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We cordially invite applications for the ACCESS and ARR summer course organized jointly by the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics (ACCESS partner) and the Stockholm Resilience Centre (ARR partner), and hosted at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The summer course is open for about 20 participants from natural and social sciences including economics, and is intended for graduate level and above. Its aim is to provide the students with an opportunity to learn about different aspects of Arctic resilience with focus on Arctic climate change, as well as changes in the economic sectors of shipping, tourism, fisheries, oil and gas exploitation, and governance. Experts will give insights into recent developments and present their view on the opportunities and risks connected to the changes in the climate system and associated impacts in the economic sectors.

The general structure and content of the course will include 10-11 lectures in total, covering the following topics:

Four lectures offering an overview of the topics and highlights of results from each of the first four work-packages on the ACCESS project:
1. The Arctic environment in the context of climate change, providing a context to the effects on key economic sectors:
2. Marine transportation
3. Fisheries and aquaculture
4. Oil and gas extraction

Followed by two or three lectures on tools and integrative approaches used in ACCESS, including:
5. Marine spatial planning, and
6. Ecosystem services identification

Four lectures from the Arctic Resilience Report, focusing on:
7. Resilience Assessment
8. Multiple perspectives on the Arctic’s future
9. Ecological regime shifts in the Arctic
10. Case study comparison

Lectures will be followed by group work on selected case studies, with participation of some of the lecturers. At the end of the course, the students will have the opportunity to present and discuss the results of this work with a group of experts from ACCESS and ARR, and publish them in the ACCESS Newsletter.

There will be no fee for participation in the summer course. Costs for meals, accommodation and transport will have to be covered on the students. Additional information on the course as well as suggestions for accommodation and transport will be updated regularly and sent to the participants.

Please send your application to Daniel Ospina (course assistant, daniel.ospina [at] su.se), stating your name, current studies program, and a brief statement of motivation for participating in this course. Applications will be open until on August 15th, but we encourage those interested to apply as early as possible given the limited slots.

This meeting explores the recent, rapid Arctic sea ice reduction. We will discuss the evidence for change, the inability of our climate models to predict these changes, the processes responsible for sea ice reduction and improved representation of these processes in climate models, and the impacts of sea ice change on local and global weather and climate. Scientific discussion is organized by Professor Daniel Feltham, Dr Sheldon Bacon, Dr Mark Brandon and Professor (Emeritus) Julian Hunt FRS.

Biographies of the organizers and speakers will be made available shortly. Recorded audio of the presentations will be available on this page after the event and the papers will be published in a future issue of Philosophical Transactions A.

This event is intended for researchers in relevant fields and is free to attend. There are a limited number of places and registration is essential. An optional lunch is offered and should be booked during registration.

The Earth Living Skin 2014: Soil, Life and Climate Changes is the first of a Conference of the Soil System Sciences (SSS) Division of the European Geosciences Union. The Conference Scientific Program will focus on the fundamental role of soil systems, multiphase complex organisms which generates and sustain life onto the planet. Soils are the skin of earth and therefore represent magnificent intermediate substrates where most of the key environmental phenomena occur and where land, climate, living organisms and humans contribute to define typical patterns and characteristics.

The Scientific Programme is planned to merge the most recent and stimulating concepts and findings of the numerous disciplines related to soil systems: soil science, geomorphology, biogeochemistry, hydrological sciences, environmental microbiology, ecology, climatology, and natural hazards, only to mention the main ones. Scientists and researchers with a temporary or consolidated interest for these fields of science are invited to participate to this Conference to bring their experiences and results and to contribute to create a permanent forum of stimulating scientific debates.

The Conference Series initiates a novel scientific experience around an environmental compartment, the soil, which represents the “critical system” of the earth surface, bridging several environmental compartments and biogeochemical phenomena. We sincerely hope you will be able to set this Conference in your agenda and to join us in 2014.

From September 20 to 21, 2014 in Yellowknife, the Tłıcho Government, in partnership with the Canadian Polar Commission and the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, are hosting this multi-event symposium on traditional knowledge. The meaning and uses of traditional Aboriginal knowledge will be explored, through presentations from a wide variety of perspectives.

Indigenous scholars have suggested that traditional knowledge unifies theory and practice and that it cannot be separated from a way of being and a way of doing. TK as a way of knowing is a method of reasoning that is most appropriate for complexity, as it seeks to make sense of diverse variables. It also purposely integrates subjective ways of knowing such as spirit, values and compassion. This range of descriptions has led some observers to conclude that it is not a proper field of study at all. Others argue that the prefix “traditional” is completely misguided, as this suggests something that is static, rigid, fixed and unchanging when in fact it is fluid and generative, integrating the weave of pattern and variation into new ways of knowing.

See full event details including exhibitor information, speaker bios, event schedule and more on the conference website.

While retreat from the coast may be the safest, and likely inevitable, solution to increasing coastal erosion for many communities, practical and cultural factors come into play that would argue for short-term engineering solutions to buy time, especially for indigenous coastal communities in a permafrost region. Several indigenous communities in Alaska rely upon subsistence hunting that is tied to the sea to foster community cohesiveness and to transfer traditions from generation to generation. Community acceptance of retreat from the coast requires perception of a high probability, significant risk to lives and property to justify such a move. Additionally, expensive and complex infrastructure that supports existence in permafrost regions requires substantial funding and adequate time to rebuild inland. Finally, land exchange schemes for individuals, the village, and the village corporation also need time to be developed, accepted, and implemented.

Dr. Craig Tweedie, University of El Paso, will present recent coastal survey data for the North Slope. Dr. Orson Smith, University of Alaska Anchorage (retired), will present a review of coastal erosion mitigation structures.

General questions for discussion:

1. What are the best practices for a long-term observing (LTO) network so that it contributes to community understanding and planned response to coastal erosion?

2. What are the best practices for a LTO network to facilitate community risk perception, tailoring of engineering design of short-term erosion mitigation strategies, and implementation of long-term plans for retreat from the coast?

3. What are the best strategies for conveying information obtained from a LTO network to the community?

To Join the Webinar:

1. Go to: https://arcus.webex.com/arcus/onstage/g.php?d=291529403&t=a

2. If requested, enter your name and email address.

3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: erosion

4. Click “Join”

To join the audio:

1. Dial 855-282-6330

2. If requested, enter the Access code: 291 529 403

For celebrating 100 years of the Bulletin of the Italian Glaciological Committee (http://www.glaciologia.it/pubblicazioni/?lang=en), we are organising an International Symposium on "The Future of the Glaciers: From the past to the next 100 years".

The Symposium will focus on the dynamics of cryospheric change, interactions with the climate and impact on the living environment of mountainous regions.

The topics of the symposium include:

• Glacier Mass Balance, monitoring and observations
• Glacier Geophysics
• Glaciological Hazard
• Climate driven glacial change
• Glacier Hydrology
• Periglacial/permafrost processes
• Snow processes

The scientific programme of the Symposium comprising invited lectures, oral presentations and poster sessions. The deadline for submitting posters and oral communications is postponed to July 15, 2014 (http://www.glaciologia.it/registration-and-abstracts-submission/).

A two-days post symposium field trip is planned in Valle d'Aosta (Val Veny, M. Bianco). More information available at: http://www.glaciologia.it/field-trip-2/

Information about programme, registration, abstract submission, accommodation and post-conference excursion are available on the website of the CGI (http://www.glaciologia.it/turin2014/). For any specific questions please contact the organizing committee (comitato [at] glaciologia.it)

We are looking forward to welcoming you in Turin!

The Italian Glaciological Committee

Comitato Glaciologico Italiano Corso Massimo D'Azeglio n. 42 10125 Turino – Italy http://www.glaciologia.it/

e-mail: comitato [at] glaciologia.it

I would like to invite you cordially to attend the International Sea Ice Concentration and Thickness Evaluation and Inter-comparison Workshop to be held at University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany on September 18-19, 2014.

The registration for this workshop is open under the workshops' web page http://www.climate-cryosphere.org/meetings/seaice-conc-2014 where you will also find more information about the location and the workshop.

Results from inter-comparison studies, independent validation and consistency checks, model experiments and assimilation to the topic of the workshop are all welcome. Specifically we would appreciate workshop participants to present results obtained by using and/or including the prototype products for sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea ice thickness (SIT) of the ESA CCI Sea Ice ECV project (SICCI) into their analysis. This prototype products can be downloaded from http://icdc.zmaw.de/esa-cci_sea-ice-ecv0.html?&L=1. The SICCI team will also present its own results with regard to data quality assessment.

The SICCI project (http://esa-cci.nersc.no/) is heading towards the end of the first project phase. A second project phase is planned in which the lessons learned from the prototype product will be incorporated into an enhanced version 2. This product enhancement would be incomplete without your feedback. We would like to give you the chance to voice your concerns and experience from using and working with the SICCI project data as well as with other SIC and SIT data from satellite remote sensing.

Specifically we would like to know:

• Can you use the SICCI products easily? If not: What are the difficulties? [Format, Description, Landmask]
• Do the SICCI products match your requirements in terms of 1) quality, 2) spatial resolution, 3) temporal resolution, 4) length of time series, 5) realistic uncertainties? If not: How would the SICCI products need to be improved to match your requirements?
• Is their any key information missing in the Product User Guide?
• What are the major results you obtained with using SICCI products? Did these allow you to improve your methods / results?
• Which other SIC / SIT data sets are you or have you been using and why?

This workshop is in good neighborhood with a chain of other workshops held in Europe about this topic:

• 15-16 September: 6th IICWG/ICE-ARC workshop on sea ice modeling and data assimilation Toulouse
  http://www.ice-arc.eu/2014/04/16/toulouse-modelling-workshop/

• 22-23 September: Arctic sea ice reduction: the evidence, models, and global impacts, Royal Society, London
  https://royalsociety.org/events/2014/arctic-sea-ice/

• 24-25 September: Arctic sea ice reduction: the evidence, models, and global impacts - further discussion, The Royal Society at Chicheley Hall
  https://royalsociety.org/events/2014/sea-ice-reduction-satellite/

• 26 September: CliC Sea Ice and Modeling Forum Large-Scale Sea Ice Simulations Workshop, University of Reading, UK
  http://www.climate-cryosphere.org/activities/groups/seaicemodeling/meet…

IARPC Collaboration Teams meet on a regular basis to implement the Arctic Research Plan: FY 2013-2017. Most meetings are open to the Arctic research community. Collaboration teams facilitate communication and collaboration between Federal agencies, the academic community, industry, non-governmental organizations, and State, local and tribal groups.

Contact Sara Bowden, bowden [at] arcus.org, if you would like to join this meeting.

Over the last years people working on glacier forelands and on pro- or periglacial environments have brought forward highly interesting new aspects from a variety of geographic regions. Among them are really astonishing and unexpected results which raise the question what are local specifics and what are common traits and mechanisms in such environments. This calls for common approaches and joint actions on a super-regional scale. In a follow-up of our 2008 workshop we therefore want to bring together people working on any organisms with their interactions and their abiotic environment in the terrestrial and aquatic habitats of deglaciated terrain of any kind including debris covered glaciers, rock glaciers, and nunataks.

There are two major aims of this workshop:

1. Planning joint actions and harmonizing approaches
2. Outlining a review paper on this topic

Features of the workshop will be:

• Sessions with brief talks to bring everyone up to speed about the latest developments and ideas
• Workgroups to discuss specific matters such as methodology, particular organism groups, theories and models, etc.
• Synthesizing the outcome into a plan for joint actions across geographic regions and into a concept for a large review on glacier forelands and periglacial environments.
• Half-day excursion to a local glacier foreland, and an optional full-day excursion in the region on the last day.

Language of the workshop is English.

Please use our form for registration and to submit contributions located on our website. Deadline for preliminary titles is 16 February 2014, deadline for final titles and abstracts will be 13 April 2014.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is developing an Ecological Forecasting Roadmap and program manager Allison Allen will be in Anchorage on Tuesday Sept. 16 to hear from key researchers and stakeholders about existing efforts and needs across Alaska. Please join us in person or remotely (log-in info below) to hear the latest state of the science on Harmful Algal Blooms, pathogens and other environmental change. Discussion will focus on identifying priorities for developing operational tools in Alaska, scenario modeling, early warning systems and forecasts of marine events. We invite you to join us for lunch following the formal presentation for an opportunity to continue the conversation informally with Allison. Please RSVP to tyler [at] aoos.org by Sept 10.

AGENDA

• What is the NOAA Ecological Forecasting Roadmap & what does it mean for Alaska? Allison Allen
• HABs in the Ecological Forecasting Roadmap, Rick Stumpf
• State of the Science/ HAB Forecasts in Southeast and Southcentral AK, Kris Holderied
• Discussion: Is forecasting for HABs different in AK than elsewhere in the lower 48? If so, how can the roadmap be both inclusive and standardized?
• Pathogens in the Ecological Forecasting Roadmap, John Jacobs
• State of the science/ pathogen monitoring, TBD
• Discussion: When do you move from research and monitoring to developing a forecast and taking action?
• Species distribution and habitat change in the Ecological Forecasting Roadmap, Howard Townsend
• Invasive species and range changes – overview of trends and research in AK, Gary Freitag
• Downscaling climate projections and relevance through the food web, Nick Bond
• Discussion: How to prioritize ecological research and forecasting efforts? Brief overview of "infrastructure" in the roadmap, Chris Brown
• Final discussion and wrap-up "The health of our coastal communities, economy, and ecosystems depend upon our understanding of complex and constantly changing conditions. Hazards such as pollution, extreme weather events, and climate variability are daily realities for the growing number of Americans who live in U.S. coastal shoreline counties. At NOAA, we're taking proactive steps to prepare for future conditions to help our nation become more resilient." – NOAA Ecological Forecasting Service

FAQs:

What is an Ecological Forecast? “An ecological forecast predicts changes in ecosystems and ecosystem components in response to an environmental driver such as climate variability, extreme weather conditions, pollution, or habitat change. It also provides information about how people, economies, and communities may be affected. Local authorities and members of the public use these early warnings to make decisions to protect the health and well-being of a particular area.” - oceanservice.noaa.gov/ecoforecasting

Where can I learn more about the NOAA Roadmap for Ecological Forecasting? Check out www.oceanservice.noaa.gov/ecoforecasting

What if I can’t make it in person? Don’t worry, this meeting will be webcast and you can participate remotely by following these instructions below:

Webex Topic: Ecological Forecasting Webinar

Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Time: 9 am – 12 pm, Alaska Daylight Time
Meeting Number: 623 464 011
Meeting Password: roadmap

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To join the online meeting (Now from mobile devices!)

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1. Go to

https://aoos-nprb.webex.com/aoos-nprb/j.php?MTID=mfb01fe4dd9c18cfff6016…

2. If requested, enter your name and email address.

3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password:
roadmap

4. Click “Join”.
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To join the audio

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1. Dial 1-866-779-5968

2. Enter pin: 1694