UNIS and ARCTOS scientists were well represented at the world’s largest conference on climate change in the Arctic, which took place last week in Quebec City, Canada.

Text: Jørgen Berge and Stig Falk-Petersen

Climate change and the effects of climate change in the Arctic were addressed during the
Arctic Change 2008 Conference in Quebec City, Canada. The conference, running December 9-12, had close to 1000 participants from around the world.

The gathering of researchers, students, policy makers and stakeholders from all fields of Arctic research and all countries to address the global challenges and opportunities brought by climate change in the circum-Arctic, were organized by ArcticNet Network of Centres of Excellence of Canada.

ArcticNet is one of the closest and biggest cooperation partners of the ARCTOS network, and is involved in some of the biggest research programs executed during the International Polar Year (IPY).

UNIS and ARCTOS scientists retrieve equipment from Rijpfjorden in 2007. (Photo: Geir Johnsen).

Good Norwegian representation
Quite a number of Norwegian scientists were represented at the conference and especially ARCTOS and UNIS had a large contingent of participants.

Of the 25 Norwegian scientists, 11 researchers and students came from UNIS and around 20 were affiliated with ARCTOS.

During the four-day conference the UNIS and ARCTOS scientists and students had the opportunity to present their research and results, mainly within the marine ecosystems and environmental research for a large audience.

New results from several fields were presented, especially related to Arctic marine ecosystems. In particular research in winter ecology and studies of the effects of a reduced sea ice cover in the Arctic are areas where ARCTOS scientists demonstrated their competence.

This, in addition to the large ARCTOS contingent and many presentations, were mentioned in the concluding remarks of both central political delegates and the organizers of the conference.

Arctic Frontiers 2009
This conference marked in many ways the pinnacle of the IPY and will be followed by a number of international conferences in the next year. The scientific content of the conference reflected this, as almost all of the several hundred presentations were directly linked to current IPY activities.

The next landmark event is the ARCTOS conference Arctic Frontiers which will be in Tromsø January 18-23 2009.

The effects of a reduced sea ice cover in the Arctic was one of the issues at the Arctic Change conference. (Photo: UNIS)