scholarly journals Barry Lopez's Relational Arctic // El Ártico relacional de Barry Lopez

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-87
Author(s):  
Sigfrid Kjeldaas
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Empty Space ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
Barry Lopez ◽  
North American Arctic ◽  
Von Uexküll

       Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape (1986) can be read as American nature writer Barry Lopez’s attempt to evoke a more profound and ecologically sound understanding of the North-American Arctic. This article investigates how Arctic Dreams uses insights from Jacob von Uexküll’s Umwelt theory, in combination with what Tim Ingold describes as a particular form of animism associated with circumpolar indigenous hunter cultures, to portray the Arctic natural environment as a living and lively space. Doreen Massey has described such spaces as recognizing plurality and allowing encounters. By highlighting networks of relationship and trajectories both human (historical) and animal (evolutionary), Arctic Dreams recognizes human and animal cultures that not only exist upon and can lay claim to this land, but that in a fundamental way is the land. In this way the text dismisses previous conceptions of the North-American Arctic as an empty space awaiting colonization and modernization, while on a deeper level it also questions the modern nature/culture dichotomy that allows nature to be perceived as the mere substratum of culture. Resumen El libro Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape (1986) puede considerarse un intento por parte del escritor de la naturaleza americano Barry Lopez de evocar un conocimiento más profundo y ecológicamente sensato del Ártico norteamericano. Este artículo analiza cómo Arctic Dreams utiliza la teoría Umwelt  de Jacob von Uexküll, combinada con lo que Tim Ingold describe como una forma particular de animismo asociada con las culturas de los indígenas cazadores circumpolares, para retratar el entorno natural ártico como un lugar vivo y vivaz. Doreen Massey ha descrito dichos lugares como capaces de reconocer la pluralidad y permitir encuentros. Al destacar las redes de relaciones y de trayectorias tanto humanas (históricas) como de animales (evolucionarias), Arctic Dreams reconoce culturas humanas y animales que no sólo existen sobre y puede reclamar esta tierra, sino que también estas culturas son de una manera fundamental la tierra. De esta manera el texto desestima las concepciones previas del Ártico norteamericano como un espacio vacío pendiente de colonización y modernización; mientras que en un nivel más profundo también cuestiona la dicotomía moderna naturaleza/cultura que permite que la naturaleza se perciba como un mero sustrato de la cultura. 

The Arctic Institute of North America

Polar Record ◽  
1956 ◽  
Vol 8 (52) ◽  
pp. 22-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. D. Baird
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
Reference Information ◽  
North American Arctic ◽  
Mcgill University

The Arctic Institute of North America was established in 1945 in two small rooms in McGill University, with a staff consisting of Dr Lincoln Washburn and a secretary, who made up for the lack of equipment and facilities by abundant energy and enthusiasm. Since then the Institute's growth has been considerable, always in the direction of its three main objectives—to form a centre for reference information and study on the North American Arctic, to encourage arctic scientific research in any field, and to disseminate arctic information by means of a journal, other publications, and lectures.

scholarly journals The Oxford Handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Great Accuracy ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Cold Temperatures ◽  
The North ◽  
North American Arctic

The North American Arctic was one of the last regions on Earth to be settled by humans, due to its extreme climate, limited range of resources, and remoteness from populated areas. Despite these factors, it holds a rich and complex history relating to Inuit, Iñupiat, Inuvialuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples and their ancestors. The artifacts, dwellings, and food remains of these ancient peoples are remarkably well preserved due to cold temperatures and permafrost, allowing archaeologists to reconstruct their lifeways with great accuracy. Furthermore, the combination of modern Elders’ traditional knowledge with the region’s high-resolution ethnographic record allows past peoples’ lives to be reconstructed to a level simply not possible elsewhere. Combined, these factors yield an archaeological record of global significance—the Arctic provides ideal case studies relating to issues as diverse as the impacts of climate change on human societies, the complex process of interaction between indigenous peoples and Europeans, and the dynamic relationships between environment, economy, social organization, and ideology in hunter-gatherer societies. In this book, each Arctic cultural tradition is described in detail, with up-to-date coverage of recent interpretations of all aspects of their lifeways. Additional chapters cover broad themes applicable to the full range of arctic cultures, such as trade, stone tool technology, ancient DNA research, and the relationship between archaeology and modern arctic communities. The resulting volume, written by the region’s leading researchers, is by far the most comprehensive coverage of North American arctic archaeology ever assembled.

scholarly journals The Paradoxical Discourse of Language and Silence in Some Contemporary North-American Texts on the Arctic

Nordlit ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Fredrik Chr. Brøgger
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Life World ◽  
Far North ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Barry Lopez ◽  
Indigenous Voices

The Arctic has often been regarded (its various indigenous groups notwithstanding) as a desolate and silent void to be explored and defined by Euro-westerners, usuallyin terms of a masculine competitive ethos and an ethnocentric rhetoric of WesternEnlightenment and progress. Surprisingly, even many Norwegian arctic expeditionsof our own time tend to embody similar narratives of conquest and athletic prowess.Among contemporary North-American writers, however, this kind of discourse isprofoundly questioned, particularly by focusing on the problematic function oflanguage itself in our constructions of the Arctic. This article focuses on three North-American books in which the issue of the Euro-western linguistic appropriation ofthe Arctic, its natural environment as well as its peoples, is a major concern; they areall reflections on the issues of writing and silence with reference to the far north. Thethree books are: Barry Lopez' Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a NorthernLandscape (1987), Aritha van Herk's Places Far from Ellesmere (1990), and JohnMoss' Enduring Dreams: An Exploration of Arctic Landscape (1996). Central in allof them is the following issue: how to make the wordless landscape or the alienculture speak from under, as it were, the enormous compilation of centuries of Eurowesterntext. The article discusses four major strategies by which these three booksattempt to counteract and subvert earlier Euro-western ethnocentric and monologicnarratives of the Arctic: by the inclusion of feminine and indigenous voices; by thelegitimation of the sensuous life-world of the Arctic itself; by the self-reflexivesubversion of the authority of the language of their own texts; and by the use of astyle of paradox and contradiction. By way of such techniques, the books above try to create more open, dialogic and pluralistic readings of the Arctic.

scholarly journals Timing of Breeding Site Availability Across the North-American Arctic Partly Determines Spring Migration Schedule in a Long-Distance Neotropical Migrant

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-François Lamarre ◽  
Gilles Gauthier ◽  
Richard B. Lanctot ◽  
Sarah T. Saalfeld ◽  
Oliver P. Love ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Breeding Site ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Timing Of Breeding ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Breeding Sites ◽  
The North ◽  
North American Arctic ◽  
Departure Date ◽  
Breeding Location

Long-distance migrants are under strong selection to arrive on their breeding grounds at a time that maximizes fitness. Many arctic birds start nesting shortly after snow recedes from their breeding sites and timing of snowmelt can vary substantially over the breeding range of widespread species. We tested the hypothesis that migration schedules of individuals co-occurring at the same non-breeding areas are adapted to average local environmental conditions encountered at their specific and distant Arctic breeding locations. We predicted that timing of breeding site availability (measured here as the average snow-free date) should explain individual variation in departure time from shared non-breeding areas. We tested our prediction by tracking American Golden-Plovers (Pluvialis dominica) nesting across the North-American Arctic. These plovers use a non-breeding (wintering) area in South America and share a spring stopover area in the nearctic temperate grasslands, located >1,800 km away from their nesting locations. As plovers co-occur at the same non-breeding areas but use breeding sites segregated by latitude and longitude, we could disentangle the potential confounding effects of migration distance and timing of breeding site availability on individual migration schedule. As predicted, departure date of individuals stopping-over in sympatry was positively related to the average snow-free date at their respective breeding location, which was also related to individual onset of incubation. Departure date from the shared stopover area was not explained by the distance between the stopover and the breeding location, nor by the stopover duration of individuals. This strongly suggests that plover migration schedule is adapted to and driven by the timing of breeding site availability per se. The proximate mechanism underlying the variable migration schedule of individuals is unknown and may result from genetic differences or individual learning. Temperatures are currently changing at different speeds across the Arctic and this likely generates substantial heterogeneity in the strength of selection pressure on migratory schedule of arctic birds migrating sympatrically.

scholarly journals A Benchmark for Trace Greenhouse Gases in the Arctic Ocean

Eos ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri Cook
Keyword(s):  
Nitrous Oxide ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
North American ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
North American Arctic

Samples of seawater from the North American Arctic show that the region is neither a major source nor sink of methane and nitrous oxide to the overlying atmosphere.

Evolutionary relationships in Oxytropis species, as estimated from the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences point to multiple expansions into the Arctic

Botany ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 90 (8) ◽  
pp. 770-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Archambault ◽  
Martina V. Strömvik
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Internal Transcribed Spacer ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Its Region ◽  
Its Sequences ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Evolutionary Relationships ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The North ◽  
North American Arctic

Species of the genus Oxytropis are distributed in the northern hemisphere, especially in alpine and arctic areas. Although comprehensive taxonomic treatments exist for local floras, an understanding of the evolutionary relationships is lacking for the genus as a whole. To determine if different ancestral Oxytropis species colonized the North American Arctic separately, as suggested by taxonomy, we sequenced the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region from 16 Oxytropis specimens, including four species that were used in a previous transcriptome study. In addition, 81 other Oxytropis ITS sequences were retrieved from public sequence databases and included in the analysis. The whole data set was analyzed using phylogenetic trees and statistical parsimony networks. Results show that all Oxytropis ITS sequences are very similar. Furthermore, at least six lineages evolved from different temperate ancestors to colonize the North American Arctic. This pattern is believed to be typical of the arctic flora. Additionally, the sequence relationship analyses confirm that the subgenus Phacoxytropis may be ancestral in Oxytropis.

scholarly journals Sources of carbonaceous aerosols and deposited black carbon in the Arctic in winter-spring: implications for radiative forcing

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 12453-12473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. Wang ◽  
D. J. Jacob ◽  
J. A. Fisher ◽  
J. Mao ◽  
E. M. Leibensperger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
North American ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Anthropogenic Source ◽  
Carbonaceous Aerosols ◽  
The North ◽  
North American Arctic

Abstract. We use a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem CTM) to interpret observations of black carbon (BC) and organic aerosol (OA) from the NASA ARCTAS aircraft campaign over the North American Arctic in April 2008, as well as longer-term records in surface air and in snow (2007–2009). BC emission inventories for North America, Europe, and Asia in the model are tested by comparison with surface air observations over these source regions. Russian open fires were the dominant source of OA in the Arctic troposphere during ARCTAS but we find that BC was of prevailingly anthropogenic (fossil fuel and biofuel) origin, particularly in surface air. This source attribution is confirmed by correlation of BC and OA with acetonitrile and sulfate in the model and in the observations. Asian emissions are the main anthropogenic source of BC in the free troposphere but European, Russian and North American sources are also important in surface air. Russian anthropogenic emissions appear to dominate the source of BC in Arctic surface air in winter. Model simulations for 2007–2009 (to account for interannual variability of fires) show much higher BC snow content in the Eurasian than the North American Arctic, consistent with the limited observations. We find that anthropogenic sources contribute 90% of BC deposited to Arctic snow in January-March and 60% in April–May 2007–2009. The mean decrease in Arctic snow albedo from BC deposition is estimated to be 0.6% in spring, resulting in a regional surface radiative forcing consistent with previous estimates.

Climate Extremes across the North American Arctic in Modern Reanalyses

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-65
Author(s):  
Alvaro Avila-Diaz ◽  
David H. Bromwich ◽  
Aaron B. Wilson ◽  
Flavio Justino ◽  
Sheng-Hung Wang
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Climate Extremes ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Simultaneous Increase ◽  
Climate Indices ◽  
Extreme Climate ◽  
In Situ Data ◽  
The North ◽  
North American Arctic

AbstractAtmospheric reanalyses are a valuable climate-related resource where in-situ data are sparse. However, few studies have investigated the skill of reanalyses to represent extreme climate indices over the North American Arctic, where changes have been rapid and indigenous responses to change are critical. This study investigates temperature and precipitation extremes as defined by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) over a 17 year period (2000-2016) for regional and global reanalyses, namely the Arctic System Reanalysis version 2 (ASRv2), North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 Reanalysis, Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA2), and Global Meteorological Forcing Dataset for Land Surface Modeling (GMFD). Results indicate that the best performances are demonstrated by ASRv2 and ERA5. Compared to observations, reanalyses show the weakest performance over far northern basins (e.g., Arctic and Hudson) where observing networks are less dense. Observations and reanalyses show consistent warming with decreased frequency and intensity of cold extremes. Cold days, cold nights, frost days, and ice days have decreased dramatically over the last two decades. Warming can be linked to a simultaneous increase in daily precipitation intensity over several basins in the domain. Moreover, the North Atlantic and the Arctic Oscillations (NAO, AO) distinctly influence extreme climate indices. Thus, these findings detail the complexity of how the climate of the Arctic is changing, not just in an average sense, but in extreme events that have significant impacts on people and place.

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