Science Plan Available for Comment
Arctic in Rapid Transition
For more information and to access the science plan, see:
http://aosb.arcticportal.org/art.html
To submit comments and questions, please email:
art [at] ifm-geomar.de
The Arctic in Rapid Transition (ART) Science Plan is available for
review and comment. To view the document, click on the 'ART Science
Plan' link at: http://aosb.arcticportal.org/art.html.
A step toward improving our capacity to understand and predict future
arctic change was undertaken with the Second International Conference on
Arctic Research Planning (ICARP II) meetings in 2005-2006, which brought
together scientists, policy-makers, research managers, arctic residents,
and other stakeholders interested in the future of the arctic region. As
the ICARP II process came to a close, the Arctic in Rapid Transition
(http://aosb.arcticportal.org/art.html) Initiative was developed in an
effort to synthesize the several resulting ICARP II science plans
specific to the arctic marine environment (i.e. arctic coastal
processes, deep central basin of the Arctic Ocean, arctic margins and
gateways, and arctic shelf seas). This process has been driven by the
early career scientists of the ICARP II Marine Roundtable. In order to
initiate the development of the actual ART Science Plan, a workshop was
organized in November 2009 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The
meeting was organized around discussions and reviews of key questions
and resulted in a further narrowing of the critical topics focusing on
sea ice, land-ocean interactions, and ecosystem responses.
To this end, the ART Initiative is an integrative, international,
multidisciplinary, long-term pan-arctic program to study changes and
feedbacks among the physical and biogeochemical components of the Arctic
Ocean and their ultimate impacts on biological productivity. The goal of
ART is to develop priorities for arctic marine science over the next
decade. Three overarching questions form the basis of the ART Science
Plan:
- How were past transitions in sea ice connected to energy flows,
elemental cycling, and biological diversity and productivity, and
how do these compare to present and projected shifts?
- How will biogeochemical cycling respond to transitions in
terrestrial, gateway, and shelf-to-basin fluxes?
- How do Arctic Ocean organisms and ecosystems respond to
environmental transitions including temperature, stratification, ice
conditions, and pH?
The integrated approach developed to answer the ART key scientific
questions comprises:
- Multidisciplinary process studies and observations to reveal
mechanisms;
- The establishment of links to existing monitoring programs;
- The evaluation of geological records to extend time-series; and
- The improvement of our modeling capabilities of climate-induced
transitions.
In order to develop an implementation plan for the ART Initiative, an
international and interdisciplinary workshop is currently planned to
take place in Winnipeg, Canada in October 2010. The ART Initiative is a
program endorsed and supported by the Arctic Ocean Sciences Board
(AOSB), the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), and the
Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS).
For more information and to access the science plan, see:
http://aosb.arcticportal.org/art.html.
To submit comments and questions, please email:
art [at] ifm-geomar.de.