scholarly journals Nunamiut, the Tundra Dwellers

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-51
Author(s):  
Michael David Fortescue
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Tundra ◽  
Aleutian Islands ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
East Greenland ◽  
Far North ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
Circumpolar Arctic ◽  
Migratory Movements

This article investigates the various senses and derivations of the term nuna in the Inuit-Yupik languages in order to reveal its origin in referring to the Arctic tundra. These languages arguably derive from that of the ancestors of the earliest inhabitants of the North American tundra, other inhabitants of the circumpolar Arctic today having only moved up at later times. Likely etymological correspondences in Eurasian languages of the far north support the original meaning of the word, whose connotations can be contrasted with those of English land, by which it is usually translated. They include reference to the unique vegetation of the Arctic tundra and to settlement and migratory movements across it in the past. The word has survived through millennia as far apart as mountainous East Greenland and the Aleutian Islands chain, where it has been adapted (as Unangan tanaX) to the archipelagic setting. It is suggested that the term nunamiut, literally “tundra dwellers,” can suitably be applied to speakers of all these languages still today.

The morphology of experimentally produced charcoal distinguishes fuel types in the Arctic tundra

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1091-1096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor MB Pereboom ◽  
Richard S Vachula ◽  
Yongsong Huang ◽  
James Russell
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Tundra ◽  
Global Carbon Cycle ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fuel Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Forested Ecosystems ◽  
Global Carbon ◽  
Tundra Ecosystems

Wildfires in the Arctic tundra have become increasingly frequent in recent years and have important implications for tundra ecosystems and for the global carbon cycle. Lake sediment–based records are the primary means of understanding the climatic influences on tundra fires. Sedimentary charcoal has been used to infer climate-driven changes in tundra fire frequency but thus far cannot differentiate characteristics of the vegetation burnt during fire events. In forested ecosystems, charcoal morphologies have been used to distinguish changes in fuel type consumed by wildfires of the past; however, no such approach has been developed for tundra ecosystems. We show experimentally that charcoal morphologies can be used to differentiate graminoid (mean = 6.77; standard deviation (SD) = 0.23) and shrub (mean = 2.42; SD = 1.86) biomass burnt in tundra fire records. This study is a first step needed to construct more nuanced tundra wildfire histories and to understand how wildfire will impact the region as vegetation and fire change in the future.

Northward ho! Obama, Diefenbaker and the North American Arctic

Polar Record ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-255
Author(s):  
Klaus J. Dodds
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Aleutian Islands ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Circle ◽  
The North ◽  
American President ◽  
North American Arctic ◽  
To Come ◽  
Franklin Delano Roosevelt ◽  
Lying Down

President Barrack Obama became, in September 2015, the first US president to travel north of the Arctic Circle. Having started his Alaskan itinerary in Anchorage, attending and speaking at a conference involving Secretary of State John Kerry and invited guests, the president travelled north to the small town of Kotzebue, a community of some 3000 people with the majority of inhabitants identifying as native American. Delivered to an audience in the local high school numbering around 1000, the 41st US president placed his visit within a longer presidential tradition of northern visitation: I did have my team look into what other Presidents have done when they visited Alaska. I’m not the first President to come to Alaska.Warren Harding spent more than two weeks here – which I would love to do. But I can't leave Congress alone that long. (Laughter.) Something might happen. When FDR visited – Franklin Delano Roosevelt – his opponents started a rumor that he left his dog, Fala, on the Aleutian Islands – and spent 20 million taxpayer dollars to send a destroyer to pick him up. Now, I’m astonished that anybody would make something up about a President. (Laughter.) But FDR did not take it lying down. He said, “I don't resent attacks, and my family doesn't resent attacks – but Fala does resent attacks. He's not been the same dog since.” (Laughter.) President Carter did some fishing when he visited. And I wouldn't mind coming back to Alaska to do some fly-fishing someday. You cannot see Alaska in three days. It's too big. It's too vast. It's too diverse. (Applause.) So I’m going to have to come back. I may not be President anymore, but hopefully I’d still get a pretty good reception. (Applause.) And just in case, I’ll bring Michelle, who I know will get a good reception. (Applause.) . . .. But there's one thing no American President has done before – and that's travel above the Arctic Circle. (Applause.) So I couldn't be prouder to be the first, and to spend some time with all of you (Obama 2015a).

scholarly journals Modeling the climatic implications of the Guliya δ<sup>18</sup>O record during the past 130 ka

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1885-1914
Author(s):  
D. Xiao ◽  
P. Zhao ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
X. Zhou
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Surface Air Temperature ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Precession Cycle ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Anomalous Pattern

Abstract. Using an intermediate-complexity UVic Earth System Climate Model (UVic Model), the geographical and seasonal implications and an indicative sense of the historical climate found in the δ18O record of the Guliya ice core (hereinafter, the Guliya δ18O) are investigated under time-dependent orbital forcing with an acceleration factor of 100 over the past 130 ka. The results reveal that the simulated late-summer (August–September) Guliya surface air temperature (SAT) reproduces the 23-ka precession and 43-ka obliquity cycles in the Guliya δ18O. Furthermore, the Guliya δ18O is significantly correlated with the SAT over the Northern Hemisphere (NH), which suggests the Guliya δ18O is an indicator of the late-summer SAT in the NH. Corresponding to the warm and cold phases of the precession cycle in the Guliya temperature, there are two anomalous patterns in the SAT and sea surface temperature (SST) fields. The first anomalous pattern shows an increase in the SAT (SST) toward the Arctic, possibly associated with the joint effect of the precession and obliquity cycles, and the second anomalous pattern shows an increase in the SAT (SST) toward the equator, possibly due to the influence of the precession cycle. Additionally, the summer (winter) Guliya and NH temperatures are higher (lower) in the warm phases of Guliya late-summer SAT than in the cold phases. Furthermore, the Guliya SAT is closely related to the North Atlantic SST, in which the Guliya precipitation may act as a "bridge" linking the Guliya SAT and the North Atlantic SST.

Radiogenic Isotope Signatures of Holocene Sediments from Kane Basin: Linkage with the Re-opening and Evolution of Nares Strait

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Madaj ◽  
Friedrich Lucassen ◽  
Claude Hillaire-Marcel ◽  
Simone A. Kasemann
Keyword(s):  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nares Strait ◽  
The North ◽  
Sediment Input ◽  
Detrital Sediment

&lt;p&gt;The re-opening of the Arctic Ocean-Baffin Bay gateway through Nares Strait, following the Last Glacial Maximum, has been partly documented, discussed and revised in the past decades. The Nares Strait opening has led to the inception of the modern fast circulation pattern carrying low-salinity Arctic water towards Baffin Bay and further towards the Labrador Sea. This low-salinity water impacts thermohaline conditions in the North Atlantic, thus the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Available land-based and marine records set the complete opening between 9 and 7.5&amp;#160;ka&amp;#160;BP [1-2], although the precise timing and intensification of the southward flowing currents is still open to debate. A recent study of a marine deglacial sedimentary record from Kane Basin, central Nares Strait, adds information about subsequent paleoceanographic conditions in this widened sector of the strait and proposed the complete opening at ~8.3&amp;#160;ka&amp;#160;BP [3].&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We present complementary radiogenic strontium, neodymium and lead isotope data of the siliciclastic detrital sediment fraction of this very record [3] further documenting the timing and pattern of Nares Strait opening from a sediment provenance approach. The data permit to distinguish detrital material from northern Greenland and Ellesmere Island, transported to the core location from both sides of Nares Strait. Throughout the Holocene, the evolution of contributions of these two sources hint to the timing of the ice break-up in Kennedy Channel, north of Kane Basin, which led to the complete opening of Nares Strait [3]. The newly established gateway of material transported to the core location from the north via Kennedy Channel is recorded by increased contribution of northern Ellesmere Island detrital sediment input. This shift from a Greenland (Inglefield Land) dominated sediment input to a northern Ellesmere Island dominated sediment input supports the hypothesis of the newly proposed timing of the complete opening of Nares Strait at 8.3&amp;#160;ka&amp;#160;BP [3] and highlights a progressive trend towards modern-like conditions, reached at about 4&amp;#160;ka&amp;#160;BP.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] England (1999) Quaternary Science Reviews, 18(3), 421&amp;#8211;456. [2] Jennings et al. (2011) Oceanography, 24(3), 26-41. [3] Georgiadis et al. (2018) Climate of the Past, 14 (12), 1991-2010.&lt;/p&gt;

The First Danish Deep-Sea Expedition on the Ingolf: 1895 and 1896

2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torben Wolff
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Parasitic Copepods ◽  
Far North ◽  
The North ◽  
Denmark Strait ◽  
Sea Bottom ◽  
The World ◽  
First Time ◽  
Deep Sea Fauna

The Danish Ingolf Expedition took place in the summer months of 1895 and 1896, with C. F. Wandel as captain, a man with long experience in hydrographical work in the Arctic. The other scientific participants were the zoologists H. Jungersen, W. Lundbeck and H. J. Hansen during the 1895 cruise; C. Wesenberg-Lund replaced Hansen during the 1896 cruise. C. H. Ostenfeld was the botanist and M. Knudsen the hydrographer. The Ingolf (see Figure 1) was a naval cruiser. In both years the voyages were hindered by ice that had moved much further south than normal, even closing most of the Denmark Strait. In 1895, the best results were obtained south of Iceland and in the Davis Strait; in 1896 south and east of Iceland and as far north as Jan Mayen Island. A total of 144 stations were completed, all with soundings, trawlings and (for the first time) continuous hydrographical work associated with the deep-sea trawling (bottom measurements of temperature, salinity, chlorine contents and specific gravity). Eighty of the stations were deeper than 1,000 m. There were more than 800 hydrographical measurements, with about 3,300 registrations recordings added on the basis of the measurements. 138 gas analyses were performed on board with samples from the surface and the sea bottom. The main result of the expedition was the final demonstration of probably the most important threshold boundaries in the world: the Wyville Thompson Ridge from East Greenland to Scotland with maximum depths of 600 m, separating the fauna in the Norwegian and Polar Sea to the north, always with negative below-zero temperatures except close to the Norwegian coast, from the fundamentally different general Atlantic deep-sea fauna to the south of the ridge with positive temperatures. The results are published in the Ingolf Report, with fifteen volumes containing forty-three papers by nineteen Danish authors and fourteen papers by six foreign authors. The sieving technique was excellent—due to an apparatus designed by H. J. Hansen that kept the animals under water until preservation and using the finest silk for sieving. In this way, the expedition collected more smaller animals than had been acquired by previous deep-sea expeditions. Hansen's studies of the peracarid crustaceans and parasitic copepods and Lundbeck's report on the sponges were particularly noteworthy. The 130 photographs taken on board and on land by the ship's doctor William Thulstrup represent a cultural/historical treasure.

Development of Tourism in the Arctic Zone and Its Impact on Environment

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1642
Author(s):  
Marina L. BELONOZHKO ◽  
Oleg M. BARBAKOV ◽  
Anton L. ABRAMOVSKY
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Russian Arctic ◽  
Arctic Zone ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Historical Resources ◽  
Almost All

For a long time, the Arctic was considered a territory not adapted for human life (“dead earth”), impassable either by water or by land due to the climate. Currently, not only scientists, but also ordinary travelers and tourists are going to the North Pole. Today, tourism in the Arctic is one of the rapidly developing areas in the past few years. Therefore, the authors studied the development of tourism in the Arctic and its impact on the environment. It has been established that the development of ecological, cultural, scientific, extreme tourism, sport hunting, fishing and cruises is relevant for the Arctic regions. It was determined that the main problem in the development of tourism in the Russian Arctic is the transport and logistics underdevelopment of the region. But, these territories are so rich in natural, cultural, historical resources that there is the possibility of developing almost all types of tourism.

The Arctic Caledonides and earlier Oceans

1972 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. B. Harland ◽  
R. A. Gayer
Keyword(s):  
Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Lomonosov Ridge ◽  
The Urals ◽  
The West ◽  
East Greenland ◽  
The North ◽  
Scandinavian Caledonides ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
North Greenland

SummaryConsideration of the arctic configuration of the Caledonides leads to a distinction between eastern and western geosynclinal belts. The western belt, comprising the East Greenland, East Svalbard and southern Barents Sea Caledonides is postulated to continue northwards into the Lomonosov Ridge, whilst the western Spitsbergen Caledonides are thought to have originated as part of the North Greenland geosyncline which is also thought to continue northwards to form the western part of the Lomonosov Ridge. The eastern Caledonian geosynclinal belt comprising the Scandinavian Caledonides appears to swing eastwards to link with the Timan Chain and possibly the Urals.The already postulated (‘Proto-Atlantic’) ocean concept is reviewed in the light of the Arctic Caledonides and named Iapetus. Faunal provincialism suggests that the ocean was in existence up to early Ordovician but had substantially closed by mid Ordovician times. Possible relics of the suture marking the closure of this ocean suggest that it lay to the west of the Arctic Scandinavian Caledonides trending NE to latitude 70° N and thence veered eastwards separating the southern Barents Sea Caledonides from those of Arctic Scandinavia, possibly connecting with the northern Uralian ocean. A previous branch of the ocean may have separated East Svalbard and East Greenland as an ocean-like trough. A further (pre-Arctic) ocean may have existed to the north of the North Greenland–Lomonosov Ridge geosynclines. This is named Pelagus.The closure of these oceanic areas and the deformation of the bordering geosynclines delineates three principal continental plates, namely, Baltic, Greenland and Barents Plates. Their relative dominantly E–W motion up to Silurian times produced compression between the Greenland and both the Baltic and Barents plates but dextral transpression and transcurrence between the latter plates. In Late Silurian to Devonian times an increasing northward component controlled late Caledonian transpression and sinistral transcurrence between the Greenland plate and the combined Baltic and Barents plates.

scholarly journals An Approach to Public Health Protection in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (Review)

2021 ◽  
pp. 201-212
Author(s):  
Aleksandr V. Marasanov ◽  
◽  
Anatoliy A. Stekhin ◽  
Galina V. Yakovleva
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
General Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Health Protection ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Zone ◽  
Far North ◽  
The North ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Public Health Protection

This paper analyses environmental factors and their influence on the human body in the Far North. The cold factor is considered separately. It is noted that adaptation to extreme environmental factors in the north resembles adaptive processes taking place in the body under stress. The article describes the phenotypic approach to preventing non-communicable diseases in the population based on the theory of adaptation, control theory, theory of functional systems and system approach. We suggest using a predictive model of the body in the form of an anatomico-physiological structure reflecting grouping of interacting organs and tissues by their physiological functions. The model is represented by the reaction norms of the body’s systems and by the rules of their interaction. With its help, one can identify the predisposition of the body’s systems to destruction and the corresponding cause-and-effect relationships in the body, as well as devise a personal algorithm for health preservation and carry out vocational selection. The predictive properties of the model are based on the manifestations of the adaptive response to environmental stress factors. The recommendations are preventive in nature and are aimed at stimulating the individual’s involvement in his/her health protection. Methods of influencing the homeostatic regulation of the body and increasing the capabilities of the immune system in the north are proposed, i.e. technologies for restoring the body’s circadian rhythm as well as activating the living environment and drinking water in order to prevent chronic non-infectious diseases. The suggested predictive model of the body contributes to the development of a general theory of adaptation and a general theory of pathology. The considered approach to health preservation is compatible with telemedicine and e-health technologies and can therefore make adequate medical services available to the population of the Far North, in particular to those living in remote areas. For citation: Marasanov A.V., Stekhin A.A., Yakovleva G.V. An Approach to Public Health Protection in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (Review). Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 2021, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 201–212. DOI: 10.37482/2687-1491-Z058

scholarly journals NATO and Arctic security: Challenges, Opportunities and Prospects

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 92-96
Author(s):  
V. I. Glotov ◽  
I. A. Arzhanov
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Far North ◽  
The North ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Arctic Security ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Military Activity ◽  
Global Agenda

In this article, the authors analyse the current policy of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) in the Arctic . The article emphasises that the new challenges in the Arctic, related to climate change, the participation of non-Arctic states in the development of the territory and the growth of Russia’s military activity, have put before NATO the question of forming a task and official strategy . So far, member states have not reached consensus in this direction . The article identifies the main steps of the Alliance, which confirm the thesis about the growth of tension in the Far North . We identified the factors that may affect the prospects of the Alliance in the region . Taking into account the fact that the Arctic in contemporary circumstances has entered the global agenda of international politics, the authors conclude the growth of NATO activity, as evidenced by the practical steps of the organisation . Little attention has been paid to this in official documents, although the importance of cooperation in the region has already been stressed .

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal patterns of tundra fires: late-Quaternary charcoal records from Alaska

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 3177-3209 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. Chipman ◽  
V. Hudspith ◽  
P. E. Higuera ◽  
P. A. Duffy ◽  
R. Kelly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Rotation Period ◽  
Arctic Tundra ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Patterns ◽  
The Past ◽  
Tundra Ecosystem

Abstract. Anthropogenic climate change has altered many ecosystem processes in the Arctic tundra and may have resulted in unprecedented fire activity. Evaluating the significance of recent fires requires knowledge from the paleo-fire record because observational data in the Arctic span only several decades, much shorter than the natural fire rotation in Arctic tundra regions. Here we report results of charcoal analysis on lake sediments from four Alaskan lakes to infer the broad spatial and temporal patterns of tundra fire occurrence over the past 35 000 years. Background charcoal accumulation rates are low in all records (range = 0–0.05 pieces cm-2 year-1), suggesting minimal biomass burning across our study areas. Charcoal peak analysis reveals that the mean fire return interval (FRI; years between consecutive fire events) ranged from 1648 to 6045 years at our sites, and that the most recent fire events occurred from 882 to 7031 years ago, except for the CE 2007 Anaktuvuk River Fire. These mean FRI estimates are longer than the fire rotation periods estimated for the past 63 years in the areas surrounding three of the four study lakes. This result suggests that the frequency of tundra burning was higher over the recent past compared to the late Quaternary in some tundra regions. However, the ranges of FRI estimates from our paleo-fire records overlap with the expected values based on fire-rotation-period estimates from the observational fire data, and thus quantitative differences are not significant. Together with previous tundra-fire reconstructions, these data suggest that the rate of tundra burning was spatially variable and that fires were extremely rare in our study areas throughout the late Quaternary. Given the rarity of tundra burning over multiple millennia in our study areas and the pronounced effects of fire on tundra ecosystem processes such as carbon cycling, dramatic tundra ecosystem changes are expected if anthropogenic climate change leads to more frequent tundra fires.

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