The SCAR-programme EBA (2004-13) will address the impacts of climate change on species biodiversity, evolutionary adaptations and depletion of marine fisheries on community dynamics in the Southern Ocean. A better understanding of the effect of such changes will be obtained by investigating the acclimatory responses to high latitudes. It will contribute to development of a baseline understanding of sensitive ecosystems.

Polar Heritage - once lost, it can never be regained. Protection and preservation of early scientific bases in polar regions. A multidisciplinary and international conference with presentations focussed on technical and administrative issues associated with the protection and preservation of historic scientific bases and in "Historic polar resources are disappearing! Once lost, it can never be regained. Protection and preservation of early scientific bases in polar regions. The age of discovery in polar regions also brought scientific research and soon the first non-indigenous structures were built. Regretably some of these historic sites have already been lost and more are under threat. The International Polar Heritage Committee IPY conference in Barrow Alaska, the site of one the first IPY scientific stations will assemble organisations and individuals working to protect these sites so they can share their expertise and experience to preserve them. "

Northern High Latitude Climate variability during the past 2000 years:implications for human settlement. "NORCLIM investigates how natural climate change over the past two millenia has affected human presence in the Arctic. Examples are the timing of Viking settlement on the Faroer, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland and the shift in whaling activities from Spitsbergen to Davis Strait during the Little Ice Age. To achieve the NORCLIM goals, geologists, climatologists and archeologists from seven counties will carry out marine and terrestrial fieldwork on key locations along a Newfoundland-Spitsbergen transect.

Ice cores tell us how climate and atmospheric composition have varied in the past. IPICS will develop international plans for new projects on timescales from 2000 to over a million years. A focus in IPY will be on starting a core to bedrock in Greenland that aims to show us how the climate and ice sheet responded during the last warm interglacial period on Earth.

"The APICS project is an effort to understand all aspects of the ice and climate system in one of the most rapidly-changing regions on Earth - the Antarctic Peninsula' Larsen B embayment. In 2002, a huge section of this ice shelf collapsed, after decades of record-warm summers. Following this collapse, glaciers in the region accelerated abruptly. Coastal ecology and nearby ocean currents changed drastically due to the loss, and a preliminary survey of the newly-exposed ocean floor showed previously unknown sub-ice life forms still present after the break-up. The APICS project is intended to use the dynamic Larsen B ice shelf region as a natural laboratory for what to expect from climate warming in Antarctica. It is a collaborative effort among 11 major U.S. research institutions, and four other countries (Spain, Belgium, Argentina, and England) to coordinate research across several disciplines, using the US research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer as a platform. The work will include an ice core at the crest of the ice ridge above the Larsen B, remote robotic systems for glacier measurements, extensive flights to visit unique rock outcrops that may reveal the history of the region, and a remotely piloted vehicle for exploring the new life forms and ocean sediment changes. The first field season is currently planned for February/March of 2008."

Understanding the state of the cryosphere, and its associated past, present and future variability, is essential to understanding physical and biogeochemical interactions between the oceanic, atmospheric, terrestrial, social, cultural, and economic systems. This project will provide a framework for assessing the state of cryosphere. It will establish links with IPY projects involved in monitoring, assessing, and understanding the global cryosphere, and with projects involved in socioeconomic and cultural issues.

“Meltdown: Global Warning” is a 3D/2D National Geographic film for giant screen theaters worldwide. Using state-of-the-art computer animation to bring audiences on a wild ride to the far ends of the Earth and into the future, we'll meet scientists at the cutting edge of climate science and come face-to-face with the future effects of climate change.

The Impacts of Oil and Gas Activity on Peoples in the Arctic Using a Multiple Securities Perspective From 2007-2010 a broad-based group of students and researchers from diverse backgrounds (political science to ecology) will take a human security approach to studying how oil and gas development will affect Arctic communities in Norway, Russia and Canada. By making human security central, we expect to connect Arctic peoples, researchers and policy makers in ways that will result in genuine listening and interaction among the groups.

Extending IPY Themes to the Undergraduate Earth System Science Education Community "The NASA/USRA Earth System Science Education for the 21st Century program (ESSE 21) engages interdisciplinary college and university teams to develop courses, curricula and degree programs that consider air, water, land and life processes on Earth. IPY research on polar processes will enrich ESSE 21 learning materials with relevant and compelling content that explores the global impact of polar science. "

ArcticWOLVES is an international initiative developed for the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. The project will build a network of circumpolar wildlife observatories in order to assess the current state of arctic terrestrial food webs over a large geographical range. The network will provide baseline information to evaluate current and future population trends for a large number of species at several locations using standard protocols. Another aim of the project is to determine the relative importance of bottom-up (resources) and top-down (predators) forces in structuring arctic food webs, and how climate affects these trophic linkages.