February 17, 2009 — FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The Greening of the Arctic (GOA) IPY initiative is comprised of four projects each contributing to documenting, mapping and understanding the rapid and dramatic changes to terrestrial vegetation expected across the circumpolar Arctic as a result of a changing climate. These changes will likely affect the permafrost, active layer, carbon reserves, trace-gas fluxes, hydrological systems, biodiversity, wildlife populations and the human habitability of Arctic ecosystems, says GOA principal investigator Donald “Skip” Walker, director of the Institute of Arctic Biology’s ...

An IPY initiative extending field event helicopter support from February into April allowed scientists to find out what happens to aquatic ecosystems during the summer-winter transition. Small pond immediately after freezing. The thick carpet of microbial mat is very clear through the ice Antarctica is a continent with plenty of “water” but precious little in the liquid state that most life requires. Where liquid water does exist, microbial ecosystems develop that are oases of biological diversity in otherwise barren landscapes. One of the commonest type of liquid water habitat are small ponds that fr...

Polar Bears and Penguins May Live at Opposite Poles, But Census of Marine Life Explorers Find Hundreds of Identical Species Thrive in Both Arctic and Antarctic Contacts: Mr. Terry Collins, +1-416-878-8712; +1-416-538-8712; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Ms. Darlene Trew Crist, +1-401-295-1356; +1-401-952-7692; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Mr. Gregg Schmidt, +1-202- 448-1231; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Experts are available for advance interviews. Video and high-resolution images are online at www.coml.org/embargo/polar2009 Download PDF of CoML IPY Press Release for i...

Content: 1. IPY feature projects throughout February 2. Issue of the State of Polar Research Report, Feb 25th 3. Update from HAIS meeting 4. Archiving IPY: a process for storing your critical files for the future 5. Polar Oceans Day : a chance to engage the public 6. IPY Success? Report no. 22, February 2009 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. IPY feature projects throughout February Many thanks to all projects and participants who have been busy preparing concise summary and media material for our February profile. In the lead-up to the release of the State of Polar Research report on February...

International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA) IPY Press release – Feb. 10, 2009, Boulder, CO Download IASOA Press Release as PDF For more information visit our IPY Media Day page at www.iasoa.org Climate observatories at Barrow, Alaska, Summit, Greenland, and Tiksi, Russia all lie between 71° and 73° North, a few hundred miles above the Arctic Circle—but the sites are hardly similar otherwise. A...

MEDIA ADVISORY UPCOMING RELEASE OF NEW EVIDENCE ABOUT CHANGE IN THE POLAR REGIONS download in multiple languages: Arabic

Video release: Simultaneous Solstice, covering the summer solstice tag-up between the Phoenix Mars Mission and South Pole teams, as well as images from the Mars lander. Press release: Antarctic expedition prepared researchers for Mars project About half a year before the robotic arm on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander began digging into soil and subsurface ice of an arctic plain of Mars, six scientists traveled to one of the coldest, driest places on Earth for soil-and-ice studies that would end up aiding analysis of the Mars data. ...

A study suggests that extreme weather events in the Arctic will become more common as the winter ice cover retreats, with potentially severe consequences for human activity. One of the most visible signs of climate change is the dramatically reduced ice cover in the Arctic. The retreat of the sea ice leads to rapid changes in the weather conditions in these areas. A new study published in Climate Dynamics reveals that regions that have been covered by sea ice until now will be exposed to new kinds of severe weather. This may have dire consequences for human activities in the Northern regions. The study was l...

http://ipy.arcticportal.org/index.php?option=com_k2&id=1997&view=itemPress release: Kinnvika - Arctic warming and impact research - Change and variability of Arctic systems, with focus on Nordaustlandet, Svalbard Kinnvika is a project within the International Polar Year 2007–2008 that focuses on Arctic warming and impact research. Its a multinational and multidisciplinary initiative to enhance the understanding of the Arctic climate systems, to monitor environmental change due to global climate warming and to study effects of human activity in the Arctic. Kinnvika is also a logistic platform for scientists to manage research, with a base at the old Kinnvika station in Svalbard. There are 25 working packages in the project and the science involves several disciplines in the Earth Sciences including studies among others on ...

Press release: CAVIAR – Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions Brief description of research CAVIAR is an interdisciplinary project with partners from the eight Arctic nations. The aim of CAVIAR is to increase understanding of how Arctic communities are affected by climate and other changes and to contribute to the development of adaptive strategies and policies. Case studies in communities across the Arctic provide a basis for synthesizing knowledge of how communities experience changes in environmental, social and economic conditions and factors that influence adaptation to these changes. By using a common methodology, results are compared and provide critical, generalizable knowledge of vulnerability and experiences with adaptat...