Science
North Pole expedition - 2011:
Science 2011:
In April 2011, at the start of the 6-month long summer day, the Pax Arctica team will join scientists on the Arctic ice. They will testify to the on-going transformations of this part of the world and its consequences on Climate Change and world geopolitics. The Pax Arctica team, including children as representatives of future generations, will convene in a symbolic gesture, at the North Pole, and plant the Green Cross Flag, in honor of the 80th birthday of Mikhail Gorbachev, Honorary chairman of Green Cross International.
Goals of the Expedition:
- Create awareness about the impact of climate change in the Arctic
- Reach the North Pole….. Arctic
- Collect scientific data and make observations about the status of the ice sheet
Meeting with Scientists:
Jamie Morison - Principal Oceanographer and Affiliate Professor, Oceanography - University of Washington
Member of the Polar Science Center
Dr. Morison's main focus centers on the study of environmental change in the Arctic. He heads the project office for the multi-government agencies' Study of Environmental Arctic Change program (SEARCH). In addition, he has spent the last three springs in the vicinity of the North Pole directing hydrographic analysis of ocean conditions for the North Pole Environmental Observatory program. Another aspect of his research has used autonomous underwater vehicles to study turbulent vertical velocity and fluxes of heat and salt in the Arctic Ocean. He also served as U. W. Representative to the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, 1995-97; member ASA/NSF Antarctic Research Vessel Oversight Committee, 1995-98; member ARCUS Logistics Working Group, 1997-98; member NSF-Office of Polar Program Advisory Committee, 1997-99; member Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Scientists, 1997-2000.
In 2000, Jamie Morison and the team of researchers intalled webcams on instruments settled at the North Pole. Since that date, the webcams send images but with the onset of winter snow, ice and darkness, the solar-powered North Pole web cams are no longer transmitting images. Deployment of new web cams is planned for Spring 2011.
Here are some highlights of the year 2010 at the North Pole.
Himalayas expedition - 2009 - The big Melt:
News: 12/5/2011 In the Himalayas, the glaciers have diminished by 20% during the last 30 years (article in French)
Studies from the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) based in Kathmandu reports that the glaciers have falled back by 20% in Nepal, 22% in Bhoutan during the last 30 years. These reports where made public in the Durban conference in South Africa.
This situation is all the more alarming, knowing that 54,000 glaciers in the Himalayas provide water for 8 of the biggest rivers in Asia and that 5 of them (the Indus River, the Gange, the Brahmaputra, the Yellow river) could see their flow decrease with significant consequences for 1,4 Billion people in the region...
Science 2009: 
The group of environmental advocates and children that Pax Arctica is leading:
- will interact with European and Nepalese scientists
- with the goal of exploring the region and contributing field data
- to help with the assessment of the conditions of glaciers and lake in the Himalayas region
Patrick Wagnon and Yves Arnaud: Glaciologists, energy balance on glaciers
Pierre Chevallier: Hydrologist
IRD- LTHE (L'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) -
Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE-Grenoble)
A scientific program conducted in collaboration with the DHM in Kathmandu (Department of Hydrology and Meteorology) lead by
Dr. Om Baratchraya and Dr. Rijan Bhakta Kayastha
Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM)
Kathmandu University - Dhulikhel, Kavre
http://www.ku.edu.np/env/Brief_CV-Rijan.doc
The Big Melt
Glaciers in the high heart of Asia feed its greatest rivers, lifelines for two billion people. Now the ice and snow are diminishing.
By Brook Larmer
Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen
The gods must be furious.
It's the only explanation that makes sense to Jia Son, a Tibetan farmer surveying the catastrophe unfolding above his village in China's mountainous Yunnan Province. "We've upset the natural order," the devout, 52-year-old Buddhist says. "And now the gods are punishing us."
On a warm summer afternoon, Jia Son has hiked a mile and a half up the gorge that Mingyong Glacier has carved into sacred Mount Kawagebo, looming 22,113 feet high in the clouds above. There's no sign of ice, just a river roiling with silt-laden melt. For more than a century, ever since its tongue lapped at the edge of Mingyong village, the glacier has retreated like a dying serpent recoiling into its lair. Its pace has accelerated over the past decade, to more than a football field every year—a distinctly unglacial rate for an ancient ice mass.
"This all used to be ice ten years ago," Jia Son says, as he scrambles across the scree and brush. He points out a yak trail etched into the slope some 200 feet above the valley bottom. "The glacier sometimes used to cover that trail, so we had to lead our animals over the ice to get to the upper meadows."
Around a bend in the river, the glacier's snout finally comes into view: It's a deathly shade of black, permeated with pulverized rock and dirt. The water from this ice, once so pure it served in rituals as a symbol of Buddha himself, is now too loaded with sediment for the villagers to drink. For nearly a mile the glacier's once smooth surface is ragged and cratered like the skin of a leper. There are glimpses of blue-green ice within the fissures, but the cracks themselves signal trouble. "The beast is sick and wasting away," Jia Son says. "If our sacred glacier cannot survive, how can we?"....
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/04/tibetan-plateau/larmer-text/1
Scientific References:
• The world glaciers observatory, coordinated by Patrick Wagnon:
http://www-lgge.ujf-grenoble.fr/ServiceObs/index.htm
• for a similar study conducted in India:
Wagnon, P ., R. Kumar, Y. Arnaud, A. Linda, P. Sharma, C. Vincent, J.
Pottakal, E. Berthier, A. Ramanathan, S.I; Hasnain & P. Chevallier,
Four years of mass balance of Chhota Shigri glacier (Himachal Pradesh,
India), a new benchmark glacier in western Himalaya, J. Glaciolology.,
2007
• for an article in LA RECHERCHE (July 2008):
Wagnon, Chevallier, Arnaud, la goutte d’eau perdue des glaciers himalayens
May 10, 2011
Goodplanet's Website
Dix nouvelles centrales photovoltaïques, d’une capacité de 100 mégawatts, devraient voir le jour d’ici la fin de l’année sur le plateau du Tibet. L’une des plus importantes d’entre elles, située à quelques kilomètres de la deuxième plus importante ville tibétaine, devrait être achevée avant la fin du mois et génèrera plus de 20 millions de kWh par an, rapporte le China Daily. La construction de ces nouvelles centrales, qui s'inscrit dans la volonté du gouvernement chinois d'atteindre l'objectif de 10 gigawatts de production d'énergie solaire d'ici 2015 et 50 gigawatts d'ici 2020, permettra de remédier aux coupures d’électricité fréquente sur le plateau tibétain. Wang Haijiang, qui travaille depuis des années sur les questions énergétiques au Tibet, ajoute qu’ « Avec près de 400 000 fours solaires installés dans les cuisines tibétaines […] et 200 000 maisons éclairées grâce à l’énergie solaire », les familles tibétaines ont su tirer profit des 3 000 heures annuelles d’ensoleillement du plateau.
Arctic expedition - 2008 - Ward Hunt Ice Shelf disappearance:
The pax arctica team walked from base camp to the ice shelf on July 22 and reached the crack at 3:30pm (photo courtesy Planet Action initiative © NSPO 2008 - National Space Organization, Taiwan - Distribution Spot Image S.A., France - All rights reserved). |
|---|
July 22, 2008: After 4 hours of walking, the Pax Arctica team reaches the main crack from where the floating ice island is calving from the main shelf where we stand (place curser in the photo and drag to navigate on the panoramic photo) |
|
The next day (July 23), the floating island across the Western crack had completely drifted away. Likewise, a major piece of ice shelf on the Eastern side of Ward Hunt Island (totaling 20 sq km) detached and drifted away on July 27, 2008 as shown on this satellite photo taken on August 18, 2008 (photo courtesy Planet Action initiative © NSPO 2008 - National Space Organization, Taiwan - Distribution Spot Image S.A., France - All rights reserved) |
The eastern portion of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf with Cape Albert Edward in the background. Photo taken on July 21 2008 (photo © Luc Hardy/SAGAX - All rights reserved)
The eastern portion of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf with Cape Albert Edward in the background. |
For further information on Ward Hunt Ice Shelf Loss, please click on: For further information on Summer 2008 loss of other Arctic ice shelves, please click on: |
Greenland expedition - 2007 - GREA:
During 30 years of scientific and volunteer expeditions, the naturalists of the Arctic Ecology Research Group (GREA) have acquired a unique knowledge of the ecology of the Arctic regions. The results of their work has been published in the most prestigious scientific journals.
Since 1990, Olivier Gilg and Brigitte Sabard have organized and taken part in twenty of the GREA expeditions to Greenland, Svalbard, Siberia, the Canadian Arctic and Alaska (along with their son Vladimir since 2003). Adrian Aebischer et Nette Levermann have also participated in several of these GREA expeditions to Greenland.
Main scientific program: “In search of the Ivory Gull”
Global change will affect Arctic ecosystems faster and more heavily than anywhere else on Earth. To survive, species should shift their distribution ranges towards the North or to higher altitudes.
The pure white Ivory gull is definitely the most emblematic but also the most endangered Arctic seabird, facing serious risk of extinction due to climate change. It already breeds on the highest mountains and on the northernmost Arctic lands. Hence, it might not be able to relocate its colonies northward or at higher altitude. Furthermore, like the Polar Bear, it exclusively feeds in the pack-ice zone which could disappear completely in summer by 2070.
In 1980, the Ivory gull world population was estimated between 20-25000 pairs but several colonies are still uncharted in Greenland.
Current population trends from Canada are alarming: 85% of the birds have apparently disappeared for the last 20 years.
To improve our knowledge of this poorly studied species and ultimately draft a conservation plan with Canadian, Norwegian and Russian colleagues, we will visit the highest (Nunataks) and northernmost (Peary Land) areas in Greenland to:
• locate new colonies to improve our estimate of its world population size
• monitor known colonies to assess its population trends
• document its habitat use (versus pack ice conditions) using 12g satellite transmitters• run demographic models to assess its extinction risk through a ringing program (initiated in 2003)
• investigate site fidelity and dispersion rates to other colonies to assess its ability to relocate to new breeding places.(collaboration with Dr Vidar BAKKEN and Hallward STROM , Norsk Polarinstitutt, Tromso, Dr David BOERTMANN, Greenland Environmental Research Institute, Dr Kaj KAMPP, Zoological Museum Copenhagen), Dr Grant GILCHRIST, Canadian Wildlife Service, Dr Maria GAVRILO, Russian Academy of Science et Dr Adrian AEBISHER, Museum d’Histoire Naturelle de Fribourg)
Additional scientific programs:
1. Lemming dynamics and predator prey interaction
During the course of the expedition, we will collect data (demography and diet analysis) on Snowy Owl, Arctic Fox, Long-tailed Skua, Stoat and their main prey Collared lemming. Developed on Trail Island since 1988 by the Karupelv Valley Project (Uni. Freiburg) and since 1998 by Ecopolaris (GREA & Uni. Helsinki), the long-term study of predator prey interaction is the main scientific program of the GREA in NE Greenland.
(with Dr Benoît SITTLER, University Freiburg/Brisgau & Prof. Ilkka HANSKI, University Helsinki)
2. Census of Flora and Fauna in the Fjord region (70-75° Lat. N) since 1979
All relevant Bird and Mammals (and more recently vascular plants) observations have been recorded by the GREA expeditions since 1979, providing an extensive database to access possible status changes. Of special importance is the monitoring of seabirds, to complete and update the existing Greenland Seabird Database. (with Dr David BOERTMAN, DMU, Greenland)3. Lichen and Moss sampling
Specific lichen & moss samplings scheme will be launched in 2007 for the Botanical Museum Copenhagen and Museum Tromsø respectively. Of special interest will be the collections from the Watkins Bjerge (highest Arctic summits) and Bliss Bugt area (northernmost lands on Earth). These data will be used, among other aims, to assess the sensitivity of Arctic plants to global change (with Prof. E.S. HANSEN, Botanical Museum, Copenhagen and K. Westergaard, Museum Tromsø, NO)4. Status and origin of the Greenland Whales relict population
Following the recent increase of records for this species in NE Greenland, we published a summary of all observations reported for the last century (Gilg & Born, 2005).
The NorthEast Water (“NEW”) Polynya is a place where we have seen the species daily in 2003. This year, we will try to collect small skin samples (biopsies) in order to discover to which population these NE Greenland Bowhead whales belong. Until recently, the species was considered extinct in the NE Atlantic Ocean (NE Greenland – Svalbard Stock) by many specialists. (with Prof. Oystein WIIG, Norsk Polarinstitutt, Norway).5. Walrus studies
The Greenland-Svalbard population of the Atlantic walrus has become so small (less than 1000 individuals?) that it is inherently endangered. Following our previous work in 2003 and 2004 (e.g. we found 2 new haul out sites in Dove Bugt) we will continue (if any opportunity) to update the existing “ID photos” database (several controls have already been made in 2003 and 2004). (with Dr Eric BORN, Greenland Natural Research Institute, Nuuk et Copenhagen).
6. Mapping of Archaeological sites
The poorly known area of Bliss Bugt could well be the northernmost place where historical Eskimos have lived in the Past but no obvious evidence of permanent living could be found there in 2006 despite a specific search by Dr C. Andreasen (due to unusual summer snow cover). Independence and Thule sites will hence also be searched and possibly mapped beside our biological investigations (with Dr Claus Andreasen, Greenland National Museum and Archives, Nuuk)7. Botanic sampling
Continuation of our sampling of c. 20 species for DNA analysis devoted to study the historical dispersion of Arctic species, and infer their adaptability to future and rapid range shifts. (Program title: « Effects of climate change on ecosystems in the Arctic: past and future immigration of thermophilous key species »). (with Dr Inger ALSO, University of Tromsø, Norway)8. Eco-toxicology
Down feathers of several seabirds, and especially of Ivory Gulls, will be collected in as many different places as possible to complete our sampling from 2003-2005. The feathers will be analyses to access the contamination of the marine trophic levels in NE Greenland, and especially to understand the possible latitudinal gradient of this contamination. (with Dr Renaud SCHEIFFLER, University of Franche-Comté, France)
