Columns on Arctic Topics

Field observations and investigation in the Arctic are essential for Arctic research. ArCS II has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic which began in 2020 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
COVID-19 has finally settled down and research activities in the Arctic region have been accelerating. In 2023, ArCS II conducted diverse research activities such as Arctic cruises by the oceanographic research vessel Mirai (JAMSTEC) and the training ship Oshoro-maru (Hokkaido University), making observations on sea ice in Cambridge Bay, Canada, and snow/ice observations and field research around Qaanaaq in northwestern Greenland.
In this special issue, we outline three research activities: research observations on Ellesmere Island, Canada, and in the glacier regions of Alaska, United States, and collaboration with indigenous people in Inari, Finland.

Ellesmere Island is the northernmost island in Canada, and much of its land areas are covered with ice fields and bare ground called polar deserts. By contrast, the area around Oobloyah Bay, our study site, has singularly high vegetation cover, and is one of the northernmost vegetated areas in the world. At this site we are studying how biodiversity and ecosystems are maintained in such extreme conditions. In the summer of 2023, we again landed on this uninhabited field by chartered airplane, and continued our field studies for about a month, struggling with the large number of mosquitoes, cramped tents, and unsatisfactory food. Knowledge based on steady field observations is expected not only to answer the fundamental questions about the origins of the Arctic ecosystem, but also to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the effects of climate change on Arctic ecosystems and feedback from Arctic ecosystems to climate systems (Arctic amplification).

Methane (CH₄) is the second most important greenhouse gas. Although CH₄ emissions were previously not thought to be released from glacier areas, large emissions from large glaciers have been observed in recent studies. To reveal the CH₄ emission rate and its production processes, we observed the dissolved CH₄ concentration in the water discharged from glaciers. We conducted short-term observation at four glaciers until last year and determined the differences in dissolved CH₄ concentration and water quality depending on the glacier. In 2023, we conducted continuous observation for a week at Castner Glacier, which showed the high concentration in 2022. For further analysis, we measured at several glaciers in southern Alaska simultaneously to compare them with Castner Glacier.

We have been holding discussions with local stakeholders in the Inari region in northern Finland, focusing on the “authentic experience” of Sámi cultural tourism, which could contribute to sustainable tourism and community resilience. We have found the topic to be much deeper than expected, given the historical context. Accordingly, we continued discussions with a wide range of people such as Sámi reindeer herding tourism operators, the Sámi Education Institute, Sámi Museum, and Sámi Parliament. In February 2024, we will host a monitoring tour to which we will invite professional travel agencies to validate authenticity and conduct a basic market analysis through their feedback. This trial is the first in this tourism field, so we are taking on the challenge with regional collaboration as our most effective approach. We will report the research results both domestically and internationally, and also convey them back to the Inari region.