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The post The results of the 13th Polar Law Symposium, International Symposium on Polar Law, were released in the press first appeared on The Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II).

ArCS II Newsletter No.1 PDF

ArCS II News Letter No.1 is now issued to inform the public about the research projects of ArCS II. The newsletter will be published three volumes in a year, reporting timely information of the researchers and the scene.

No.1　Contents

ArCS II – Towards a New Horizon of Arctic Research (Hiroyuki Enomoto, Project Director）

The frontiers of Arctic Research Introducing four researches with the message from young PIs.

Social Implementation – Arctic sea ice information office –

Observation supports research

Profile of researcher

The post ArCS II News Letter No.1 first appeared on The Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II).

The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) board online meeting was held from 16-17 September 2020. This meeting was the third time under Swedish chairmanship. One of the meeting’s crucial issues was to prepare the Senior Arctic Officials (SAO) report to the Arctic Council Ministerial.

 In recent years, cooperation among the working groups has become more and more active. Strategy and future action plan were discussed on the Arctic Invasive Alien Species (ARIAS) project. CAFF and PAME (Protection of Arctic Marine Environment) discussed a possible collaborative project concerning ships’ transfer of marine invasive species. As for CAFF and AMAP (Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme) scoping process, an overview of progress to date and next steps was explained. There was discussion about traditional knowledge and local knowledge and a necessity for a consensus between AMAP and CAFF on the tasks.

  Arctic Migratory Birds Initiative (AMBI) project created a template for Records of Observer Contribution (ROC). SAO approved it, and CAFF could move ahead on developments of ROCs with partners in Spain, the Republic of Korea and China. As for the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, the project is working to strengthen India’s relationship and might consider changing the flyway name. Action Plan for Arctic Biodiversity was in developing the new action plan for 2021-2030. However, the completion of the new action plan delayed until 2023 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, COVID-19 pandemic affects severe impacts on CAFF activities. SAO chairmanship had asked CAFF to respond on the effects of COVID-19 on its work and potential new projects. Especially, preventing in-person meetings has resulted in a proliferation of online meetings, increasing challenges.

CAFF website

The post CAFF Board online meeting first appeared on The Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II).

CAFF Plenary Meeting was held online (using Zoom) from February 1 to February 4, 2021 (February 2 to 5 Japanese time).

According to the list distributed in advance, 75 people from 20 countries and areas registered to participate, while the actual participation fluctuated between 65 and 69 persons. The topics addressed were rather diverse even if we confine ourselves to mentioning just the most important ones: Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), Arctic Migratory Birds Initiative (AMBI), Inspiring Arctic Voices through Youth: Engaging Youth in Arctic Biodiversity, Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands, Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic Mining, Arctic Biodiversity Data Service (ABDS), etc. Particularly in the two years Iceland has been presiding　at the AC (2019-2021), it seems that the project has been moving in a form that corresponds to policy priorities of the Icelandic government, such as mainstreaming biodiversity in mining or monitoring ocean pollution by plastic waste and its influence on sea birds.

At the meeting a lot of time was directed at looking at the progress of the above-mentioned diverse programs by adding information on policy trends in each of the Arctic countries and areas. When I think of the spatial and temporal depth of the topics brought up at the meeting, I cannot deny that I, participating for the first time, felt a tall obstacle for my participation and that there were many situations in which, also due to the broadness of the topics, I could not properly fathom the main points of the argument. On the other hand, as something that I could clearly see, I wish to emphasize the stance that monitoring and assessment should be continuously pursued based not on science but on the meaningful utilization of various types of knowledge, including indigenous knowledge, local knowledge, “the other knowledge”, etc. In that, the awareness of the participants could be gleaned that we should not rely on the law of causation that regulates one particular form of knowledge but that a viewpoint that recognizes more than one set of laws, including experimentation, should also be included as a variable.

Looking back on the meeting prior to the CAFF plenary meeting in which I just participated for the first time (not the CAFF itself, but the meeting of the MBAM program, which is its subsidiary), I remember that the gap between drawing the action plan and actually implementing it was pointed out and that the participants agreed that there was a need to move onto the phase in which the entire action plan would be effectively implemented. The idea was advocated that, in order to identify each stakeholder’s knowledge gaps, mutually complement each other and appropriately manage the knowledge possessed by each stakeholder, we should not be drawn by one, given law of causality but pay attention to the forms of knowledge that may exist in each area, accept diversity and effectively incorporate the viewpoint that recognizes the existence of multiple sets of natural laws not just at the stage of goal setting and strategy making but in the final stage of evaluation, too.

If we conform to this thesis, then what is required is establishing a flow in which various forms of knowledge are placed on an equal footing with the scientific knowledge and the experience of multiple natural laws is incorporated not only at the entrance, but also at the exit. At the plenary meeting, however, neither in the arguments presented nor even in the tacit knowledge shared by the participants, could I sufficiently ascertain the degree of the actual effectiveness of the approach seeking that various forms of knowledge be included. It does seem, though, that elements of such an approach are being included in the design of the evaluation process in the ongoing project “Salmon Peoples of Arctic Rivers”, which addresses the theme of Arctic wetlands and indigenous people, and I thought that determining whether the above approach will remain just an ideal or be reflected more concretely in practice is becoming increasingly important if we are not to leave anybody behind in the future. This, I thought, will become an even more important discussion point now that it has been empirically demonstrated that in the debates on economy, society and the environment in the context of SDGs and the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which includes them, diverse cultural elements that form their basis are included on the ideational level but rarely reflected in practice and are simply taken for granted and shared with vague awareness (Sekine, H. ed. “The Place of ‘Culture’ in Sustainable Development”, 2021).

The post Thoughts on CAFF Plenary Meeting first appeared on The Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II).

[Points]

• Oceanographic observations in Greenland reveal the dynamics of iron and nutrients in a glacial fjord

• The marine ecosystem is supported by meltwater discharge from the glacier bed, which carries seawater upwards like a pump, thereby supplying iron and nutrients to surface of the fjord

• Contribute to predicting the future of the marine ecosystem in Greenland, where glacier melting is accelerating

[Summary]

A collaboration research group led by Naoya Kanna (present affiliation: The University of Tokyo), Shin Sugiyama, Jun Nishioka, Yasushi Fukamachi, and Daiki Nomura of Hokkaido University conducted oceanographic observations in Greenland to investigate the dynamics of iron and nutrients in a glacial fjord, which are necessary for the growth of phytoplankton supporting the marine ecosystem.

Iron-rich meltwater from the bottom of the glacier at a depth of 200 m mixes with nutrient (nitrate, phosphate, and silicate)-rich seawater and upwells to the sea surface, contributing significantly to biological production in the fjords during the summer.

There are rich ecosystems in the fjords in Greenland, where the calving glaciers flow into. If the calving glacier disappears due to global warming in the Arctic region, the function of pumping by glacier meltwater will be lost. The loss of calving glaciers is therefore expected to have a major impact on the ecosystems. This study is expected to contribute to the understanding of the impact of the accelerating glacial melt in Greenland on the fjord ecosystem.

The results of this research were published online in Global Biogeochemical Cycles on September 28, 2020. This work was supported by the Arctic research project, Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS and ArCS II), and The Japan Science Society.

[Original paper]

Title：Iron supply by subglacial discharge into a fjord near the front of a marine terminating glacier in northwestern Greenland

Authors: Naoya Kanna^1,2, Shin Sugiyama^1,3, Yasushi Fukamachi^1,3,4, Daiki Nomura^1,4,5,and Jun Nishioka^1,3

Affiliations：¹Arctic Research Center, Hokkaido University, Japan, ²Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Japan, ³Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Japan, ⁴Global Station for Arctic Research, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education, Hokkaido University, Japan, ⁵Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Japan

Journal: Global Biogeochemical Cycles (Journal of the American Geophysical Union)

DOI: 10.1029/2020GB006567

Publication date: September 28, 2020 (Monday) (online publication)

[Contact]

JSPS Research Fellow (PD) Naoya Kanna
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo
E-mail:

Professor Shin Sugiyama
Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University
E-mail:

Information on research projects: http://wwwice.lowtem.hokudai.ac.jp/~sugishin/research/hokudai2/greenland2/greenland2.html

The post Glacial pumping supports rich marine ecosystem in Greenlandic fjords -Nutrient transport processes in an Arctic fjord system- first appeared on The Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II).

Date: 15:00 – 18: 00 March 3, 2021 (Japan Standard Time, GMT +9)
Format: Online
Language: Simultaneous Interpretation in Japanese/English/Russian
※ Free of charge but registration is required

More information:
https://www.arc.hokudai.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/March-3-Meeting-poster_16022021.pdf

Registration: https://forms.gle/zj75BZRgkxHoGwTj9 (by February 28)

Detail announcement will be sent to persons registered.

The post Online Seminar: Japan-Russia Interregional Cooperation in the Arctic and North – Theory and Practice first appeared on The Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II).

The Arctic Sea ice has been decreasing at an unprecedented rate, yet the decline mechanism is not well understood. “The Arctic” is a role-playing board game. Players will learn the current status, anticipated future changes, and the resulting issues in the Arctic.

The post A Board Game for the Changing Arctic, “The Arctic” first appeared on The Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II).