scholarly journals Cushion plant Silene acaulis is a pioneer species at abandoned coal piles in the High Arctic, Svalbard

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minwoo Oh ◽  
Eun Ju Lee
Keyword(s):  
Stress Gradient ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Control Site ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Stressed Condition ◽  
Pioneer Species ◽  
Cushion Plant ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Silene Acaulis

Abstract Background Abandoned coal piles after the closure of mines have a potential negative influence on the environment, such as soil acidification and heavy metal contamination. Therefore, revegetation by efficient species is required. For this, we wanted to identify the role of Silene acaulis in the succession of coal piles as a pioneer and a nurse plant. S. acaulis is a well-studied cushion plant living in the Arctic and alpine environments in the northern hemisphere. It has a highly compact cushion-like form and hosts more plant species under its canopy by ameliorating stressful microhabitats. In this research, we surveyed vegetation cover on open plots and co-occurring species within S. acaulis cushions in coal piles with different slope aspects and a control site where no coal was found. The plant cover and the similarity of communities among sites were compared. Also, the interaction effects of S. acaulis were assessed by rarefaction curves. Results S. acaulis was a dominant species with the highest cover (6.7%) on the coal piles and occurred with other well-known pioneer species. Plant communities on the coal piles were significantly different from the control site. We found that the pioneer species S. acaulis showed facilitation, neutral, and competition effect in the north-east facing slope, the south-east facing slope, and the flat ground, respectively. This result was consistent with the stress gradient hypothesis because the facilitation only occurred on the north-east facing slope, which was the most stressed condition, although all the interactions observed were not statistically significant. Conclusions S. acaulis was a dominant pioneer plant in the succession of coal piles. The interaction effect of S. acaulis on other species depended on the slope and its direction on the coal piles. Overall, it plays an important role in the succession of coal piles in the High Arctic, Svalbard.

scholarly journals Low Abundance and Biodiversity of Top Predators -Seabirds and Marine Mammalsin High Arctic Seas

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Barents Sea ◽  
Chukchi Sea ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Arctic Basin ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Bering Strait ◽  
Arctic Seas ◽  
North East ◽  
The North

This article concerns the comparison of data collected in different high Arctic seas by the same team, mainly same platform (from the bridge of icebreaking RV Poarstern), and thus the same methodology. Drastic differences were noted, from high numbers in the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea on the one hand, and Fram Strait and Barents Sea on the other. In contrast, abundance, mainly of seabirds, was very low in the Arctic Basin. Most numerous bird species varied in different areas, mainly fulmar, kittiwake, Brünnich’s guillemot and locally ivory gull. Biodiversity was low, as reflected by low numbers of species, a few of them representing the vast majority in numbers of individuals: between 85% and 95% of the total. Cetaceans were close to absent from the High Arctic Ocean, the Wandel Sea off North Greenland and the shallow seas along the North-East Passage; pinnipeds and polar bear were tallied on the Outer Marginal Zone OMIZ, basically absent in the Closed Pack Ice Zone CPI.

scholarly journals Dynamics of Ice-Island Motion Near the Coast of Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian High Arctic

1989 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 152-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.M. Sackinger ◽  
M.O. Jeffries ◽  
H. Tippens ◽  
F. Li ◽  
M. Lu
Keyword(s):  
Surface Wind ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Canadian High Arctic ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Pack Ice ◽  
Axel Heiberg Island ◽  
Ice Force

The largest ice island presently known to exist in the Arctic Ocean has a mass of about 700 × 106 tonnes, an area of about 26 km2, and a mean thickness of 42.5 m. Known as Hobson’s Ice Island, this large ice feature has been tracked almost continuously since August 1983 with a succession of Argos buoys. In this paper, two particular ice-island movement episodes near the north-west coast of Axel Heiberg Island are described: 6–16 May 1986 and 14–21 June 1986. Each movement episode is analyzed in terms of the forces acting on the ice island, including wind shear, water drag, water shear, Coriolis force, sea-surface tilt, and pack-ice force. Ice-island movement is generally preceded by an offshore surface wind, and a threshold wind speed of 6 m s°1 appears to be necessary to initiate ice-island motion. An angle of 50° between surface wind and ice-island movement direction is noted during one episode. The pack-ice force, which appears to be the dominant arresting factor of ice-island motion for these two episodes, varies from 100° to 180° to the left of the ice-island velocity direction, depending upon whether the ice island is accelerating or decelerating.

Hydrogenetic Fe-Mn crusts from European seas: source of potentially economic cobalt mining.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Egidio Marino ◽  
Javier González ◽  
Teresa Medialdea ◽  
Luis Somoza ◽  
Rosario Lunar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lithium Ion ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
World Production ◽  
Critical Metals ◽  
North West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
The World

<p>The world increasing demand of electric vehicles (EVs) that use lithium-ion batteries (LIB), in which cobalt is one of the essential elements, focused the attention on its demand that is calculated will increase of 7-13% annually until 2030. The actual production of cobalt, usually extract as by-product of nickel and copper mine, is reduced to almost 20 countries between which the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the bigger producer with 55% of the world production. In Europe cobalt is produced only in Finland that actually provides 2.300 tonnes, the 2% of the world production. In this way several projects have been promoted by European Union, with the Raw Material Initiative, in order to find and evaluate the sustainable production of important materials in Europe.</p><p>MINDeSEA[1] project is part of the GeoERA and represent the collaboration of 12 national geological institution partners, to characterize marine deposits and their contents in Critical Raw Materials (CRM) and to generate a comprehensive cartography and metallogenic models of them. The first preliminary map produced in 2019 represents the localization and evaluation of cobalt rich deposits in the oceans within the EEZ and ECS of the European countries.  Cobalt deposits are represented essentially by hydrogenetic Fe-Mn crusts located essentially in the Macaronesian area of the north east Atlantic Ocean (in the Portugal and Spain), submarine plateaus, as the Galicia Bank (in the north west Spanish) and in the Arctic Ocean ridges (Norway and Iceland). The report differentiates between occurrences (<0.05 wt. %) and deposits (>0.05 wt. %), with the possibility of more than 200 Mt resources per potential deposit.</p><p>Detailed mineralogical, geochemical and metallogenic studies are being developed in crusts from the Macaronesia. Fe-Mn crusts absorb dissolved elements in seawaters on the surface of the fresh precipitated oxy-hydroxides during their slow growth through millions of years. Several elements are concentrated in Fe-Mn crusts and between them cobalt is one of the most enriched trace metals (average 0.6 wt. %) accompanied by other strategic and critical metals such as nickel, copper, tellurium, molybdenum and rare earth elements plus yttrium (REY) (respectively 3000, 500, 150, 500 and 3500 µg/g). Micro Raman and micro X-Ray diffraction can be used to differentiate the mineralogy in laminae of less than 20 microns. On the other hand, electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA) and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), are useful in order to quantify contents of CRM in the different mineral phases. These are innovative techniques in order to identify critical-elements bearing minerals and thus choose the metallurgic method for a more efficient and sustainable extraction of the interesting elements.</p><p>The evaluation of a seamount as a future mine site has to take into account all these mineralogical and chemical features as well as a proper knowledge of the seamount (morpho-structure, geology, oceanography, ecosystems) and the Fe-Mn crust thickness and extension</p><div><br><div> <p>[1] This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 731166</p> </div> </div>

Resident and anadromous forms of arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) from North-East Europe: an example of high ecological variability without speciation

2019 ◽  
Vol 485 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-246
Author(s):  
A. A. Makhrov ◽  
I. N. Bolotov ◽  
V. M. Spitsyn ◽  
M. Yu. Gofarov ◽  
V. S. Artamonova
Keyword(s):  
Salvelinus Alpinus ◽  
Arctic Charr ◽  
Arctic Char ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Coi Gene ◽  
Mitochondrial Coi ◽  
Ecological Variability ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Two Samples

Samples from 11 populations of the Arctic char of the North-European part of Russia belonging to the anadromous and resident forms and two samples from Lake Sobach'e (Taimyr) were studied. The nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial COI gene was determined in 60 individuals. In the majority of populations, the same COI haplotype was found. In some populations of the resident chars, haplotypes differing from the widespread haplotype in a single nucleotide substitution were found. The obtained genetic data give no reason to distinguish the resident form of the Arctic char from lakes of Karelia and the Kola Peninsula as an independent species, Salvelinus lep- echini. The adaptation of the Arctic char to the unstable environmental conditions is ensured primarily by its phenotypic plasticity.

The Early Exploration of Greenland

1991 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-258
Author(s):  
Jørgen Taagholt
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
North Pole ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
The North ◽  
New Information ◽  
Early Exploration ◽  
Southwest Greenland

About 4000 years ago the first immigration of Inuit tribes explorated Greenland, and about 1000 years ago the Norsemen explorated southwest Greenland; and Icelandic sagas describe every-day life. The early search for the Northwest Passage years ago was followed by intensive whaling during 17th and 18th centuries. The connection between Greenland and Scandinavia was re-established by Hans Egede, who started his missionary and explorationary activity in 1721, whereafter polymaths from Denmark and other countries contributed to our scientific knowledge. Several attempts to reach the North Pole resulted in new information about the High Arctic Greenland, while local Inuit, such as Hans Hendrik, played an important role in several expeditions in the Arctic. The growing Danish and foreign scientific expeditions led to the Danish government establishing in 1878 established the Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland, whose mandate was to coordinate such research.

Seasonal change and microhabitat association of Arctic spider assemblages (Arachnida: Araneae) on Victoria Island (Nunavut, Canada)

2017 ◽  
Vol 149 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elyssa R. Cameron ◽  
Christopher M. Buddle
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Change ◽  
Ecological Monitoring ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Active Season ◽  
The North ◽  
Arthropod Predators ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Victoria Island

AbstractArctic ecosystems are characterised by a mosaic of distinct microhabitats, which play a key role in structuring biodiversity. Understanding species diversity in relation to these microhabitats, and how communities are structured seasonally, is imperative to properly conserve, monitor, and manage northern biodiversity. Spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) are dominant arthropod predators in the Arctic, yet the seasonal change in their communities in relation to microhabitat variation is relatively unknown. This research quantified how spider assemblages are structured seasonally and by microhabitat, near Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada. In 2014, spiders were collected in 240 pan and pitfall traps placed in common microhabitat types (two wet and two dry) from 3 July to 11 August, the active season in the high Arctic. In total, 10 353 spiders from 22 species and four families were collected. Non-metric multidimensional scaling ordinations revealed that spider assemblages from wet habitats were distinct from those occurring in drier habitats, but that differences within each of those habitats were not evident. Abundance and diversity was highest in wet habitats and differed significantly from dry habitats; both these variables decreased seasonally. Spider assemblages in the north are structured strongly along moisture gradients, and such data informs planning for future ecological monitoring in the Arctic.

scholarly journals Tracking of Arctic terns Sterna paradisaea reveals longest animal migration

2010 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 2078-2081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Egevang ◽  
Iain J. Stenhouse ◽  
Richard A. Phillips ◽  
Aevar Petersen ◽  
James W. Fox ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Migration Routes ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Seasonal Movement ◽  
The North ◽  
Breeding Populations ◽  
Flight Costs ◽  
Sterna Paradisaea ◽  
And Performance

The study of long-distance migration provides insights into the habits and performance of organisms at the limit of their physical abilities. The Arctic tern Sterna paradisaea is the epitome of such behavior; despite its small size (<125 g), banding recoveries and at-sea surveys suggest that its annual migration from boreal and high Arctic breeding grounds to the Southern Ocean may be the longest seasonal movement of any animal. Our tracking of 11 Arctic terns fitted with miniature (1.4-g) geolocators revealed that these birds do indeed travel huge distances (more than 80,000 km annually for some individuals). As well as confirming the location of the main wintering region, we also identified a previously unknown oceanic stopover area in the North Atlantic used by birds from at least two breeding populations (from Greenland and Iceland). Although birds from the same colony took one of two alternative southbound migration routes following the African or South American coast, all returned on a broadly similar, sigmoidal trajectory, crossing from east to west in the Atlantic in the region of the equatorial Intertropical Convergence Zone. Arctic terns clearly target regions of high marine productivity both as stopover and wintering areas, and exploit prevailing global wind systems to reduce flight costs on long-distance commutes.

Arctic Lower-Tropospheric Warm and Cold Extremes: Horizontal and Vertical Transport, Diabatic Processes, and Linkage to Synoptic Circulation Features

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 993-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Papritz
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Temperature Anomaly ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Air Masses ◽  
The North ◽  
Diabatic Processes ◽  
Synoptic Circulation ◽  
Cold Extremes

AbstractThe thermodynamic processes and synoptic circulation features driving lower-tropospheric temperature extremes in the high Arctic (>80°N) are investigated. Based on 10-day kinematic backward trajectories from the 5% most intense potential temperature anomalies, the contributions of horizontal and vertical transport, subsidence-induced warming, and diabatic processes to the generation of the Arctic temperature anomaly are quantified. Cold extremes are mainly the result of sustained radiative cooling due to a sheltering of the Arctic from meridional airmass exchanges. This is linked to a strengthening of the tropospheric polar vortex, a reduced frequency of high-latitude blocking, and in winter also a southward shift of the North Atlantic storm track. The temperature anomaly of 60% of wintertime extremely warm air masses (90% in summer) is due to transport from a potentially warmer region. Subsidence from the Arctic midtroposphere in blocking anticyclones is the most important warming process with the largest contribution in summer (70% of extremely warm air masses). In both seasons, poleward transport of already warm air masses contributes around 20% and is favored by a poleward shift of the North Atlantic storm track. Finally, about 40% of the air masses in winter are of an Arctic origin and experience diabatic heating by surface heat fluxes in marine cold air outbreaks. Our study emphasizes the importance of processes in the Arctic and the relevance of anomalous blocking—in winter in the Barents, Kara, and Laptev Seas and in summer in the high Arctic—for the formation of warm extremes.

The Grenville–Sveconorwegian orogen in the high Arctic

2012 ◽  
Vol 149 (5) ◽  
pp. 875-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
HENNING LORENZ ◽  
DAVID G. GEE ◽  
ALEXANDER N. LARIONOV ◽  
JAROSLAW MAJKA
Keyword(s):  
High Arctic ◽  
Detrital Zircons ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
The North ◽  
Long Distance Transport ◽  
Continental Shelves ◽  
Mountain Belts ◽  
Sveconorwegian Orogen

AbstractThroughout the high Arctic, from northern Canada (Pearya) to eastern Greenland, Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Taimyr and Severnaya Zemlya and, at lower Arctic latitudes, in the Urals and the Scandinavian Caledonides, there is evidence of the Grenville–Sveconorwegian Orogen. The latest orogenic phase (c. 950 Ma) is well exposed in the Arctic, but only minor Mesoproterozoic fragments of this orogen occur on land. However, detrital zircons in Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic successions provide unambiguous Mesoproterozoic to earliest Neoproterozoic (c. 950 Ma) signatures. This evidence strongly suggests that the Grenville–Sveconorwegian Orogen continues northwards from type areas in southeastern Canada and southwestern Scandinavia, via the North Atlantic margins to the high Arctic continental shelves. The widespread distribution of late Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons far to the north of the Grenville–Sveconorwegian type areas is usually explained in terms of long-distance transport (thousands of kilometres) of either sediments by river systems from source to sink, or of slices of lithosphere (terranes) moved on major transcurrent faults. Both of these interpretations involve much greater complexity than the hypothesis favoured here, the former involving recycling of the zircons from the strata of initial deposition into those of their final residence and the latter requiring a diversity of microcontinents. Neither explains either the fragmentary evidence for the presence of Grenville–Sveconorwegian terranes in the high Arctic, or the composition of the basement of the continental shelves. The presence of the Grenville–Sveconorwegian Orogen in the Arctic, mainly within the hinterland and margins of the Caledonides and Timanides, has profound implications not only for the reconstructions of the Rodinia supercontinent in early Neoproterozoic time, but also the origin of these Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic mountain belts.

scholarly journals Snowfall and Oxygen-Isotope Variations off the North Coast of Ellesmere Island, N.W.T., Canada

1987 ◽  
Vol 33 (114) ◽  
pp. 195-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin O. Jeffries ◽  
H. Roy Krouse
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Snow Pack ◽  
The North ◽  
Winter Snow ◽  
The Mean

AbstractSnow-pack along the land-fast ice fringe off the north coast of Ellesmere Island was generally characterized by depth-hoar overlain by dense snow and wind slab. Mean snow depth in the study area was 0.54 m (1982-85) and the mean δ18O value of the snow-pack was -31.3˚/00. Isotope data were not obtained previously for this geographic region and, therefore, complement a previous study of δ18O variations in High Arctic snow (Koerner, 1979). The data are consistent with an Arctic Ocean moisture source. The δ18O profiles show seasonal variations, with winter snow being more depleted in 18O than fall and spring snow. However, the δ18O profiles are dominated by a trend to higher δ18O values with increasing depth. This is attributed to a decrease in δ18O values as condensation temperatures fall during the autumn-winter accumulation period. During this time, there is also a change from relatively open to almost complete ice cover in the Arctic Ocean. The change in evaporation conditions and consequent effect on δ values gives rise to a sharp discontinuity in the δ18O profiles and a bi-modal δ18O frequency distribution. The bi-modal distribution is reinforced by a secondary isotope fractionation that occurs during depth-hoar formation. This isotope effect leads to a wider δ18O range but does not significantly alter the mean δ18O value.

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