Report on IASC TWG at ASSW 2021
Reported by: Masaki UCHIDA (NIPR)
Related research program: Land
Following on from last year, the ASSW2021 was held by online on 20th and 21st of March. This year’s meeting was shorter, two hours per day, perhaps to take into account the time zone differences between the participating countries, which might ease the burden on those who had to attend late at night or early in the morning.
After reviewing the agenda, the chair gave an informative presentation on the future initiatives, followed by a breakout session in small groups. Eleven research issues were identified at the moment, and four issues related to the promotion of the activities of the TWG and its publicity were discussed.
There were reports on the implementation of four projects funded by the IASC. The project on vegetation (Arctic Vegetation Archive and Classification) reported on the addition of new vegetation data for Russian arctic and the posting of information on the web page of the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF). The T-MOSAiC project reported that most of its activities had been limited by COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, it was reported that more than 100 research results had been published at conferences and so on. Also 25 research papers had been published in scientific journals.
There was also a discussion on the proposed budget allocation for the cross-cutting project application and the election of the incoming Chair and Vice-Chair. Professor Ulrike Herzschuh from Germany was elected as the Chair. The next annual meeting will take place at ASSW2022 in Norway in March 2022.