Call for Abstracts
Session U 09: Polar Regions: Past, Present, and Future Changes and
Synthesis of Their Role in the Modern Earth System
American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2006 Fall Meeting
11-15 December 2006
San Francisco, California
Abstract Submission Deadlines:
Friday, 1 September 2006 (mail)
Thursday, 7 September 2006 (online)
For further information or to submit an abstract, please visit:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm06/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=315
Please consider submitting an abstract for the following special session
at this year's American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting:
Session U 09: Polar Regions: Past, Present, and Future Changes and
Synthesis of Their Role in the Modern Earth System
Session Description
The polar cryospheric, biological, climatological, hydrological,
atmospheric, oceanographic, and terrestrial domains are fully coupled
and hence require a synthesized approach to improved knowledge and
understanding. For example, atmospheric circulation patterns change
seasonally and have complex interactions with ocean circulation, sea
ice, and land-surface energy and water fluxes. A wide range of
environmental changes occurring over the last few years to millennia in
polar terrestrial and marine regions have been documented. Impacts of a
recently warming climate are increasingly evident. Are these climatic
trends producing substantive impacts on ecosystems, social structures,
geomorphology or other physical or biological processes? The recent,
substantial loss of arctic sea ice, especially in coastal and marginal
seas, is affecting regional climate and marine and terrestrial
ecosystems. The timing of river runoff will be impacted by earlier
spring melt events and degradation of permafrost, likely influencing sea
ice formation. These land-atmosphere-ocean-ice feedbacks extend far
beyond coastal regions and influence the Southern and Arctic Oceans as
well as the global ocean system. Recent analyses of periodic atmospheric
phenomena such as the NAO, AO, and ENSO suggest interconnections among
the major land, ocean, and atmospheric components of the larger
synthesized polar system. Salinity anomalies originating with freshwater
pulses from the Arctic have had oceanographic, climatic, and economic
consequences beyond the Arctic Ocean, extending to the North Atlantic.
Recent paleoclimate findings from the Arctic Ocean revealed a warmer
than expected arctic climate during the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum
(PETM) extreme warming period. These results also support the concept of
past bipolar climate change, suggesting an Arctic that is both sensitive
and responsive to greenhouse gases.
This session seeks presentations from multiple disciplines that examine
documented changes or trends in a broad array of environmental variables
including (but not limited to) the areal coverage and mass balance of
ice and snow cover; vegetation and land-cover change; ocean salinity,
temperature, circulation, and sea ice dynamics; storm frequency and
intensity; forest fires, human and wildlife population variations; and
possible causes of variation (natural climatic change/global warming).
Organizers invite presentations that use models, integrated
observations, paleoclimate records, statistical inference, and process
studies of polar ocean/atmosphere processes to synthetically address and
understand polar regions role in the climate and larger Earth system.
Organizers will also consider policy issues of interest relating to the
need for multi-national collaborations in polar research and to improve
the public's awareness of high-latitude climate processes and change.
Because the polar regions are vast and sparsely populated, integrated
system studies there are relatively new, so there is much we do not
know. Developing a sound predictive capability of climatic change and
system level responses, despite sparse data and the regions severe
climate, is challenging. The fate of global climate may be very much
dependent upon gaining a better understanding of the forcings,
feedbacks, and processes in the Arctic. Organizers seek presentations on
research that examine evidence of high latitude change and/or contribute
to an understanding of polar regions as a system. Studies emphasizing
the synthesis of major system elements are sought.
Conveners:
Edward Hanna
University of Sheffield
E-mail: ehanna [at] sheffield.ac.uk
James Hansen
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
E-mail: jhansen [at] giss.nasa.gov
Larry D Hinzman
University of Alaska Fairbanks
E-mail: ffldh [at] uaf.edu
Kate Moran
University of Rhode Island
E-mail: kate.moran [at] uri.edu
Donald K. Perovich
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
E-mail: donald.k.perovich [at] erdc.usace.army.mil
Charles J. Vorosmarty
University of New Hampshire
E-mail: charles.vorosmarty [at] unh.edu