During the last two decades the archipelago of Svalbard has evolved as a focal point for tourism and scientific research in the Arctic. In 1995 the Norwegian authorities inaugurated a management plan in order to conserve Svalbard and to minimise environmental degradation resulting from increased anthropogenic activity. However, the potential for accelerated modification of the tundra, as a result of field camps, was not addressed. Parameters, such as percentage vegetation cover, soil compaction, and soil infiltration rate were measured before and after a four-week period of field-camp activity, under controlled conditions, during July 1997. The study site was located near Ny-Ålesund, Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen. Statistical analysis showed that where no significant differences in the parameters were recorded at the control site, the presence of a field camp did cause a significant impact on the Arctic heath tundra surface. For example, mean soil compaction, increased from 1.16 kg cm-2 to 2.57 kg cm-2. The use of good practice procedures, such as moving tents regularly and utilising a groundsheet, did not prevent an impact on the environment. Key parameters at the main study sites were reassessed in July 1999, revealing that no significant recovery from the impact caused in 1997 had occurred. An established campsite at Ny-Ålesund was also studied in 1997, and the results support the findings of the main survey: a significant difference recorded for the parameters measured at the campsite, compared to negligible or no changes at the control site. In order to achieve a sustainable tourism and science-based community in Svalbard, i t is proposed that the existing management plan be expanded to incorporate a set of guidelines for wilderness camping, with the aim of mitigating the impact of field camps on the tundra.

The behaviour of Antarctic soils towards contaminant materials depends on the nature of the contaminant and the properties of the soil. Relevant properties are: depth to permafrost, whether the permafrost is ice-cemented or dry frozen; the active layer depth, active layer moisture content, and frequency of liquid water; soil salinity characteristics; and the geological composition of the soil materials.

Soil contaminations in the McMurdo region have been investigated through several years in a number of studies, including site surveys, field investigations, and experiments. Results of these studies are summarized in this paper and the significance of the contaminations is discussed. The behaviour of contaminants at the sites investigated conforms to existing knowledge of the soil properties. In the presence of some summer water or occasional moisture influxes from snowmelt, soluble contaminants may be transported variable distances through soils, both downwards and laterally, depending on the amount of water available. Ice-cemented permafrost restricts the downward movement of most contaminants but may aid distribution via lateral flow, especially low-freezing-point contaminants such as hydrocarbons. In dry-frozen soils, low-freezing-point contaminants may penetrate deeply into the soil.

With respect to the sites investigated, the heavy metal contaminations were typically above the values from undisturbed sites, but there may at times be appreciable natural variation. The presence of solid materials in soils — such as particles of plastics, wood, fibre, etc — represents a widespread and pernicious form of contamination, because they are foreign to the environment and are non-degradable.

An experimental linear mixture modelling using ground spectroradiometric measurements in the Kola Peninsula, Russia has been carried out to create a basis for mapping vegetation and non-vegetation components in the tundra-taiga ecotone using satellite imagery. We concentrated on the ground level experiment with the goal to use it further for the classification of multispectral satellite imagery through spectral unmixing. This experiment was performed on the most detailed level of remote sensing research which is free from atmospheric effects and easy to understand. We have measured typical ecotone components, including Cetraria nivalis, Betula tortuosa, Empetrum nigrum, Betula nana, Picea abies and rocks (nepheline syenite). The result of the experiment shows that the spectral mixture is indeed formed linearly but different components have different influence. Typical spectral thresholds for each component were found which are significant for vegetation mapping. Spectral unmixing of ground level data was performed and accuracy was estimated. The results add new information on typical spectral thresholds which can potentially be applied for multispectral satellite imagery when upscaling from high resolution to coarser resolution.

In 1850, five expeditions sailed for Baffin Bay with the common purpose of searching the Canadian Arctic for Sir John Franklin's missing North-west Passage expedition. They were all headed for different destinations and should have found themselves wintering many hundreds of miles apart; but, as chance would have it, three of them, led by Captain Horatio T. Austin, RN, Admiral Sir John Ross and the whaling master William Penny, were thrown together by ice conditions and by events. They wintered in close proximity to one another and were obliged to divide among themselves the search of the surrounding area. Ross's little private venture was too poorly equipped to contribute much, but the other two achieved very promising results: Austin's men discovered the first traces of the Franklin expedition on Devon Island and, in cooperation with Penny, located Franklin's first winter quarters on Beechey Island. In the following spring, sledge parties went out to explore hundreds of miles of new coastline; Austin found no further trace of Franklin, but Penny found persuasive evidence to suggest that the missing expedition had sailed up Wellington Channel (as, indeed, it had done, though it had not remained in that area). With the work of the travelling parties concluded, and after some conversation between Austin and Penny on 11 August 1851, all three expeditions set course for home.

Eckener Point (64° 26′S; 61° 36′W) lies on the northeast side of the entrance to Charlotte Bay and southeast of Murray Island, on the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula (Fig. 1). Data from a 1987 census (Woehler 1993) show 40 breeding pairs of chinstrap penguins Pygoscelis antarctica at the site. An unpublished report of 180 nests of blue-eyed cormorant Phalacrocorax atriceps/bransfieldensis (S Poncet, personal communication, 2004) in 1983 is the only other ornithological record for the site. Here we report on the results of a brief survey conducted to document the breeding seabirds for this locality. Suitable ice-free sites on the Antarctic Peninsula are limited, and Eckener Point, though small, provides nesting habitat for a high number of avian species. Plant and lichen diversity also appears unusually high.

The observed greening of Arctic vegetation and the expansion of shrubs in the last few decades probably have profound implications for the tundra ecosystem, including feedbacks to climate. Uncertainty surrounding this vegetation shift and its implications calls for monitoring of vegetation structural parameters, such as fractional cover of shrubs. In this study, CANAPI, a semi-automated image interpretation algorithm that identifies and traces crowns by locating its crescent-shaped sunlit portion, was evaluated for its ability to derive structural data for tall (> 0.5 m) shrubs in the Arctic. CANAPI estimates of shrub canopy parameters were obtained from high-resolution imagery at 26 sites (250 m x 250 m each) by adjusting the algorithm's parameters and filter settings for each site, such that the number of crowns delineated by CANAPI roughly matched those observed in the high-resolution imagery. The CANAPI estimates were then compared with field measurements to evaluate the algorithm's performance. CANAPI successfully retrieved fractional cover (R2 = 0.83, P < 0.001), mean crown radius (R2 = 0.81, P < 0.001), and total number of shrubs (R2 = 0.54, P < 0.001). CANAPI performed best in sparse vegetation where shrub canopies were distinct, while it tended to underestimate shrub cover where shrubs were clustered. The CANAPI algorithm and the regression equations presented here can be used in Arctic tundra environments to derive vegetation parameters from any sub-meter panchromatic imagery.

After three years' delay, work started early in 1974 on the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic coast of Alaska 1 270 km to Valdez on the Gulf of Alaska (Ronhovde. 1974). Within three years, the line should be delivering 1.2 million barrels per day, a volume that will be increased eventually to a daily flow of 2 million barrels. Gas production on the North Slope of Alaska will probably be exported through Canada to the United States through a 4 184-km pipeline that will cost an estimated $5.7 billion and, if built, will be one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken; the system will also carry Canadian Arctic gas to southern markets. The size of these projects is in themselves impressive, and they have been spawned and are being launched in an atmosphere of controversy and confusion that, in its different way, is equally impressive.

Shipping on the Kara Sea section of the Soviet Northern Sea Route—to and from the mouth of the Yenisey river from the west—had been established on a regular, indeed routine, basis by the 1931 navigation season, when 16 freighters took part (Belov, 1959, p 379). At the other end of the sea route, however, the situation was radically different. Between 1923 and 1931 the mouth of the Kolyma had been served each season by only one, occasionally two, of the freighters Stavropol', Kolyma and Leytenant Shmidt; without icebreaker escort, these vessels would fight their way through the ice of the Chukchi Sea and Proliv Longa to the mouth of the Kolyma (Belov, 1959, p 216–56, p 385–403). The 1932 season saw a dramatic change.

This report is intended to supplement the more general reports on the activities of the United States in the Antarctic which have appeared in the Polar Record, Vol 12, No 79, 1965, p 439–52 and earlier issues, and in BioScience, Vol 15, No 4, 1965.

Sagas, law texts, court and ecclesiastical manuscripts, the King's Mirror, and later texts of the 17th and 18th centuries provide information on whaling activities in Iceland during the classical period (up to 1300) and later. Most references concern whales washed or driven ashore, rather than hunted in the open sea. Beached whales were clearly regarded as valuable food resources, generating disputes, litigation and other social conflict among the communities of the Icelandic Commonwealth.

‘No scheme of Canadian historiography yet advanced is wholly satisfactory because none as yet takes account of the occurrence of the North’ (Morton, 1970, p 31). Where Canadian historiography has been silent, studies of Canadian federalism have chosen to ignore. The Northwest Territories (NWT) and die Yukon Territory have certainly never been major actors in national political forums, nor have they yet to play a significant role in the political processes surrounding the two major preoccupations of Canadian federalism, namely the economy and national unity.