The Arctic Science Summit Week 2013

• New postponed deadline for abstract submission: 16 January 2013    Deadline expired
• Acceptance of abstracts: 4 February 2013
• Deadline for registration at regular basis: 20 February 2013    Deadline expired
• Late registration: still available

Cancellation policy:
Please note that all cancellations have to be conferred in writing to: e-mail: cbin@adm.uj.edu.pl. Cancellation before March 15, 2013 - full refund minus the banking charges. Cancellation after March 15, 2013 - no refund. All refunds will be processed after the ASSW.

The ASSW is the annual gathering of international organizations engaged in supporting and facilitating Arctic research. Its purpose is to provide opportunities for international coordination, collaboration and cooperation in all fields of Arctic science and to combine science and management meetings. Side meetings organized by groups with interest in the Arctic science and policy will also be held within the week.
One of them is already planned:
The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) will offer a one-day career development workshop during the ASSW 2013. Details will be published closer to the event:http://www.apecs.is/apecs-meetings-a-events/assw-2013

The ASSW in 2013 will include a three-day Science Symposium entitled:
The Arctic Hub – Regional and Global Perspectives

The Arctic region is characterized by unique environmental and socio-economic conditions. It is in specific interactions with low latitudes and changes in the "Arctic Hub" have far-reaching regional and global implications. The ASSW 2013 Science Symposium focuses on these multidimensional changes and linkages. Original contributions to the below disciplinary and cross-cutting sessions in form of oral and poster presentations are heartily welcomed.

Disciplinary Sessions

• Atmosphere Processes and Global Climate Connections

  Timo Vihma, Günther Heinemann and Sara Strey

  Arctic climate change is occurring at an increasingly alarming rate. One large and many faceted contributor to observed changes are changes in atmospheric processes including but not limited to: atmosphere-ice-ocean interactions, cloud processes, radiative transfer, atmospheric chemistry, feedbacks between the boundary layer and the free atmosphere, interaction between the stratosphere and troposphere and teleconnections between the Arctic and mid-latitudes. The understanding of the key processes in the Arctic atmosphere is incomplete, and the representation of said processes in present-day weather and climate models includes vital inaccuracies that require further investigation and understanding. This symposium will assemble a variety of researchers working on both numerical model-based and observational studies of Arctic atmospheric processes and studies on global change relative to the Arctic. We encourage and request contributions related to any of these fields.

• Cryospheric Changes: Drivers and Consequences

  Francisco Navarro, Hiroyuki Enomoto and Yulia Zaika

  The cryosphere is a sensitive and critically important component of the climate system. Components of the cryosphere such as glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, ice shelves, icebergs, sea ice, lake and river ice, snow cover and permafrost are changing. Some of these components are changing rapidly in the Arctic area due to global climate warming. These changes in the Arctic may have global multidimensional environmental, economic and social impacts as a consequence of associated changes in the Earth's energy balance, sea level, greenhouse gas concentrations and atmospheric circulation, transport of the heat through ocean circulation, changes to ecology, infrastructures and human well-being. With continued climate warming it is likely that the cryospheric components will play an increasingly important and critical climatic role. Understanding the drivers of such cryospheric changes is therefore crucial. This session welcomes presentations on all of the topics discussed above.

• Marine Processes and Variability

  Jinping Zhao, Wieslaw Maslowski and Monika Kedra

  The accelerated melt of the Arctic sea ice since the late 1990s and the new record minimum set in September 2012 amplify the importance and timeliness of research into the causes and consequences of climate warming in the Arctic. Recent studies unambiguously point to the need for improved understanding of critical Arctic processes and feedbacks and their adequate representation in global climate and Earth System models. Many of these processes occur in the ocean and they exert control on marine ecosystems. We invite contributions that advance a system-level knowledge of the Arctic Climate System through understanding of critical ocean physical and biogeochemical processes and feedbacks among them.

• Terrestrial Ecosystem Responses to Environmental Stressors

  Yoo Kyung Lee, Warwick Vincent and Sonal Choudhary

  Arctic terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems are currently experiencing the effects of multiple stressors including rapid warming, reduced ice thickness and area, shifts in snowfall and water balance, increasing ultraviolet-b exposure, herbivory, the arrival of exotic species and the input of long range contaminants, combined in some cases with local pollutants and nutrient enrichment. Some of these environments such as thermokarst lakes and wetlands are also biogeochemical hotspots for globally significant emissions of greenhouse gases and are undergoing large, but regionally variable changes in activity. This session aims to bring together terrestrial and freshwater researchers to examine how northern ecosystems are responding to environmental change, and the variability in response among sites in the circumpolar North.

• Impact of Global Changes on Arctic Societies

  Grete Hovelsrud, Rasmus Ole Rasmussen and Gerlis Fugmann

  The session will highlight the impact of global environmental and societal changes on Arctic societies in recent years. Politics, industry and the general public worldwide have increasingly turned their attention to the circumpolar Arctic due to the geopolitical perspectives of the upcoming options for easier access to its resources. Similarly its importance as an "early warning system" for the rest of the planet in regards to climate change has become an issue of interest. Last, but definitely not least, the ongoing changes have generated a situation where the Arctic population has become an important player in the process of globalization! The changes in this fragile region in relation to environment, increased accessibility, the growing global demand for its natural resources (in particular fossil fuel) and increased interaction with the rest of the world have consequences for its residents. The session welcomes presentations that focus on the response, adaptation and resilience of Arctic societies to the global processes and changes that are currently affecting their communities and way of life.

Cross-Cutting Sessions

• Arctic People and Resources: Opportunities, Challenges and Risks

  Nancy Maynard, Alona Yefimenko and Julia Skupchenko

  Climate change, the reduction of sea-ice, new technologies, and increasing global pressure for energy are causing unprecedented access to the rich natural resources of the circumpolar Arctic. The Arctic plays a key role in world energy, possessing around 13 percent of undiscovered oil and about 25 percent of global gas resources. Exploration and mining activities are accelerating additional development in the Arctic through the creation of roads, ports, economic activity and new settlements. Arctic indigenous peoples are looking forward to the rich opportunities that a warmer Arctic will open up in resource development, shipping and the service industries that will flourish around them. However, there is also a real threat to indigenous communities living in the Arctic and, in particular, their ability to preserve traditional lifestyles in the presence of increasing extensive petroleum and mineral development. The potential enrichment of Arctic countries could not compensate for the costs of runaway Arctic warming. Also, Arctic species, habitats and quite possibly whole ecosystems - critical to indigenous life ways - could be lost. This session will address some of the economic, environmental and social challenges and opportunities for sustainable economic development in a rapidly changing Arctic. We welcome presentations on: What are the opportunities, challenges and risks? Governance and enabling institutions? What role will indigenous peoples play in the decision-making? And, how will their concerns be included? Potential for disasters, pollution, accidents, and their impacts on local indigenous peoples? How can the Arctic Council best respond to the impacts of rapid changes on the Arctic peoples? Of particular interest to this session are presentations on how natural resource exploitation and politics involving the interests of Arctic peoples and their land use have played out in the past and in the present.

• Applying Local and Traditional Knowledge to Better Understanding of the Changing Arctic

  Claudio Aporta, Igor Krupnik and Sandra Juutilainen

  The Arctic has long been identified by scientists as a key to our understanding of the drivers and impacts of global change. As we chart a new vision of the Changing Arctic, the perspectives and insight of Arctic residents become increasingly important to our assessment of the current and future trends and at multiple scales. Many polar communities have documented significant shifts in the world as they knew it, in the weather, sea ice, behavior of animals, status of land and water and the entire environmental context of their home areas. Arctic peoples' reports and understanding of change are based on careful monitoring and generations of accumulated expertise stored in stories, language, safety practices, ethics and teaching. This session presentation will discuss the present state of partnership and communication between polar communities and scientists studying the impact of global change in the North. Prospective topics are wide-ranging and may include: incorporation of Indigenous knowledge in scholarly studies and publications; specific examples of approaches and practices used in community-based monitoring, research and data management, in which local knowledge is translated into action; ethical issues in partnership with local communities; long-term relations among Indigenous communities, local organizations, science and management agencies, Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers; interface between natural and social drivers of change; resilience, vulnerability and sustainability of local knowledge-based practices and co-management regimes.

• Arctic System Science for Regional and Global Sustainability

  Josef Elster, Gunn-Britt Retter and Michał Łuszczuk

  The natural and social landscapes of the Arctic are confronted today with a multitude of unprecedented and salient consequences of the climate change and development of the human activity in the region. The implications of this transformation are increasingly and comprehensively monitored, evaluated, understood and communicated, which makes the Arctic System Science important and influential as never before. Its significance is particularly evident in the efforts to envision, advance and secure a sustainable future and development for the peoples in the Arctic. This session will address and highlight the relation between the Arctic System Science and the sustainability, with a focus on the integrative role of both the science and traditional knowledge in recognizing the past, present and future links and interdependencies between regional and global processes. Ultimately the session aims to contribute to efforts to synthesize interdisciplinary perspectives and multidisciplinary interpretations generated in recent years to expand our understandings of the human-environment connections and related implications for coming generations.

• Changing North: Predictions and Scenarios

  Georgia Destouni, Vera Metcalfe and Adam Naito

  Climate change leads to a host of Arctic system alterations, for instance in its hydrologic, cryospheric and ecological characteristics. Permafrost degradation, conversion of tundra to scrubland, and sea ice melt, following changes in precipitation and temperature are but a few examples of environmental alterations that have also socio-economic and cultural implications, not least for the livelihoods of indigenous Arctic peoples. This cross-cutting section addresses different types of projections and scenario formulations that provide insights into a future Arctic. The session focuses on two broad themes: a) projected changes and scenarios of future environmental development, e.g., with regard to temperature, precipitation, hydrology, vegetation, sea ice, pollution of the Arctic, and b) the use of and interplay between such projections and scenarios, and environmental, socio-economic and cultural sustainability in the Arctic.