversity
SCAR is cosponsoring a World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, which will be held in Valencia, Spain in November 2008. The meeting will review the current understanding of marine biodiversity, its role in the marine ecosystem and its socio-economic context. It will also assess current and future threats and potential mitigation strategies for conservation and regulation of marine resources as well as identifying future research priorities.
For further details see: http://www.marbef.org/worldconference/
3rd SCAR Workshop on History of Antarctic Research
From 25 - 26 October 2007, the SCAR History Action Group will hold its 3rd meeting, on 'National and transnational agendas in Antarctic research from the 1950s and beyond'. The meeting will take place at the Byrd Polar Research Centre at Columbus, Ohio, USA. For details please see ![[pdf]](/images/fileicons/pdf.gif "[pdf]"){kind=small}
2nd Circular
Other Antarctic and Polar News
Arctic sea ice hits all time low
The area covered by Arctic sea ice shrank to its least recorded acreage in September 2007, exceeding the September 2005 low by a dramatic 22%, an area of 1.2 million square kilometres (more than 385,000 square miles). This is an area 5 times the size of the UK. The difference is more than double the difference between 2005 and 2002, the previous lowest year. the drop has fueled speculation that the Arctic could be ice free by 2030, rather than by 2080 as suggested by the recent (2007) report of the IPCC. This melting does not change sealevel directly, because the ice is already floating. However, it does have an indirect effect on sealevel. Reducing the ice area also reduces the Earth's albedo (ability to reflect the sun's energy back into space). The darker surface of the water exposed by melting ice absorbs that heat rather than reflecting it. A warmer ocean has a higher sealevel. In addition, a warmer ocean contributes to a warmer climate and thus to the melting of ice on land, which will raise sealevel further. For details see US National Snow and Ice Data Centre. (From 'The Independent' 22/9/2007)
Ice melt, sea level rise, climate catastrophe
In New Scientist of 25 July 2007, Dr. James Hansen, Head of NASA'a Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York explains why he believes that it is feasible that continued warming with a business as usual scenario could lead to a sealevel rise of around 5 meters, almost ten times as much as forecast in the latest report of the Intergovernmental panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The reason is that the ice sheet decay models used as the basis for the IPCC forecast do not take modern understanding of ice sheet decay into consideration. we now know that meltwater forms on the surface of ice sheets and glaciers in summer, changing the albedo. These ponds suck in heat, which melts through the ice creating cracks and destroying its integrity, which makes mechanical disintegration more likely. When those cracks reach rock water from the surface pours down to lubricate the ice-rock interface, which speeds lateral displacement. Glaciers and coastal ice sheets can move quicker and break up quicker than happens in current numerical models. There are obvious implications for policy makers, not least because a substantial part of the world's population lives in the coastal zone, which is also where many of today's megacities are located.
Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula
Hundreds of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula are flowing faster, further adding to sea-level rise. Climate warming, that is already causing Antarctic Peninsula increased summer snow melt and ice shelf retreat, is the most likely cause. Read the article by H.D. Pritchard & D.G. Vaughan
Fertilizing the Southern Ocean
Experiments have shown that adding iron to surface waters in some parts of the world, can stimulate biological production. By analyzing compiled data and conducting additional experiments, Cassar et al. (p. 1067) show that gross primary production and net community production in large regions of the Southern Ocean is proportional to the input of soluble iron from aerosols. They conclude that iron addition increases export production and that windblown dust enhances gross primary production across large parts of the Southern Ocean.
Read the article in 'Science' (24 August 2007)
Cooling North But Not South
Around 13,000 years ago, during the last transition from glacial to warm conditions, a severe cooling event called the Younger Dryas plunged the North Atlantic region into 1500 years of low temperatures.Whether the Younger Dryas also was expressed in the Southern Hemisphere has been a topic of considerable debate. Barrows et al. (p. 86) present a pair of records that show an absence of Younger Dryas cooling in the Southern Hemisphere in and near New Zealand. By dating a moraine in South Island, New Zealand, and by constructing a sea-surface temperature record of nearby Pacific Ocean waters, the authors show that this region remained warm during the Younger Dryas interval. The moraine that the authors dated is one that was previously thought to have recorded Younger Dryas cooling.
Ice and Climate
Did you know that European alpine glaciers lost about 35% of their total area between 1850 and the 1970s, or almost 50% by the year 2000? You'll find this and more in the latest version of the WCRP/SCAR Climate and Cryosphere Newsletter - 'Ice and Cimate', now available on the CliC website at http://CLIC.npolar.no/ There it appears at top left under 'news'. Click on 'Ice and Climate News - Mountain Cryosphere focus' to obtain your own copy. There are fascinating articles on the decline of mountain glaciers in the Alps, Norway and other places.
An Icy Partnership
(As reported in Science magazine by Anita K. Jones) Knowledge of the world's polar regions - Antarctica and the Arctic - is of international interest for economic, environmental, territorial, and security reasons. Studying these environments has been a cooperative activity among countries for half a century. Icebreaker ships have played a critical role. Unfortunately, the U.S. icebreaking capability has deteriorated substantially. Of the world's roughly 50 high-capability icebreakers (at least 10,000 horsepower and capable of steaming steadily through ice 4 to 8 feet thick), Russia possesses 15. Canada operates six. The U.S. government owns three, two of which are at the end of their 35-year service lives. This not only threatens U.S. access to these regions but also jeopardizes the ability of the U.S. research community to conduct solo and international research missions. A long-lived successful partnership between the polar research community and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), which operates the government icebreakers, has been built over decades. That partnership is unhealthy now and should be revitalized. Read the full text
New-Generation of Polar Researchers (NGPR) Symposium
This meeting will take place 4-11 May 2008 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. Advanced students and PhD graduates conducting research in the Arctic or Antarctic during the International Polar Year are invited to apply: Application Deadline: Monday, 15 October 2007. Scholars from the full range of natural and social sciences are eligible. While the focus is on the U.S. system with preference given for American citizens and U.S. residents, a few slots will be reserved for citizens of any country who are residing outside the U.S. and demonstrate interests in working with U.S. researchers. Applicants who complete their degree between 1 January 2002 and 31 March 2009 are eligible to apply.
Funded by the National Science Foundation through Whitman College and University of Colorado, the NGPR Symposium will consist of research presentations and perspectives on the history and future of polar research by International Geophysical Year veterans and other polar experts. The symposium provides an open forum for discussions that will lead to cross-fertilization of research ideas and techniques for educational outreach. The net result should be expansion of participants' historical, scientific, and professional outlook.
Please see Symposium website for more details. Further information is also available from Susan Weiler (email: weiler@whitman.edu) or Sheldon Drobot (email: drobot@colorado.edu)
Jobs
Vacancy for Director of Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) International Project Office
The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) invite applications for the position of Director of the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) International Project Office (CIPO), at the Norwegian Polar Institute Tromso, Norway. The CliC programme is co-sponsored by SCAR. The Director will lead the international coordination and support of CliC activities and will ensure that the Project Office operates efficiently, while actively serving the needs of the WCRP. Application Deadline: 16 November 2007. For further information please contact: Vladimir Ryabinin (WCRP) Phone: +41-22-730-8486 E-mail: vryabinin@wmo.int
Events
SCAR First Circular
See the update on the organisation of XXX SCAR in Russia or view the First Circular.
Other Events
Other events of interest to the SCAR Community are listed at: www.scar.org/events/
Newsletter prepared by Colin Summerhayes and Rosemary Nash, SCAR Secretariat. Please send feedback to info@scar.org