News

Halley station in Antarctica (Photo: hbarchitects.co.uk)It was down to faith. That is the reason Hugh Broughton, architect, started designing buildings for the extreme conditions in Antarctica.

Blistering wind and temperatures below 0 every day of the year calls for unique designs. BUt there are more concerns. Moving ice and long distances do not make the designing any easier.

In a fascinating interview with the Arctic Portal, Hugh described the design of infrastructure in the South Pole. He gave us an insight to the British Station, Halley, he designed.

He has also looked at other projects in Antarctica and even considers the designs usable in other locations.

Below is the interview with Hugh.

The Arctic Tern (Photo: APECS)Researchers have a unique opportunity to travel around the Arctic this summer. The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists invites researchers to join WWF and the Students on Ice Foundation on a summer expedition to the high latitudes of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic.

The mean of travel is the expedition sailboat Arctic Tern, which will sail between communities whilst researchers can do their research on land, the sea or in the communities themselves.

The Arctic Tern is a 50 ft. expedition sailing yacht with a retractable keel to meet the risks of sailing in ice-bound areas which also enables it to sail onto a beach.

The journey will include experiences polar sailors. It was acquired by Students on Ice in September 2009 to serve as a platform for education, science research, film and media.

Research areas will include ecosystem productivity, sea ice, flora and fauna, permafrost, ocean currents and cultural adaptations. Application deadline is May 21st and only seven places are available.

Click here for more information and to apply.

Gustaf Lind (Photo: Hjalti Þór Hreinsson - Arctic Portal)Sweden are the shair of the Arctic Council. The Swedish chairmanship runs from 2011 to 213 when Canada takes over.

Arctic Portal met with the chair of the Swedish leadership at the IPY 2012 conference in Montreal.

We talked to Gustaf about what the Swedes have been doing, what legacy they want to leave behind, their main goals and the process of implementing their recomendations.

Click below to see the interview.

Mike presenting the findings at the IPY 2012 conference in Montreal.The Arctic Species Trend Index is the latest headline indicator by the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program. Arctic Portal talked to the chair if CBMP, Mike Gill, about ASTI and the lates key findings just released.

ASTI tracks trends in over 300 Arctic vertebrate species and they are presented in the reports, available on the ASTI website.

Mike presented the key findings report in Montreal at the IPY 2012 conference.

Click the video below to see the interview.

Cod in Icelandic waters (Photo: Erlendur Bogason - Strytan.is)Researchers in agriculture had anticipated the North Sea cod to get smaller over time due to global warming. A new study shows quite the opposite, they are actually growing due to global warming.

The study was introduced in Global Change Biology, an international journal.

"When the seawater gets warmer, all life processes in the cod speed up," says Peter Grønkjær, an associate professor of marine ecology at the Department of Biological Sciences at Aarhus university, who headed the study. "This causes the cod to digest their food faster and makes them convert it into extra muscle tissue," he added.

Overfishing has started a process in which the cod spend their energy on reproducing themselves rather than on growing bigger.

"But over the past 30 years the increased ocean temperatures have compensated for the anticipated decrease in cod size," says Grønkjær.

He also states that global warming seldom has positive effects on the cod, but this change is the odd point. "But this doesn't mean that the warming of the North Sea is generally good for the cod. The higher temperatures alter the ecosystem, which causes the composition of the crustaceans that the cod feed on to change too. And that makes it harder for the fry to survive."

The researchers made the discovery by reviewing figures from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

These figures showed that the ocean temperatures at various times that the average sizes of the fish at various times, that the location of the fish at various times and that when the fish became sexually mature at various times.

"By linking all this data together, we can conclude that the weight change is caused by changes in the temperature," says Grønkjær.

The new findings will be used for developing strategies for how cod stocks in the North Sea can be preserved.