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Alaska Sea Grant and other sponsors will hold a 3.5-day Wakefield Fisheries Symposium, to advance understanding of present and future responses of arctic marine ecosystems to climate change at all trophic levels, by documenting and forecasting changes in environmental processes and species responses to those changes. Presentations will focus on collaborative approaches to understanding and managing living marine resources in a changing Arctic, and to managing human responses to changing arctic marine ecosystems.

All keynotes and 20-minute contributed talks will be presented in plenary sessions. A call for abstracts will be released soon for oral and poster contributions. Organizers encourage contributions that focus on collaborative approaches to understanding and managing living marine resources in a changing Arctic and to managing human responses--locally, regionally, and globally--to changing arctic marine ecosystems.

Session topics include:

• Observed and anticipated environmental changes in the Arctic;
• Lower trophic level productivity of arctic waters in a changing climate;
• Marine fish resources of the Arctic in a changing climate;
• Observed and anticipated responses of arctic birds and marine mammals to environmental changes in the Arctic;
• Effects of changing arctic marine ecosystems on humans; and
• Understanding and managing arctic marine ecosystems in a time of change.

The 100th meeting of the US Arctic Research Commission will be held in Bethel. Additional information will be available online.

Organizers announce that the 6th Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference and Forum (WAISC), entitled "Rural Science in Action," will be held 20-22 March 2013 in Nome, Alaska.

WAISC brings together scientists, rural Alaska leaders and community members, educators, and students to discuss science, research, and issues relevant to western Alaska. The 2013 conference will highlight regional scientific efforts and community-based projects, including work based in traditional knowledge and local expertise.

Organizers welcome abstract submissions drawn from all disciplines that use a scientific approach to address questions and issues of concern to western Alaska communities. Abstracts for oral and poster presentations or workshops are invited and should be submitted via email to Claudia Ihl (cihl [at] alaska.edu) as either a PDF or Word attachment. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words for oral (15 minutes) or poster presentations and 500 words for workshops (up to 1 hr 30 minutes).

Abstract submission deadline: Friday, 15 February 2013.

The American Geophysical Union (AGU), in partnership with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the National Academies' Ocean Studies Board, will present a lunch briefing on Melting Sea Ice in the Arctic: Science to Understand the Impacts to Our National Security, Natural Resources, and Economy. Speakers for the event include Dr. Cecilia Bitz, associate professor of atmospheric sciences and affiliate physicist for the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington; Lt. Commander Kenneth J. Boda, Arctic strategic analys and prospective executive officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter POLAR STAR; Dr. Brendan P. Kelly, assistant director for polar sciences at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President; and Dr. John E. Walsh, chief scientist of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

You are cordially invited to join the NRC’s Ocean Studies Board for the Fourteenth Annual Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture. The Revelle Lecture was created by the Ocean Studies Board in honor of Dr. Revelle’s contributions to the ocean sciences and his dedication to making scientific knowledge available to policymakers. The 2013 speaker is Dr. John Walsh, Chief Scientist of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

This year’s lecture, Melting Ice: What is happening to Arctic sea ice and what does it mean for us?, will explore the impacts of recent decreases in Arctic summer sea ice and the ways in which these decreases may already be affecting the larger climate system through a variety of physical, dynamical, and ecological processes.

The lecture is free and open to the public:
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 5:30 pm
Baird Auditorium in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC.
Reception to follow.
Pre-registration is not necessary to attend the lecture or reception, but is requested for planning purposes.

The Alaska Fire Science Consortium announces a webinar entitled "Historic and Future Flammability in Alaskan Boreal Forests and Tundra Ecosystems." It will be held Wednesday, 20 March 2013 at 1:00-2:00 p.m. AKDT, and the target audience includes fire managers, resource managers, students, and scientists.

The webinar will be presented by Adam Young, at PhD student in the Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences at the University of Idaho. Young's current research is focused on how climate and vegetation influence fire occurrence at multi-decadal time scales in Alaskan boreal forest and tundra ecosystems. Worldwide fire regimes are expected to shift as a result of climate change. Predicting when, where, and how these fire regime changes will occur requires an understanding of the climatic controls of fire at differing temporal and spatial scales. This research uses past climate-fire relationships to predict 21st-century fire regime changes across Alaskan boreal forest and tundra ecosystems at a range of temporal and spatial scales, providing insight into when, where, and how future fire regimes may change.

Background information is available in a 2012 poster entitled 'Quantifying the historic and future distribution of fire in Alaskan tundra ecosystems,' by Young, Adam M.; Higuera, Philip E.; Duffy, Paul A.; and Hu, Feng Sheng. It can be downloaded at: http://tinyurl.com/Young-Poster.

For questions, please contact: Randi Jandt Email: rjandt [at] alaska.edu

In the world of polar science, meetings are a part of our everyday work lives, especially as collaboration and cooperation become the norm. Whether it’s a small team meeting, a planning teleconference, or a large science meeting, the difference between success and failure relies on techniques and skills that most of us are not taught in school. Knowing how to plan and execute a successful meeting can greatly improve productivity and can serve you no matter what your career path.

This webinar will provide tips for a successful meeting, including: setting goals and agendas, facilitating discussion, preparing participants, dealing with group dynamics, and maintaining momentum; and how to utilize these project planning skills in a science career.

Register for webinar or join as it begins: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/930363264

APECS works with mentors and partners to develop webinars to assist APECS members and other early career scientists with their career development goals. The webinars give early career scientists a venue to learn valuable career skills that are usually not covered in their academic training. The webinar audience consists of graduate students, post-docs, and early career faculty across several disciplines. Since its inception in 2010, hundreds of people from around the world have participated in the webinars.

A recording and archive of each webinar is available on the APECS Vimeo site so that anyone can watch the videos anytime.

If you have any questions, potential topics, or potential presenters to suggest, please contact the APECS Webinar Coordinator, Kristin Timm at webinars [at] apecs.is.

This is the third meeting of the Ocean Studies Board.

Topics include:

• Ocean
• Polar Science
• Ocean Ecosystems and Resources
• Pollution in the Ocean
• Arctic Issues

If you would like to attend the sessions of this meeting that are open to the public or need more information please contact Heather Chiarello at hchiarello [at] nas.edu.

Please note that a symposium will be held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of glacier research at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich. The symposium language will be German, but all people interested in glaciology and glacier research are welcome.

This webinar will cover basic camera principles and techniques for utilizing digital video into research projects. Included will be camera and basic equipment options, fundamental filming techniques, legal concerns, and data retrieval and storage. Maya Salganek and her students worked with UAF researchers for the publication "Field Techniques for Sea Ice Research" manual and multimedia DVD. She also served as a section editor and contributor for the book North by 2020: Perspectives on Alaska's Changing Social-Ecological Systems.

Register for webinar or join as it begins: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/930363264

APECS works with mentors and partners to develop webinars to assist APECS members and other early career scientists with their career development goals. The webinars give early career scientists a venue to learn valuable career skills that are usually not covered in their academic training. The webinar audience consists of graduate students, post-docs, and early career faculty across several disciplines. Since its inception in 2010, hundreds of people from around the world have participated in the webinars.

A recording and archive of each webinar is available on the APECS Vimeo site so that anyone can watch the videos anytime.

If you have any questions, potential topics, or potential presenters to suggest, please contact the APECS Webinar Coordinator, Kristin Timm at webinars [at] apecs.is.