Articles & Interviews
Sciencepoles articles look at key findings from a range of polar science and research fields. Our articles RSS feed will inform you when new articles are published on this website.
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Stein Sandven of NERSC on Arctic Regional Ocean Observing Systems
17.10.2008
Scientists have been making scientific observations and collecting data on the Arctic Ocean for well over a century. Most of the data have been collected as part of specific research projects, without emphasis on building long-term observing system. This means that much of the data collection has been scattered and…
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Orson Smith: How Arctic Engineers Are Facing the Challenges of a Changing Climate
02.09.2008
With average temperatures increasing, permafrost melting, and sea ice retreating, roads, bridges, buildings, and other structures are being affected right across the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Facing these challenges and the way structures need to be designed, constructed and maintained are Arctic engineers such as Dr. Orson Smith, currently the…
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Gamburtsev: Robin Bell on Antarctica’s Ghostly Mountains
19.08.2008
As a geophysicist specialised in Antarctic glacial and sub-glacial environments, Dr. Robin Bell has led seven major research expeditions to Antarctica and is one of the original instigators of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08. She is Director of the ADVANCE program at the Earth Institute at Columbia University in…
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Angelika Humbert on the Wilkins Ice Shelf Breakup
07.05.2008
Dr. Angelika Humbert of the University of Münster in Germany specialises in researching ice shelf dynamics. Having obtained her doctorate at the Department of Mechanics at Darmstadt University of Technology, and currently a member of the Polar Geophysics Groups at the University of Münster, Dr. Humbert performs numerical simulations and…
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Increased Precipitation in the High Latitudes
18.04.2008
The WMO/UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just approved for release a technical Paper on Climate Change and Water, the first report of its kind on the evolution of Earth's freshwater resources in the face of climate change. In line with previous IPCC reports, the current report is…
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Seeking Answers beneath the Ice: Cynan Ellis Evans on Antarctic Subglacial Lakes
01.04.2008
SciencePoles recently interviewed Dr. Cynan Ellis Evans of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on the subject of Antarctic sub-glacial lakes. As a biogeochemist specializing in Polar lake environments, Dr Ellis-Evans was a founding member of the International steering committee for the Sub-glacial Antarctic Lake Exploration (SALE) research programme. Amongst other…
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Wim Vyverman: Using Microorganisms in Antarctic Surface Lakes to Reconstruct past Antarctic Climate
28.03.2008
While ice cores have been able to give researchers a general idea about the global climate over the past 800,000 years, investigating certain microorganisms and their fossilised remains at the bottom of surface lakes in Antarctica can be a useful tool in investigating past climate change and variation on a…
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Graham Hosie: Antarctic Marine Biodiversity and Climate Change
13.11.2007
During the International Polar Year, the Census for Antarctic Marine Life is investigating the distribution and abundance of Antarctic marine biodiversity and how it will be affected by climate change. It is a major ship-based research programme taking place during the austral summer of 2007-08 which involves scientists from 30…
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Maintaining Biodiversity in the Southern Ocean through Marine Protected Areas
23.10.2007
When most people think of the Antarctic, they think only about the vast, ice and snow-covered continent of Antarctica at the bottom of the world. However if you consider the Antarctic on a broader ecosystem level, the Antarctic does not include only the continent, but the entire Southern Ocean as…
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Belgium’s Role in Advancing the Creation of Marine Protected Areas in Antarctica
23.10.2007
The development of a representative network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean has been a priority of the Belgian government ever since 2005, when the Belgian Federal Ministry of Environment decided to place greater emphasis on environmental considerations, sustainable fishing practices, and the conservation of marine biodiversity…
