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The University of New Hampshire Center for Spills in the Environment and the School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering will host a forum entitled "Oil Spill Response 25 years After the Exxon Valdez and in the Wake of Macondo 252, What Have We Learned and What Are We Missing?".

Questions to be addressed include:

• What have we learned from these two spills?
• How can they inform future spill response?
• What should we do differently to address the spills of the future?

Topics covered will include a) the types of spills that could occur in the future and the challenges they pose for response; b) the improvements needed in communication among responders, scientists, the public and politicians; c) the role of academic science in spill response; and d) the impacts of new scientific methods, such as molecular biology, on impact assessment and restoration.

The forum will feature an array of speakers who played key roles during the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon spills. After an opening overview of oil spills by Gary Shigenaka, NOAA Office of Response and Restoration, Captain Ed Page, Chief of Coast Guard Operations during the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Dr. Robert Spies, Chief Science Advisor to the Governments on the Exxon Valdez spill will kick off the discussion. Then Thad Allen, former Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and Dr. Marcia McNutt, who was director of the U.S. Geological Survey, will present their perspectives on the Deepwater Horizon spill. Speakers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, U.S. Arctic Research Commission, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, the American Petroleum Institute, Ocean Conservancy, and many other experts will offer perspectives on oil spills in the United States.

IMO in cooperation with CSC (Finland) and LGGE (France) will organize a 2-day Elmer/Ice course on the 27th and 28th of October 2014, just before the Nordic Branch IGS meeting in Iceland. The course is intended for persons who want to start using Elmer/Ice in their research projects with an option to go into special details on the second day. The course is sponsored by the Nordic Centre of Excellence, SVALI. There are in maximum 18 seats which by preference will be offered to SVALI members. The rest of the seats are given on a first-come-first-get principle. The course itself is free of charge. Participants are responsible for their own accommodation and travel (see instructions below). Further it is expected, that participants bring along their own laptop with a working Elmer/Ice environment installed (instructions will follow later).

Lectures are in English.
Lecturers: Olivier Gagliardini and Thomas Zwinger.
Venue: IMO, Bústaðavegur 9, Reykjavík.
Travel: For air travel to Iceland see “icelandair.com” and “dohop.com”.
Accommodation: For reasonably priced guesthouses check “kexhostel.is/” and “guesthousereykjavik.com/”.
Registration: By email to Anna Sinisalo (a.k.sinisalo [at] geo.uio.no), latest by 11th October, 2014.

The purpose of the annual Transatlantic Science Week (TSW) is to promote enhanced cooperation between Canadian, American and Norwegian stakeholders in research, innovation and higher education. TSW is an arena where different stakeholders can meet with the purpose of developing long-term collaborations or partnerships. The conference also hopes to strengthen the linkages that currently exist between the research and education domains. Finally, TSW also provides an excellent arena for dialogue between the research communities and policymakers.

The Royal Norwegian Embassies in Ottawa and Washington, DC are co-organizers of TSW this year. The conference is made possible by generous contributions from the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, the Research Council of Norway, the National Research Council Canada, and the University of Toronto.

This year's TSW marks the13th annual conference and will focus on challenges and opportunities in the Arctic, with a special look at Arctic societies, sustainability and safety.

Conference participation is free, but registration is mandatory due to limited seating.

This series of three workshops will include presentations and discussions of how coastal erosion on the North Slope of Alaska impacts local communities, potential responses to those impacts, related cultural and economic factors, and best practices for a long-term observing (LTO) network that could contribute to community planning and response. Anne Garland of Applied Research in Environmental Sciences Nonprofit, Inc., will be speaking on community-based monitoring of critical coastal infrastructure for the City of Barrow.

General questions for discussion:
1. What are the best practices for a long-term observing network so that it contributes to community understanding and planned response to coastal erosion?
2. What are the best strategies for informing and engaging the community?

For more information, please contact Kathleen Fischer at kmbfischer [at] comcast.net.

About the Workshop:
Conservation innovation is woven through our nation’s heritage. It is today and will be for decades and centuries to come an essential element of our future. Large landscape collaborative conservation is a fresh approach to the conservation challenges of the 21st century, linking public, private, non- profit and academic resources in novel, strategic, and enduring ways.

Join conservation practitioners and policy makers from across North America in Washington, DC for this two-day event, October 23-24, 2014. Share ideas on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in implementing large landscape conservation, as well as the most effective tools, strategies and science available to inform large landscape initiatives.

Timeline and Due Dates:

• May 31, 2014 – All proposals due
• July 15, 2014 – Submitters notified of selection status.
• August 31, 2014 – Final program posted at http://www.largelandscapenetwork.org/2014-
  national-workshop/

QUESTIONS?
For additional information about the conference, please contact:
Greg Wathen, Program Committee Chair, greg.wathen [at] tn.gov or (615) 781-6670

The Canadian Risk and Hazard Network holds an annual conference each year. This year the event is being held in Toronto, Canada. As part of this conference David Diabo (Assembly of First Nations) and Brenda Murphy (Wilfrid Laurier University) are running a series of five special sessions called: Promoting Aboriginal Resilience: Sharing Knowledge to Increase Disaster Risk Reduction. In the first session we are partnering with the Arctic Observing Network and Applied Research in Environmental Sciences Nonprofit, Inc. to offer a webinar of the first presentation (see details below). This will be a one hour presentation starting at 2 pm on Wednesday October 22. The presentation includes a half hour question and answer session. This is a free session and we hope you can join us!

Presentations Details:
Arctic Observing Network Observing, Management, and Governance Discussions
Arctic Observing Network (AON), http://www.arcus.org/search-program/aon, is seeking discussions and input for long term observing, management, and governance. ARIES (Applied Research in Environmental Sciences Nonprofit, Inc.) was granted a long term observing discussion award to discuss the following queries in relation to Risk and Disaster Management across multiple jurisdictions, http://www.arcus.org/search-program/aon/discussion-funding-form. This webinar is provided through the AON funding. After the presentation, your input is requested during the webinar Q&A and the HERMYS Forum at www.arctichub.net.

See below the 3 queries ARIES selected for the Arctic Observing Network discussions. While the AON queries are not necessarily about risks and hazards, ARIES selected three that are relevant to risk and disaster management, that is,

1. more applied research with local communities to assist operations, regulations, and management,
2. interdisciplinary research across social and natural sciences, and
3. integration across jurisdictions (interagency and regional partnerships).

Question(s) to discuss (maximum of three questions):

• Are the priorities for research networks different from those for operational, community, regulatory, and management observing systems? Can the two be resolved or shared? Should they
  be?
• How do we bridge the gap in funding between social science and natural science observations and observing networks?
• How to best employ interagency and regional partnerships? What role should regional centers play in directing observing activity?

For details on connecting to the webinar contact - awhgarland [at] yahoo.com

The Forum for Arctic Ocean Modeling and Observational Synthesis (FAMOS) is an international effort to focus on enhancing collaboration and coordination among Arctic marine and sea ice modelers, theoreticians and observationalists synthesize major results from the field studies and coordinated numerical experiments. The major themes of workshop include but not limited by studies focused on: predictions; Arctic observational and modeling initiatives; fate of sea ice in models and observations; atmospheric, sea ice and ocean dynamics; process studies and parameterizations; model validation and calibration; numerical improvements and algorithms; ecosystems, biological issues, and geochemistry.

The overall goal of FAMOS is a better understanding of the Arctic climate system (with a focus on marine environment) through the use of improving numerical models and observational tactics and strategies. The other project goals are to:

The project’s goals are to:

• Maintain and enhance in FAMOS the established AOMIP international collaboration to reduce uncertainties in model predictions (model validation/improvements via coordinated experiments and studies; reanalysis methods and products for correct initial and boundary conditions; design and implementation of the oceanic and sea ice remote and in situ observing systems);
• Support synthesis across the suite of Arctic models and observatories and/or observational projects and systems;
• Organize scientific meetings and workshops including virtual teleconferences;
• Conduct collaboration with other similar projects focused on other aspects of arctic/global climate (atmospheric, terrestrial, etc) with a special focus on model and data improvements and analysis;
• Disseminate findings of FAMOS effort to broader communities and involve the larger community in discussions, coordinated modeling and observational field experiments;
• Train a new generation of ocean and sea-ice observationalists and modelers continuing the practice of annual 1-2 day FAMOS workshop schools.

The Arctic in Rapid Transition initiative (ART, http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/ART), an official IASC network (http://www.iasc.info), the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS, www.apecs.is), and the European Institute for Marine Studies (IUEM, France, http://www-iuem.univ-brest.fr) organize a joint workshop on “Integrating spatial and temporal scales in the changing Arctic System: towards future research priorities” (ISTAS workshop), October 21-24 2014 in Plouzané, France.

This international workshop aims at discussing the integration of spatial and temporal scales to better understand the changing Arctic system as a whole, by including various Arctic research fields: physical oceanography, sea-ice, biogeochemical cycles and ecosystems functioning, marine biodiversity, land-ocean interactions, ocean-atmosphere exchanges and ocean acidification, paleo-reconstruction and biological archives, and social sciences. Results of the workshop will feed into the ICARP III (3rd International Conference on Arctic Research Planning) meeting in Toyama, Japan in April 2015 (http://icarp.arcticportal.org/).

Abstract submission and registration are now open under
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ekIJ10TWJhWO5evaJAL5JKrR4zicc0eEZ47lKu…
Please register and submit your abstract as soon as possible as the amount of space is limited.

Limited funding will be available for early career scientists.

For questions please contact: istasworkshop [at] gmail.com

For further information about the workshop go to the workshop link.

More information on ART activities may be accessed at: http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/en/ART.

This seminar is second in the line of Nordic reindeer husbandry seminars organised in the framework of NJF (Nordic Association of Agricultural Sciences). The organiser of the seminar is a recently established Reindeer Husbandry Section at the NJF (http://www.njf.nu/site/redirect.asp?p=3926), promoting research on reindeer husbandry related issues in the Nordic countries.).

In the northern Fennoscandia, different land use activities (forestry, tourism, mining, power production etc.) effectively utilize wide areas that have been used for centuries by people living on semi-domesticated reindeer herding. The increasingly expanding land use activities in all Nordic countries affect reindeer herding environments, reindeer herding communities and reindeer herding livelihood as a whole in several ways. The present day reindeer management systems, on the other hand, have also various effects on pasture lands and preconditions of reindeer herding itself. Degradation and decrease of reindeer pastures, difficulties in reindeer herding work, decreased productivity and profitability of reindeer husbandry, different kinds of conflicts and social problems are often connected to unfavorable and, at the same time, multilateral changes on pasture environment.

However, the position of reindeer herding is still strong in the North and it is traditionally an unique and valuable way to benefit northern areas and to sustain rich Sami culture and other local cultures adapted to the North. Reindeer husbandry strongly supports living grounds of small northern villages and remote areas and, at the same time, promotes also other livelihoods based on sustainable use of renewable resources in northern areas (e.g. local livelihoods such as fishery, hunting, gathering of forest products and processing of their products as well as handicrafts and tourism). There exists a high concern how to maintain resilience on the subsistence nature-based livelihoods and secure their preconditions along with increasing industrial land use and pressure. Therefore more comprehensively governance systems for all land use and reindeer husbandry activities should be developed between different interests and stakeholders in order to enhance more sustainable development in the North .

Focus of the seminar
The main focus of the meeting is on issues related to reindeer herding and land use questions in the Nordic reindeer herding area. The aim is to discuss reindeer herding and land use activities at different levels, and to figure out frames not only for sustainable reindeer husbandry but also for sustainable co-management of land use between different interest groups in the Nordic countries, including reindeer herding areas. Also other topics related to reindeer ecology and welfare and cultural and social questions related to reindeer herding are handled.

Session topics
1. Relations of reindeer herding and other land use activities
2. Reindeer herding in a changing environment
3. Predators and reindeer management
4. Sustainable and profitable reindeer management – challenges and opportunities
5. Social and cultural security and sustainability of reindeer herding livelihood; future prospects

Organizers:
• Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland
• Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute (RKTL)
• Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)
• Reindeer Herders' Association, Finland
• Sámi Educational Centre in Inari, Finland

This seminar is second in the line of Nordic reindeer husbandry seminars organised in the framework of NJF (Nordic Association of Agricultural Sciences). The organiser of the seminar is a recently established Reindeer Husbandry Section at the NJF (http://www.njf.nu/site/redirect.asp?p=3926), promoting research on reindeer husbandry related issues in the Nordic countries.).

In the northern Fennoscandia, different land use activities (forestry, tourism, mining, power production etc.) effectively utilize wide areas that have been used for centuries by people living on semi-domesticated reindeer herding. The increasingly expanding land use activities in all Nordic countries affect reindeer herding environments, reindeer herding communities and reindeer herding livelihood as a whole in several ways. The present day reindeer management systems, on the other hand, have also various effects on pasture lands and preconditions of reindeer herding itself. Degradation and decrease of reindeer pastures, difficulties in reindeer herding work, decreased productivity and profitability of reindeer husbandry, different kinds of conflicts and social problems are often connected to unfavorable and, at the same time, multilateral changes on pasture environment.

However, the position of reindeer herding is still strong in the North and it is traditionally an unique and valuable way to benefit northern areas and to sustain rich Sami culture and other local cultures adapted to the North. Reindeer husbandry strongly supports living grounds of small northern villages and remote areas and, at the same time, promotes also other livelihoods based on sustainable use of renewable resources in northern areas (e.g. local livelihoods such as fishery, hunting, gathering of forest products and processing of their products as well as handicrafts and tourism). There exists a high concern how to maintain resilience on the subsistence nature-based livelihoods and secure their preconditions along with increasing industrial land use and pressure. Therefore more comprehensively governance systems for all land use and reindeer husbandry activities should be developed between different interests and stakeholders in order to enhance more sustainable development in the North .

Focus of the seminar
The main focus of the meeting is on issues related to reindeer herding and land use questions in the Nordic reindeer herding area. The aim is to discuss reindeer herding and land use activities at different levels, and to figure out frames not only for sustainable reindeer husbandry but also for sustainable co-management of land use between different interest groups in the Nordic countries, including reindeer herding areas. Also other topics related to reindeer ecology and welfare and cultural and social questions related to reindeer herding are handled.

Session topics
1. Relations of reindeer herding and other land use activities
2. Reindeer herding in a changing environment
3. Predators and reindeer management
4. Sustainable and profitable reindeer management – challenges and opportunities
5. Social and cultural security and sustainability of reindeer herding livelihood; future prospects

Organizers:
• Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland
• Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute (RKTL)
• Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)
• Reindeer Herders' Association, Finland
• Sámi Educational Centre in Inari, Finland