Students on Ice Blog

In hot water: World’s ocean temps warmest recorded

by Seth Borenstein

AP (August 20, 2009) WASHINGTON — The world’s oceans this summer are the warmest on record.

The National Climatic Data Center, the government agency that keeps weather records, says the average global ocean temperature in July was 62.6 degrees. That’s the hottest since record-keeping began in 1880. The previous record was set in 1998.

Meteorologists blame a combination of a natural El Nino weather pattern on top of worsening manmade global warming. The warmer water could add to the melting of sea ice and possibly strengthen some hurricanes.

The result has meant lots of swimming at beaches in Maine with pleasant 72-degree water. Ocean temperatures reached 88 degrees as far north as Ocean City, Md., this week.

The Gulf of Mexico, where warm water fuels hurricanes, has temperatures dancing around 90. Most of the water in the Northern Hemisphere has been considerably warmer than normal. The Mediterranean is about three degrees warmer than normal. Higher temperatures rule in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

It’s most noticeable near the Arctic, where water temperatures are as much as 10 degrees above average.

Breaking heat records in water is more ominous as a sign of global warming than breaking temperature marks on land. That’s because water takes longer to heat up and doesn’t cool off as easily, said climate scientist Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

“This is another yet really important indicator of the change that’s occurring,” Weaver said.

Weekly averaged sea surface temperatures (top, °C) and anomalies (bottom, °C) for the past twelve weeks. SST analysis is the optimum interpolation (OI) analysis, while anomalies are departures from the adjusted OI climatology (Reynolds and Smith 1995, J. Climate, 8, 1571-1583).

El Niño Arrives; Expected to Persist through Winter 2009-10

NOAA (July 9, 2009) — NOAA scientists today announced the arrival of El Niño, a climate phenomenon with a significant influence on global weather, ocean conditions and marine fisheries. El Niño, the periodic warming of central and eastern tropical Pacific waters, occurs on average every two to five years and typically lasts about 12 months.

NOAA expects this El Niño to continue developing during the next several months, with further strengthening possible. The event is expected to last through winter 2009-10.

“Advanced climate science allows us to alert industries, governments and emergency managers about the weather conditions El Niño may bring so these can be factored into decision-making and ultimately protect life, property and the economy,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

El Niño’s impacts depend on a variety of factors, such as intensity and extent of ocean warming, and the time of year. Contrary to popular belief, not all effects are negative. On the positive side, El Niño can help to suppress Atlantic hurricane activity. In the United States, it typically brings beneficial winter precipitation to the arid Southwest, less wintry weather across the North, and a reduced risk of Florida wildfires.

El Niño’s negative impacts have included damaging winter storms in California and increased storminess across the southern United States. Some past El Niños also have produced severe flooding and mudslides in Central and South America, and drought in Indonesia.

An El Niño event may significantly diminish ocean productivity off the west coast by limiting weather patterns that cause upwelling, or nutrient circulation in the ocean. These nutrients are the foundation of a vibrant marine food web and could negatively impact food sources for several types of birds, fish and marine mammals.

In its monthly El Niño diagnostics discussion today, scientists with the NOAA National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center noted weekly eastern equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures were at least 1.0 degree C above average at the end of June. The most recent El Niño occurred in 2006.

El Niño includes weaker trade winds, increased rainfall over the central tropical Pacific, and decreased rainfall in Indonesia. These vast rainfall patterns in the tropics are responsible for many of El Niño’s global effects on weather patterns.

NOAA will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving situation in the tropical Pacific, and will provide more detailed information on possible Atlantic hurricane impacts in its updated Seasonal Hurricane Outlook scheduled for release on August 6, 2009.

NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.

Australian Parliament passes energy law

The law was passed Thursday requiring that 20 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources such as the sun and wind by 2020, matching European standards and up from about 8 percent now.

AP/Nanet Poulsen (August 20, 2009) — The law would quadruple the renewable energy target set by the previous government in 2001 and provide enough clean electricity to power the households of all 21 million Australians.

But some officials said more aggressive cuts in carbon gas emissions are needed as well.

The bill was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday after the government reached a deal with the main opposition party to increase government assistance to industries that are heavy users of electricity and create safeguards for existing investment in the coal mining industry.

The new target matches one set in 2007 by the European Union, which leads the world in green power technology.

Leading environmental group the Australian Conservation Foundation welcomed the law, calling it the first major piece of climate legislation to pass Parliament. It said research showed the target will encourage 31 billion Australian dollars (26 billion US dollars) in new clean energy investment and create 26,000 jobs.

Currently, 8 percent of Australia’s electricity comes from renewable sources, including hydroelectric generators built late last century, according to the private Clean Energy Council.

Last week the Senate rejected a government-proposed bill that would have taxed industries’ carbon emissions starting in 2011 and slashed the country’s emissions by up to 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020.

For more information, visit http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=1927

Methane bubbles observed by sonar, escape from sea-bed as temperatures rise (BBC News)

Methane seeps from Arctic sea-bed

by Judith Burns
Science and environment reporter

BBC News (August 18, 2009) — Scientists say they have evidence that the powerful greenhouse gas methane is escaping from the Arctic sea-bed.

Researchers say this could be evidence of a predicted positive feedback effect of climate change.

As temperatures rise, the sea-bed grows warmer and frozen water crystals in the sediment break down, allowing methane trapped inside them to escape.

The research team found that more than 250 plumes of methane bubbles are rising from the sea-bed off Norway.

The joint British and German research team detected the bubbles using a type of sonar normally used to search for shoals of fish. Once detected, the bubbles were sampled and tested for methane at a range of depths.

Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, the team says the methane was rising from an area of sea-bed off West Spitsbergen, from depths between 150m and 400m.

The gas is normally trapped as “methane hydrate” in sediment under the ocean floor.

METHANE HYDRATES

- Methane gas is trapped inside a crystal structure of water-ice
- The gas is released when the ice melts, normally at 0C
- At higher pressure, ie under the ocean, hydrates are stable at higher temperatures

“Methane hydrate” is an ice-like substance composed of water and methane which is stable under conditions of high pressure and low temperature.

As temperatures rise, the hydrate breaks down. So this new evidence shows that methane is stable at water depths greater than 400m off Spitsbergen.

However, data collected over 30 years shows it was then stable at water depths as shallow as 360m.

Ocean has warmed

Temperature records show that this area of the ocean has warmed by 1C during the same period.

The research was carried out as part of the International Polar Year Initiative, funded by Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc).

The team says this is the first time that this loss of stability associated with temperature rise has been observed during the current geological period.

Professor Tim Minshull of the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton told BBC News: “We already knew there was some methane hydrate in the ocean off Spitsbergen and that’s an area where climate change is happening rather faster than just about anywhere else in the world.”

1. Methane hydrate is stable below 400m
2. Nearer the surface the hydrate breaks down as temperatures rise and the methane is released
3. Gas rises from the sea-bed in plumes of bubbles – most of it dissolves before it reaches the surface
4. So far scientists haven’t detected methane breaking the ocean surface – but they don’t rule out the possibility

“There’s been an idea for a long time that if the oceans warm, methane might be released from hydrate beneath the sea floor and generate a positive greenhouse effect.

“What we’re trying to do is to use lots of different techniques to assess whether this was something that was likely to happen in a relatively short time scale off Spitsbergen.”

However, methane is already released from ocean floor hydrates at higher temperatures and lower pressures – so the team also suggests that some methane release may have been going on in this area since the last ice age.

Significant discovery

Their most significant finding is that climate change means the gas is being released from more and deeper areas of the Arctic Ocean.

Professor Minshull said: “Our survey was designed to work out how much methane might be released by future ocean warming; we did not expect to discover such strong evidence that this process has already started.”

“We were slightly surprised that if there was so much methane rising why no one had seen it before. But I think the reason is that you have to be rather dedicated to spot it because these plumes are only perhaps 50m to 100m across.

“The device we were using is only switched on during biological cruises. It’s not normally used on geophysical or oceanographic cruises like ours. And of course you’ve got to monitor it 24 hours a day. In fact, we only spotted the phenomenon half way through our cruise. We decided to go back and take a closer look.”

The team found that most of the methane is being dissolved into the seawater and did not detect evidence of the gas breaking the surface of the ocean and getting into the atmosphere.

The researchers stress that this does not mean that the gas does not enter the atmosphere. They point out that the methane seeps are unpredictable and erratic in quantity, size and duration.

It is possible that larger seeps at different times and locations might in fact be vigorous enough to break through the ocean surface.

Most of the methane reacts with the oxygen in the water to form carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas. In sea water, this forms carbonic acid which adds to ocean acidification, with consequent problems for biodiversity.

Graham Westbrook, lead author and professor of geophysics at the University of Birmingham, said: “If this process becomes widespread along Arctic continental margins, tens of megatonnes of methane a year – equivalent to 5-10% of the total amount released globally by natural sources, could be released into the ocean.”

The team is planning another expedition next year to observe the behaviour of the methane plumes over time. They are also engaged in ongoing research into the amount of methane hydrate under this area of the ocean floor.

Ultimately, they want to be able to predict how much might be vulnerable to temperature change and in what timescale.

For more information, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8205864.stm

Relaunching OOKPIK.ORG

Building a community for circumpolar youth

The community website for circumpolar youth has had a total makeover. It’s a completely new OOKPIK!

This site is designed for circumpolar youth, with contributions from circumpolar youth. Over the past two years, OOKPIK has been managed by a series of young northerners and this practice will continue. OOKPIK is your gateway to Arctic networks, knowledge, opinions and events.

The OOKPIK team invites you to check out the latest developments.

They hope you enjoy the new website and find it useful. Your suggestions and ideas are always welcome – please contact them at ookpik@iisd.ca.

Go to http://www.ookpik.org and become a part of an international, northern community!

OOKPIK.ORG is hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
Questions, comments or suggestions? Please send an email to ookpik@iisd.ca!

http://www.ookpik.org

On the new OOKPIK.ORG, you can:
? Create your own profile and look at the profiles of others
? Blog about issues that concern you or share stories
? Browse shared pictures from the Arctic and share your own
? Start and contribute to discussion threads
? Get connected and make friends with likeminded Northerners of your own age
? Read about current affairs and other issues that happen in the Arctic
? Learn about opportunities in the Arctic—internships, events, education and more!
? Subscribe to our Arctic Future newsletter

With your help, we are hoping to make OOKPIK.ORG the place for youth with strong ties to the north to connect with one another.

Together, you can build a stronger, more united, more resilient Arctic.

OOKPIK.ORG is hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

Questions, comments or suggestions? Please send an email to ookpik@iisd.ca!

http://www.ookpik.org

What does ‘ookpik’ mean?

Ookpik (sometimes spelled Ukpik) is the Inuktitut word for Snowy Owl, and was a popularized as an Inuit handicrafted toy. It was a small, souvenir owl with large head and big eyes, a beak, and small black talons. They are often made from wolf fur, sealskin and other traditional materials.

With the genereous support of the Government of Canada.

An exciting new position has become available as the Coordinator for the new Northern Fellowship Program at the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation for someone who is either a current or previous resident in the far north (Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, Nunatsiavut, or Nunavik). For further details on the position, please see job description below.

Application deadline is September 18, 2009.

Coordinator – Northern Fellowship Program

The Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation is an independent charitable foundation focused on strengthening public policy in Canada. For many years, the Foundation has focused much of its grant-making and related efforts on Canada’s far north: The Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the northern portions of Labrador and Quebec (Nunatsiavut and Nunavik). The Foundation supports research and education projects that enhance Northern peoples’ ability to participate in and help shape public policy at any level – local, regional, national or international. We are a small team of 6 staff, managing a roughly $3.5 million/year operating budget, led by a volunteer board of directors.

The Northern Fellowship Program

The objective of the program is to recognize emerging leaders interested in public policy from among a diverse range of talented, dedicated and motivated northern Canadians. The program aims to support northerners (mainly Indigenous northerners) in the early stages of their career who want to build on their skills and leadership. The fellowship, a 2-year program, includes components that are self-directed and others that are collective. The program will enable Fellows to better voice, articulate and share their research and ideas publicly, as well as create dialogue, to bring about a more healthy, self-reliant and sustainable north. The program is co-funded by the J.M. Kaplan Fund, a family foundation based in New York.

Position Description

This is a half-time (O.6 FTE/3 day a week) position on a 2.5-year contract reporting to and supported by the Senior Program Manager of the Foundation. Based on success of the pilot fellowship program, the program and position may be renewed for an indefinite period. As well, the position has the potential to grow to full-time (assuming additional responsibilities).

The Northern Fellowship Coordinator will lead the design, refinement, promotion, implementation and management of program activities. This includes creating and managing the selection and stewardship of candidates, as well as envisioning and developing program details. It will support participants to undertake a major individual and major collective project. The Coordinator will organize 4 major gatherings over the 2-year period, at least two of which will take place in a northern community. The position will also put evaluation tools in place to inform the board’s eventual decision on the continuation of the program.

At the early stages in particular, the program will require substantial community-focused promotion. As such, the Coordinator will liaise with one or more contract communications specialists, and substantial travel in the north and elsewhere in Canada will be expected. The position requires ‘high-touch’ ongoing support to Fellows, fostering a collegial, trusting atmosphere. The Coordinator will be expected to network in a variety of settings and to help link fellows with mentors.

* This position is not necessarily based out of the Foundation’s offices in Toronto. It could be based in the community where the successful candidate resides, including in the north or in another Canadian city.

The Ideal Candidate

The eligible applicant will possess the following qualities:
• Be either a current or previous resident in the far north (Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, Nunatsiavut, or Nunavik).
• Have solid northern networks and/or a proven ability to build strong networks in northern and/or indigenous communities.
• Experience and proven ability working in leadership development either with an early career or adult student population or in “youth engagement”, broadly defined.
• Experience working in a cross-cultural setting, and with culturally-based and/or land-based learning.
• Have strong familiarity with policy issues and the public policy framework/process, particularly with regard to one or more northern jurisdictions.
• Basic knowledge of human resources and project management, including some financial management and program evaluation.
• Post-secondary degree in a relevant field, with ability to work in an inter-disciplinary setting (or the equivalent experience).
• Self-motivated and able to work largely independently.
• Experience working with selection processes and/or mentorship programs a definite asset.
• Willingness to serve (informally) as a mentor, motivator and support person for individual Fellows.
• Willingness to travel.
• Strong preference will be given to applicants identifying as Indigenous (Inuit, First Nations or Metis).

Salary

Salary is commensurate with both level of experience and location of where the Coordinator is to be based. The Foundation has a progressive benefits package. If the position is located outside of Toronto, additional office administration costs will be covered.

How to Apply

Please forward CV/resume with cover letter, by e-mail, to James Stauch, Acting CEO: james@gordonfn.org no later than September 18, 2009.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Why the Arctic is central to climate change negotiations

by Patricia Cochrane and Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Winnipeg Free Press (July 27, 2009) — As nations meet to discuss the impacts of climate change and promote their interests in the lead-up to the negotiations in Copenhagen in December, we hope that one element of the big picture does not get lost — the critical role of the Arctic region.

An international agreement reached in Copenhagen that does not safeguard the Arctic will be mere window-dressing. The Arctic ice and tundra act as a vital cooling system for our planet. Without white ice to reflect heat and light, the planet will absorb additional heat that will exacerbate global warming.

And as the ice melts, massive quantities of greenhouse gases currently trapped in our frozen lands and waters will be released, which could negate the positive efforts to reduce greenhouse gases elsewhere around the globe. Further warming will also imperil the homes and livelihoods of the millions of people around the world who live within feet of current sea level.

All people of the globe rely on the Arctic’s cold. Yet we must also remember that the Arctic is home to four million people, including 30 different indigenous peoples whose cultures are intrinsically tied to this frozen environment. At the current level of global warming, the Arctic ice and the species who live on and beneath the ice are at risk, which in turn endangers the livelihood and cultures of the indigenous peoples who have made the ice-covered North home for millennia.

Despite the laudable leadership shown by the Obama administration on climate change issues, the goals recently set out by the United States for an international agreement are not sufficient to safeguard the Arctic. The Arctic and our planet require more.

With this in mind, and with the interest of protecting this critical region in its entirety, we joined the Aspen Institute’s non-partisan Commission on Arctic Climate Change last year. Together, as a group of 14 leaders from the scientific community, public office, corporations and indigenous communities, we are working to highlight the importance of the Arctic as a critical global resource. We hope that the United States, the seven other Arctic nations, and leaders the world over will recognize what is at stake and lead the world to safeguard this region come December.

Last April 24, indigenous people from around the world convened in Alaska at the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change.

Participants at the Summit stated: “Mother Earth is no longer in a period of climate change, but in climate crisis. We therefore insist on an immediate end to the destruction and desecration of the elements of life.”

We can only hope that the world’s leaders feel the same urgency.

Patricia Cochran is chairwoman of the Indigenous People’s Global Summit on Climate Change and former chairwoman of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. She lives in Alaska. Sheila Watt-Cloutier is an Inuit environmental and human rights activist and a former chairwoman of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. She lives in Nunavut.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 27, 2009 – A11

Patricia Cochrane and Sheila Watt-Cloutier are members of the Aspen Commission on Arctic Climate Change, which met in July at the University of Winnipeg. Sheila Watt-Cloutier has worked as a member of Students on Ice’s field staff team.

Patricia Cochran

Climate change: New study backs UN panel on ocean rise

AFP (July 26, 2009) PARIS — The UN’s climate panel has been backed over a key question as to how far global warming will drive up sea levels this century, a study published on Sunday says.

The UN experts are right that the oceans are unlikely to rise by an order of metres (many feet) by 2100, as some scientists have feared, it says.

But, its authors caution, low-lying countries and delta areas could still face potentially catastrophic flooding if the upper range of the new estimate proves right.

In a landmark report in 2007, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted oceans would rise by 18-59 centimetres (7.2 and 23.6 inches) by 2100.

The increase would depend on warming, estimated at between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius (1.98-11.52 degrees Fahrenheit) this century, which in turn depends on how much man-made greenhouse gas is poured into the atmosphere.

It based the calculation on thermal expansion of the seas — when a liquid is warmed, it grows in volume.

Harder to calculate, the IPCC admitted, was how far meltwater from glaciers and icesheets on land would boost sea levels.

It ventured a provisional calculation, suggesting contributions from those sources could push the upper limit to 76 cms (30.4 inches).

The new paper, led by Mark Siddall of Britain’s University of Bristol, used data from fossilised coral and from ice-core measurements to reconstruct sea-level fluctuations over the past 22,000 years, from the height of the last Ice Age to the balmy era of today.

This century, they calculate, the seas will rise by between seven and 82 cms, all sources included, on the basis of a 1.1-6.4 C (1.98-11.52 F) warming — an estimated increase that is in the same ballpark as the IPCC’s.

The study appears in the journal Nature Geoscience.

“Given that the two approaches are entirely independent of each other, this result strengthens the confidence with which one may interpret the IPCC results,” said Siddall.

But, he said, no-one should be kidded into thinking the flooding threat was over.

“The fact that this number is smaller than other numbers does not mean that this is not potentially a massive and very important sea level rise,” Siddall told AFP in a telephone interview.

“Fifty centimetres (20 inches) of rise would be very, very dangerous for Bangladesh, it would be very dangerous for all low-lying areas. And not only that, the 50 centimetres (20 inches) is the global mean. Locally, it could be as high as a metre (3.25 feet), perhaps even higher, because water is pushed into different places by the effect of gravity.”

He added: “Extreme flood effects will definitely become more frequent. If you rise by 50 centimetres (20 inches), floods that once happened every 100 years then become once a decade.”

Siddall also pointed out that sea levels would inevitably rise even higher after the 21st century because of inertial effect.

It takes decades for atmospheric warming to translate into a warming of the seas because of the vast volume of the ocean, he said.

Thus the 22nd century and beyond will feel the impacts of the warming of the 21st century.

The IPCC’s estimates on sea levels have been repeatedly challenged since the Fourth Assessment Report was published in 2007.

Several studies have suggested that runoff from the Greenland and Antarctic icesheets — which hold the world’s biggest stores of freshwater — will be much higher than the panel suspected.

One paper, published in April by Paul Blanchon, a geoscientist at Mexico’s National University, said that, in the distant past, the seas suddenly rose by three metres (10 feet) within a very time.

There was “a distinct possibility” that a step change of this kind could happen within the next 100 years, said Blanchon.

Musk oxen clash horns in a battle for dominance on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula. Researchers suspect that herds of reindeer, musk oxen and other Arctic animals may face starvation as a warming climate affects their ability to access food. (Laurent Dick / AP)

When Rain Falls On Snow, Arctic Animals May Starve

by Christopher Joyce

NPR (July 28, 2009) — When wildlife biologists visited a remote spot in Canada called Banks Island in the spring of 2004, they discovered thousands upon thousands of dead musk oxen. It took years to determine the cause. They called it “rain-on-snow” — the worst case of it ever documented.

“Long story short, about 20,000 musk oxen starved to death because of this event,” says geologist Jaakko Putkonen. It was a “humongous event” that took place in the fall of 2003.

Putkonen, who is a professor at the University of North Dakota, has since discovered a few anecdotal accounts of big rain-on-snow events that killed reindeer in the Arctic and in Scandinavia.

What happens is this: Unusually warm weather drops rain on top of snowpack. The rain either pools at the surface or trickles down to the soil below the snowpack, then freezes into a sheet of ice. Musk oxen, which are shaggy, cow-sized animals that weigh hundreds of pounds, can’t break through the ice to browse on plants underneath the snow. Sooner or later, they starve.

Putkonen says it’s hard to know where and how often this is happening. The Arctic is vast and remote, and one never knows where or when a rain-on-snow event will happen. Even if you put down instruments to record one, they freeze up or get snowed under.

Now, this may be bad news for musk oxen or reindeer or caribou, but is it really a big deal? Putkonen and his fellow rain-on-snow experts — there aren’t many in this specialty yet — think it is. They suspect that a warming climate may increase the number and geographic reach of these events.

“If the climate warms up, it doesn’t just grow palm trees in sunny Fairbanks, Alaska,” says Tom Grenfell, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington. “It creates more storms and mixes the atmosphere up a lot more.” That could mean more rain-on-snow events, he says.

Grenfell says rain-on-snow events could also affect people who live in the high northern latitudes. “There are other places around the Arctic that have these things,” he says, “like Finland and Russia, where people herd reindeer or caribou and depend for their livelihood on these things.”

But so far no one knows whether these events are increasing — no one has ever checked. That’s what Putkonen and Grenfell are planning to do next. They’ve figured out what rain-on-snow looks like on a satellite image.

Now, they have 30 years of images of the Arctic to look through.

For more information, visit http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111109436&ft=3&f=1007

The IPY International Early Career Researcher Symposium will take place from December 4 to 8, 2009 in Victoria, B.C., Canada. The Symposium is organized in conjunction with the 2009 ArcticNet Science Meeting, which will be held after the Symposium in Victoria.

With the support of IPY Canada, ArcticNet, and the Northern Research Forum, the Symposium will bring together Arctic and Antarctic early career researchers from across the world with experts to build skills, knowledge, and networks. The workshop is based around seven themes:

*Community-based research;
*Funding your ideas;
*Working with policy makers;
*Communicating your science;
*How do I get started in science?
*Data management;and
*Time management & work/life balance

The training sessions will give concrete and useful advice, insight, and skills to help early career researchers meet the demands of polar science.

The Symposium will also provide an unmatched opportunity to meet and collaborate with fellow early career researchers, and build the networks that will strengthen polar research in the future.

Lodging and food will be included and travel support will be available.

Registration will be capped at 120 participants. Please visit the workshop website at www.apecs.is/victoria09 for more information and to register for future information packages and application forms.