The Antarctic heteronemertean Parborlasia corrugata (McIntosh, 1876) (originally Lineus corrugatus) shows a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Ocean, putatively with high dispersal capacity of the planktonic larva. From the eastern coast of Lützow-Holm Bay near Syowa Station (69°00′S, 39°35′E), several records of heteronemerteans have been made under the name of Lineus corrugatus. However, they

The Polar Regions (PRs) are characterized by ice sheets, sea ice, glaciers, tundra, and other cryospheric landscapes and associated aboriginal cultural features. This primitive polar landscape is a huge contrast to the current human living environment and is a strong tourist attraction. Rapid environmental changes and the emergence of conflicts between tourism development and ecological protection

Detecting year-to-year variability of the timing of the start of the growing season (SGS) and the end of the growing season (EGS) is an important task in accurately evaluating ecosystem functions and services under climate change in vulnerable ecosystems in Siberia. We constructed a degree-day model for estimating the SGS and EGS dates at a deciduous coniferous forest site in Siberia, based on the

Arctic ecosystems are altered profoundly by climate changes. However, the responses of Arctic marine and terrestrial ecosystems as well as their biodiversity to global warming remain largely unknown. This article provides comprehensive insights into the results and major findings from the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) Project – an Arctic region research program initiated in Japan, which

Stratospheric ozone depletion over the Arctic is not regular, unlike Antarctic ozone holes, and is determined by the dynamics of the polar vortex. Under the conditions of the strong polar vortex, in the presence of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), the catalytic cycles of ozone destruction occur with the appearance of solar radiation over the polar region. If the vortex breakdown occurs in late winter

Neutral air temperatures at 90 km altitude over Svalbard (78°N, 16°E) for the period 2002 to 2019 inclusive have been estimated from observations by the Nippon/Norway Svalbard Meteor Radar (NSMR). The data are presented per se and we shall not attempt to identify contributions from extra-terrestrial or anthropogenic driving. On the other hand, comparison with the corresponding period of solar UV flux

An anadromous Arctic char was observed in glacial river of Austre Brøggerbreen in northwest Svalbard (Norway) on 9th of July 2017. The young fish, ca. 14,5 cm in length, was caught in shallow part of glacial river in the distance of 1390 m to glacier forehead, and then was released. This is the second observation of Arctic char in glacial river in Svalbard since 2008, and first for Kongsfjord region

Sea ice melting is very common in Arctic summer, so it is important to study ice melting noise. This paper analyzes a 456 min time series of under-ice noise that was recorded at a depth of 29.9 m in the central Arctic Ocean when the area was approximately 89% ice cover, UTC time, on August 8th, 2017. When the air temperature was higher than the freezing point of the surface sea water, the under-ice

The Antarctic Peninsula and the adjacent South Shetland Islands show a significant atmospheric warming trend. Increase in air temperature is commonly associated with glacier melting. However, there is a dearth of documentation about the glaciers of Greenwich Island. This study fills a knowledge gap about glacier melting on Greenwich Island by focusing on four glaciers located on the northern part of

National Antarctic Programmes (NAPs) need to keep an open mind regarding the effective governance arrangement because they involve complex international bodies and instruments of the Antarctic, and the multiple stakeholders involved at the domestic level. Without a proper setting, country's involvement in this kind of cross-border science programmes and international research collaborations would be

Global climate closely links with the Arctic Ocean ecosystem especially in the Barents Sea. The distributions and correlations among chlorophyll-a (CHL), sea ice concentration (ICE), wind speed (WIND), sea surface temperature (SST) and mixed layer depth (MLD) are studied within the region of Barents Sea (70°N-80°N, 30°E−40°E) over the period 2003–2013. CHL increased from north to south in general.

Uncertainties in weather and sea-ice forecasts must be taken into consideration in Arctic shipping. The changing Arctic Ocean is characterized by diminishing sea-ice extent. Extremely developed cyclones, unexpectedly high ocean waves, and rapid sea-ice drift make navigation difficult. How state-of-the-art forecasts produced by operational weather centers can be used correctly and effectively by end

A large silver deposit Mangazeyskoe at the headwaters of the Yana River basin in North-East Yakutia has a considerable impact on vulnerable ecosystems of Alpine tundra. In the case of inadequate environmental protection measures, adverse environmental consequences may occur. The particular interest is the hydrobiological status of the rivers affected by the mining production waste water. In this regard

Albedo parameterization is of fundamental importance for accurate representation of high-latitude climate variability by modeling studies. Field observations show that near-infrared snow albedo decreases dramatically when surface air temperature exceeds −2 °C. This can influence reproduction of sea ice simulations taking into consideration the importance of the drastic change in albedo in early melt

The present study reports on carbonaceous, water-soluble species and trace metals in PM10 aerosols collected at Bharati station during the austral summer (December 17, 2016 to February 2, 2017) over East Antarctica. Organic matter was the predominant among all measured species followed by nss-Ca2+ and nss-SO42-. Two distinct air masses that arrive from high-altitude-troposphere (HTAs) and low-altitude-troposphere

Stable isotopic composition (δ18O and δD) in Antarctic snow/ice cores serves as the proxy of past temperature. However, the accuracy of temperature reconstruction is largely dependent on the relationship between water isotopes and local temperature (δ-T) derived from present conditions. Thus, it is crucial to quantitatively understand the spatial δ-T relationship and the influencing factors of δ18O

The Arctic Ocean is characterized as the greatly variable oceanic environment both seasonality and regionally. Such environmental variability would affect regional differences in the respective copepod community structures, though it has not been reported so far. In this study, we analyzed time-series zooplankton samples with focus on large copepods collected by sediment traps moored in three different

The western Chukchi Sea ecosystems are among the most productive systems in waters of the Russian sector of the Arctic. Chukchi Sea is of exceptional interest not only for the assessment of biological resources, but also for the analysis of quantitative distribution of key species in the study of long-term zooplankton fluctuations under the effect of various natural and anthropogenic factors. In this

The Bransfield Strait and the adjacent areas is a high-productivity region for polar biological resources in the Antarctic. Physical oceanographic processes produce strong ecosystem dynamics via mass transport and water exchange. However, few studies have focused on these processes from coast to shelf and across slopes by tidal dynamics. Therefore, a numerical model was implemented with a high resolution

The Kyoto (1997) and Paris (2015) protocols, signed by Russia, are the basis for the national low-carbon economy concepts development. Russian regions considerably differ in social and economic conditions, structure and scale of economy. Thus, the sectorial and territorial detailization on the emissions is relevant for the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), huge and sparsely populated region in the North East

More than 100 volcanoes have been discovered in Antarctica, however, the sources of many Antarctic tephras are not yet constrained. In this study, four tephra samples recovered from the environment of Site 27 on an area of blue ice at Allan Hills, South Victoria Land, provide information on magma and crustal sources for the tephra erupted in Antarctica. We report data on the chemistry of Antarctic

To better understand the extent of acidification in the Arctic Ocean, we present pH measurements collected along a shelf-slope-basin transect from the Chukchi Sea shelf to the Chukchi Abyssal Plain (CAP) in the western Arctic Ocean during the summer 2010 Chinese Arctic National Research Expedition (CHINARE) cruise. We observed low pH values in the Chukchi Sea shelf bottom waters (~30 m-bottom) and

The purpose of this work was to provide a detailed description of the temporal and spatial variability of ablation on Irenebreen – with a focus on the spatial distribution and evolution of glacial zones in the summer season of 2017. Irenebreen is a small Arctic glacier on the Kaffiøyra plain of north-western Spitsbergen. Direct field studies did not cover the whole period of ablation, and ablation

In this study, a new coring system is designed that uses a positive displacement motor (PDM) connected to a core barrel and drill bit in combination with a hot-water drilling (HWD) system. The surface equipment and water hose are shared and the hot-water drill nozzle is replaced by the corer when a borehole is made by HWD. The hot water is then utilized to drive the PDM corer. In this paper, the concept

This paper introduces a new system that can monitor aurora and atmospheric airglow using a low-cost Watec monochromatic imager (WMI) equipped with a sensitive camera, a filter with high transmittance, and the non-telecentric optics. The WMI system with 486-nm, 558-nm, and 630-nm band-pass filters has observable luminosity of about ~200–4000 Rayleigh for 1.07-sec exposure time and about ~40–1200 Rayleigh

The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is one of the most prominent climate modes in the southern hemisphere. Although the influence of SAM on the surface ocean state has been revealed by remote-sensing data, its influence on the subsurface ocean state is not well-defined. Starting in the mid-2000s, the Argo-float network was extended into higher-latitude regions in front of the sea ice zone, in particular

The projected increase in freeze-thaw frequency associated with warmer temperatures in the High Arctic could affect the dynamics of soil bacterial communities. We report here the effects of freeze-thaw (FT) cycles on High Arctic bacterial communities of soil samples collected from three sites with different depths of snow cover. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences showed that bacterial diversity