CAVIAR - Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in the Arctic Regions – is an international research consortium consisting of partners from the eight Arctic nations. The main goal of CAVIAR is to identify how projected changes in climate interact with changes in social and natural conditions, and how such interactions shape vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in Arctic Regions. Comparable case studies across Arctic communities will provide a basis for synthesizing knowledge of vulnerabilities and for exchanging experiences with adaptation.

ESSAR addresses how climate variability and change affects the marine ecosystems of the polar (Subarctic and Arctic) seas and their sustainability. To provide accurate projections on the impact of climate warming on these ecosystems requires improved knowledge of its components and their linkages. Because of the complexity of the interactions, accurate predictions of what will happen to individual species requires knowledge on key life-history traits and of what will happen to the ecosystem as a whole, as species do not function separately from their ecosystem. ESSAR, therefore, encompasses retrospective and field studies on physics, plankton, benthos, fish and shellfish, marine mammals, sea birds and humans. The field studies will be carried out in the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans during 2007-2008. The data gathered will be used, together with bio-physical models, to make quantifiable predictions of the effects of both climate variability and long-term climate change on arctic polar marine ecosystems.

Indigenous youth will inherit large portions of the north and the responsibility for protecting its natural resources. They will choose future livelihoods in a world where economic, political and environmental decisions occur in multinational global forums. This project will develop future environmental decision-makers and indigenous community leaders who understand and appreciate conservation issues and the roles of science, indigenous knowledge and politics in conservation decision-making.""

The Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) is a global network working together to harmonize and integrate efforts to monitor the Arctic’s living resources.

We have an opportunity before us to vastly improve our understanding of change in the Arctic. While the North experiences growing pressure from climate change and resource development, our current monitoring is fragmented and uncoordinated, reducing our ability to understand what’s going on and therefore, effectively respond.

Arctic nations spend over half a billion dollars monitoring biodiversity – and yet, the return on our investment is poor. The CBMP is working with over 60 global partners to boost our current monitoring effort and deliver the most cutting edge information on Arctic change. Maintaining healthy Arctic ecosystems is a global imperative as the Arctic plays a critical role in the Earth’s physical, chemical and biological balance.

There is now clear evidence that the effects of recent and past climate changes have varied in magnitude across of the world. Some changes over periods of thousands of years seem to have affected the Arctic and Antarctic regions alternately, and this has been called the “bipolar see-saw” effect. The BIPOMAC project will collect and examine climate records in sedimentary sequences spanning the past five million years from both polar regions. These records will provide a basis for analysing the complex interactions of environmental processes that have caused the observed patterns of climate variation. Improved understanding of such processes and their interactions will increase our ability to forecast future climate and sea level change.

Global Warming will have a large impact on glaciers in the Arctic region. Sea level will be affected, and substantial changes can be expected in sediment and fresh water supplies to embayments and fjords. In GLACIODYN we study the dynamics of Arctic glaciers by means of field observations, remote sensing from satellites, and computer modelling. This will deliver tools to make more accurate predictions about future changes.

The overall focus of the ECOGREEN consortium is to establish the scientific basis for a long-term ecosystem-based management of marine resources in West Greenland. The West Greenland society relies almost entirely on marine resources for industrial as well as subsistence utilisation. Today, the West Greenland marine ecosystem is very productive and sustains fisheries which contribute 95% of Greenland’s total export value. The Greenland Marine ecosystem also sustains seals and whales who feed in the area during summer, and, from the entire North Atlantic, seabirds by the million find a critical winter habitat resource in the ice-free area. Human use of the West Greenland marine ecosystem presents a complex mosaic of small- and large-scale commercial fishing, as well as subsistence and recreational fishing and hunting.

Some of the most dramatic weather events – including spring thaws, sea ice movements and the strong winds and high seas associated with severe winter cyclones – occur in the polar regions, and being able to forecast these events more accurately is crucial for mitigating their impact on local communities, fisheries, wildlife, energy production and transport. Using satellite data, this 15-nation project will help design the next generation of observing networks that are needed to improve our ability to forecast “high impact” weather events in polar regions.