Investigations on the age and taphonomy of modern and abandoned penguin rookeries were completed in the Antarctic Peninsula region, 1992–1994. Systematic collection and identification of bones from modern rookeries of Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae), chinstrap (P. antarctica), and gentoo (P. papua) penguins indicate a bias in element preservation for humeri, furcula, femora, and tibiotarsi. More than 73% of the individuals represented by these elements are juveniles. Bones from abandoned rookeries show similar patterns that can help identify old breeding sites and the species that occupied them. Radiocarbon dates completed on 13 chinstrap and Adélie penguin bones, feathers, and eggshell fragments from five abandoned rookeries suggest that occupation of these sites occurred only during warm intervals of the Little Ice Age (AD 1500–1850). These data also provide information on the paleoecology and paleobiogeography of penguins in the Antarctic Peninsula region, which help explain modern distribution patterns and demography.

Increases in the number of people travelling to Antarctica has led to more frequent interactions between people and Antarctic wildlife, yet the effects of visitation on the animals has received limited scientific assessment. This study conducted experiments to measure the responses of incubating Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) to controlled human approaches to determine which approach distances and approach styles caused the least disturbance to the birds. Three minimum approach distances were tested: 30, 15, and 5 m. Approaching penguins to 30 m had no measurable effect on either their behaviour or heart rate, while approaching as close as 15 m significantly elevated their heart rates above resting, undisturbed levels even though there was no behavioural indication of this response. Approaching penguins to 5 m significantly interrupted the penguins' incubation behaviour, with the potential to cause egg-cooling. Approaches to 5 m elevated heart rates above those measured when birds were undisturbed, approached to either 15 or 30 m, or exposed to ‘natural’ disturbances (that is, other penguins or south polar skuas, Catheracta maccormicki). The study also identified certain Adelie penguin behaviours that may be indicative of disturbance in response to human visitation. People visiting breeding penguins could learn to identify these behaviours, so they can monitor and modify any effects of their visit.

This paper examines the relationship between resource development and aboriginal community and cultural impacts in Canada's north from the 1970s to the present. Based on a review of published literature, it is contended that northern centred scholarship can be conceptualised in two phases. These are firstly the community impacts phase (1970 to mid-1990s), a phase guided largely by a cultural politics of assimilation, a sociology of disturbance, and an anthropology of acculturation; and secondly the community continuity phase (mid-1990s to present), a phase underpinned by political empowerment, participatory social impact assessment, and the influence of cultural ecology. Due to these shifting political dynamics and research frameworks, and a lack of longitudinal research in the north over the last four decades, it is concluded that the nature of the relationship between resource development and aboriginal culture remains elusive and subject to wide ranging interpretation. Analysis shows that cultural impacts from resource development are dependent on the scale of development and spatial disturbance. It also shows growing political power in the north, a greater focus on community-based research, and renewed discussion of cultural continuity and how it is defined and assessed over time.

This article explores how climate change has recently influenced the Iñupiaq cultural identity as the people of the whales. Their traditional whaling cycle reveals strong indivisibility of music, emotions, and place based human identity. To illustrate such integrity of the Iñupiat and their culturally critical bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), a search was made for specific ways in which climate change influences Iñupiaq spiritual and physical ties with the whale in relation to traditional music making. Traditionally, the Iñupiat say that it is the whale who brings them music, thus no whale harvest means no music production. However, when the environment is less predictable, the homeland eroded, place based songs gone, and human-whale integrity threatened, how specifically are these changes manifested in the Iñupiat-whale relationship? Providing detailed descriptions of 2005–2006 nalukataq (midsummer whale feasts), this article examines how contemporary Iñupiat respond to environmental changes in the emotional and cultural dimensions through their music making.

Between February 1972 and January 1983, successively using positioning satellites Eole, Nimbus F, Tiros N-Argos, movements of 21 Antarctic icebergs were monitored daily from radio transmissions; 17 of the bergs were followed over periods of 228–828 days through distances of 1600 to 8000 km (2000 to 5000 nautical miles, nm). Mean daily positions, calculated from several observations, were accurate to less than 5.5 km (3 nm) for Eole and Nimbus, 0.9 km (0.5 nm) for Argos. Grouped into three areas (Weddell Sea, Enderby Land to Adelie Land, Ross Sea), the trajectories cover four fifths of the continental periphery. Movements clearly indicate singular points along the boundary between the two circumpolar currents, the East Wind and West Wind drifts, and variations in the strength and direction of flow of these currents; submarine topography and other underlying causes are suggested.

Heard Island, a heavily glacierized volcanic island in the Southern Ocean, is 80% ice-covered, with glaciers descending from 2,400 m to sea level: major glaciers are up to 7 km long with areas exceeding 10 km. Much of the island was photographed from the air in 1947 and again in early 1980. Photographs and limited ground surveys record changes (mostly retreats) in glacier fronts. Retreat is most marked on the eastern flanks where former tidewater glaciers are now grounded inland. Glaciers on northern and windward western flanks still end in ice cliffs but have narrowed; glaciers and ice caps on Laurens Peninsula (maximum elevation 710 m) are up to 65% smaller. Nearby lies Kerguelen and other southern islands with long climatic records have warrned significantly since the early 1960s. Surface and upper-air climatic data from Heard Island 1947–54 and records from automatic weather stations 1980–82 suggest that Heard too has warmed slightly, concurrently with a possible northward shift of low-pressure system tracks in this region. Temperatures have remained above average through the early 1980s and glacier retreat is expected to continue.

The increasing rate of incidents involving vessels in the Southern Ocean (including vessels sinking) has highlighted the potential for substantial fuel spills into the Antarctic environment. An increasing number of tourist and fishing vessels, often without ice strengthened hulls, are penetrating farther into, and staying longer in, Antarctic waters, with a focus for destinations of wildlife concentrations. Based on a survey of national operators in the Antarctic, there is little preparation for an oil spill event that involves Antarctic wildlife. This is a recipe for a catastrophic spill event, with the potential for high numbers of oiled wildlife in a remote part of the world where there are major logistical constraints on the provision of equipment and skilled response personnel. Here we chronicle shipping incidents that have led to oil spills in the Southern Ocean, the current legislation and contingency plans currently in place by national Antarctic operators, and examine their preparedness and expertise for an oiled wildlife event response. It is clear that national, fishing and tourism operators are manifestly unprepared for an oiled wildlife event in the Southern Ocean. We identify five critical constraints to any response and provide recommendations that address these constraints.

We provide a comprehensive list of microorganisms (algae, Archaea, bacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi, and Protista) inhabiting cryoconite holes on glaciers throughout the world, giving an updated taxonomy accompanied by geographic coordinates and localities. The list consists of 370 taxa reported from cryoconite holes (mostly from Arctic and Antarctic regions and European Alps). However, most of the taxa were not identified to the species level. Until now only 39 identified species or subspecies of bacteria and Archaea, 11 fungi, 17 cyanobacteria, 62 algae, and 13 Protista are known from cryoconite holes, which are only about 38% of total number of taxa reported from these ephemeral environments. Almost 62% of the taxa were marked as cf. (confer) or were identified only to the genera or even to the higher taxonomic units (such as families or orders). This wide and detailed review assists other scientists to identify the gaps in our knowledge about cryobionts and indicates directions for further zoogeographical and taxonomical studies in this unique freshwater habitat.

Since Greene and Greene (1963) published their check list of the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic vascular flora, a number of works have appeared which have added new taxa for the region and new records for many of the islands. Some nomenclatural changes have also become necessary following taxonomic revisions so the present check list, which adopts a style and layout similar to that used by Greene and Greene (1963), takes the opportunity to incorporate all of these emendations. Although this paper refers to all taxa noted by Greene and Greene (1963), not all of the sources cited by those authors have been repeated.

In recent decades, the mining industry has expanded globally especially in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Mines often boost rural economies, but may have also negative impacts on environment and local livelihoods, such as tourism and reindeer herding. That is why acceptability and undeniable right to operate – the social licence (SL) to mine has become more and more important in mining related discussions. We examine empirically issues relating to SL in two mining projects in Finnish Lapland, Hannukainen in Kolari and Suurikuusikko in Kittilä. The main results emphasise the importance of transparency in mining operations and the continuity of communications with local stakeholders in building and maintaining the SL to mine. If the transparency of operations is lacking and issues come to publicity only via the media, this may affect the public image of a company and finally challenge its SL to operate and, in the long term, potentially effect the financing decisions of mining investors. We show that acquiring and keeping up a SL links not only to the developments in the actual mining site, but is also connected to processes taking place in other localities. These connections may emerge in various scales; between various local communities, mining companies and global financing principles, for instance. We use and propose ‘multi-sited ethnography’ as a method to describe and better understand complex linkages which may effect the SL to mine.

The tourism industry, research activities, and governing institutions are often seen as three very different, independent, and partly antagonistic activities and sectors – tourism as pure profit-pursuing, research as indifferent to business, and governing as controlling both. In this paper, it is argued that this is not the case on Svalbard, where a symbiotic relationship exists between the three sectors. Tourism to the islands emerged in the wake of the exploration of the Arctic in the late 1800s, but for a long period tourism rates were low, mostly due to a strict environmental regime supported by researchers in the natural sciences as well as the government. However, tourism has increased over the past 20 years, partly due to changes in the relationships between the tourism industry, researchers, and governing bodies. The involvement of research in different types of governance and its influence on tourism development will be demonstrated using theories of modern governance as points of departure for an analysis of the current situation; how tourism has provided governors with activities to govern and researchers with a rationale for comprehensive research activity. This case study shows how a symbiosis between tourism, research, and governance can be seen to emerge.

King George Island, largest of the South Shetland Islands, is the site of nine scientific stations of different nationalities operating within the Antarctic Treaty System. Following a recent visit by the author to assess environmental and management issues, this article (the first of two) updates the status of developments on the island and outlines problems, real and potential.which have arisen from scientific activities, tourism, vehicles, use of fuels and waste disposal. It is concluded that existing management practices have not been adequate to deal with these problems and new approaches are required.

Since 1965 South Africa- has conducted a biological research programme on its two sub-Antarctic islands, Marion and Prince Edward. This programme is organized under the auspices of the South African Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SASCAR) and is sponsored by the South African Department of Transport. The first South African scientific expedition to the islands in 1965–66 yielded much information on the geology, zoology and botany of the two islands (van Zinderen Bakker Sr and others, 1971). The programme has since developed into a sophisticated ecological/physiological study, having as its major objective an understanding of the food cycles operative within the islands' ecosystems. The realization of this objective involves detailed investigations into the primary and secondary production of the various components of the islands' biota as well as a quantitative inquiry into the biogeochemical cycles of nutrients operative within the terrestrial, fresh and salt-water environs of the islands.

Significant deterioration to the historic expedition huts of the Ross Sea region of Antarctica has occurred during the past decades from exposure to the polar environment. One type of deterioration that has affected all of the huts is a chemical attack resulting in a defibration of wood. Wood surfaces have a rough, fuzzy appearance and consist of white to yellow-brown masses of detached fibers. The damage is commonly associated with areas where water with dissolved salts is absorbed by wood. As moisture evaporates from the wood surface, exceedingly high concentrations of salt accumulate. Chemical reactions within the wood cause a corrosive degradation on the middle lamella region of the woody cell wall (the area located between cells that cements them together) and may gradually degrade all cell-wall layers. As the deterioration progresses, cells continue to separate and the wood is converted into masses of detached and eroded wood fibers. In advanced stages of attack, the wood structure and integrity is severely compromised. This paper describes the defibration process, reports locations on Ross Island where the damage is severe, and discusses methods to control the problem. Successful preservation of these important historic structures and cultural objects depends on a more complete understanding of the unique deterioration processes underway and on implementation of effective strategies to conserve the huts.

In recent years, interest in the economic potential of the Arctic has been mounting, facilitated by environmental developments caused by climate change. In this context, the viability of shipping in Arctic waters is pivotal. This article explores the interplay of market considerations and the non-market drivers (climatic, navigational and political components) regarding the viability of the most prominent Arctic shipping route, the northern sea route (NSR), as a global shipping route. In particular, it concentrates on the Russian ice-breaking tariff policy on the NSR and presents a review from 1991, when the route was officially opened to international shipping, until 2014. The study integrates qualitative and longitudinal quantitative data related to NSR traffic, ice-breaking tariffs and ice conditions. The paper shows that the ice-breaking fees play a key role for the functioning of the NSR by providing a source of funding for the ice-breaking fleet, which constitutes a basis for safe shipping. However, the development of the NSR into a competitive transcontinental shipping route is determined by a dynamic mixture of factors in which the Russian ice-breaking fee represents an additional cost item for shipping companies and shippers. It is argued that the development of ice-breaking tariff policy has been guided by structural changes in external factors consequently influencing the demand for ice-breaking services (a derivative of NSR demand), which limits the extent to which tariff policy influences the attractiveness of the NSR in a global context.

Changes of the lipid composition (mainly of membrane lipids) in gills in response to various seawater salinities were studied in two groups of mussels Mytilus edulis L. from the White Sea, living under different environmental conditions (intertidal zone and artificial substrates used in aquaculture). Modifications in the lipid composition involved the basic indices characteristic of the physical state of biological membranes, and minor components of the lipid bilayer, which perform regulatory functions, indicating that the lipid metabolism of the bivalves has undergone acclimation transformations in response to salinity. It is demonstrated that the response to critical salinity (5 ppt) in membrane lipids was similar in the two investigated groups of mussels, whereas with salinities of 15, 35, and 45 ppt the pattern of fluctuations in the lipid composition depended on the initial habitat (intertidal zone or aquaculture).

Plans exist in the USSR to divert southward part of the flow of some northern Russian and Siberian rivers, notably the Northern Dvina, Pechora, Ob' and Yenisey, to alleviate water shortages in Central Asia, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine, and counter falling water levels in the Aral and Caspian Seas. Possible effects of diverting small and large amounts of river water away from the Arctic are discussed in the light of recent observations and modelling studies of Arctic basin hydrology and sea ice distribution. Current evidence suggests that small diversions planned to operate before the end of this century will have little effect on ocean circulation or sea ice distribution. Larger-scale diversions planned for the future might affect sea ice formation over the shelf regions of the Kara and Barents Seas, but are unlikely to have a major effect on circulation or sea ice distribution over the Arctic Ocean as a whole.

George VI Ice Shelf is about 450 km long, 20–70 km wide, and averages 250 m in thickness. It is bordered by Alexander Island to the west and by the Antarctic Peninsula to the east (Fig 1). The ice shelf is fed by glaciers flowing westwards from the Palmer Land plateau. In summer (November to late February) the ice shelf undergoes considerable surface melting and meltwater lakes form over an area of 4 500 km2 between 70°15′S and 72°00′S. The lakes and pools vary in size from a few centimetres deep and several square metres in area to a few metres deep covering areas of several square kilometres (Fig 2). Most of the lakes are characteristically elongate and ribbon-like and hence are termed ‘ribbon lakes’. From mid November to late February the lakes are a major obstacle to sledge parties travelling over the ice shelf.

A multi-box corer is described, recently designed and constructed as part of the Euromar Project, through cooperation between the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and Fa. MAK Krupp Maschinenbau GmbH Kiel. Deployed successfully during the RV Polarstern expedition ANT VI/3 early in 1988, the multiple corer provided nine samples over a sampling area of 2–3 m2, thus obtaining more reliable abundance values than a single corer, and providing insights into the spatial variability of macrobenthic organisms. Equipped with a UW-video, the corer facilitates controlled economic collection of sediment and macrobenthos in depths down to 5000 m.

This paper reports on an exploratory analysis examining the prevalence of food (in)security in the Inuit community of Igloolik, Nunavut, identifying high risk groups, and characterising conditions facilitating and constraining food security. A stratified cross-sectional food survey was administered to 50 Inuit community members in July 2007. 64% of the participants surveyed experienced some degree of food insecurity in the past year (July 2006–July 2007). Food insecurity among the sample population greatly exceeds the Canadian average. This is cause for concern given the negative physical and mental health impacts that have been documented for low nutritional status. The prevalence and severity of food insecurity differed among participants; females and those obtaining most of their food from the store were at highest risk of food insecurity. Consumption of traditional foods was significantly associated with increased food security. The study supports the need for further research to investigate key trends highlighted by the sample. Preliminary identification of potential trends contributes towards the goal of identifying entry points for policy aimed at strengthening northern Inuit food systems.