Session 6

Session Chair: Maud van Soest, Louise Borthwick, Carla Tapia Baldis, Sidney Horlick

Session Coordinators: Ben Graves, Kathrin Bennett, Valeria Trezza

Time: 12 May from 20:30 - 22:30 GMT

• 20:30 - 20:35 GMT: Introduction

• 20:35 - 20:50 GMT: Determining responses to warming of Antarctic benthic communities using heated panels: An experimental approach

  Presenter: Tom Massué

  Institution: University of Otago

  Type: Oral Presentation

  Category: Antarctic

  Abstract: Despite an increase in polar sea temperatures linked with climate change, the impacts of in situ warming on the recruitment, survival, growth, thermal tolerance, adaptation and interspecific interactions of marine biofouling species and benthic communities is not well understood. Using novel heated settlement plates developed by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), we aim to examine warming effects on benthic communities in the Ross Sea at Scott Base and Terra Nova Bay as part of the Antarctic Science Platform. Heated settlement plates can finely control environmental temperatures in the benthic boundary layer above the plates surface to determine responses to warming (from +1 to +4°C above ambient) at these important small spatial scales, and over ecologically relevant time scales (months). Here, we will describe the experimental set up used in New Zealand (+2° and +4°C), and report on responses on benthic taxa (Ascidians, Bryozoa, Sponges, Polychaetes) to warming in the Otago region of New Zealand using the heated plate experiments. The effects of warming on recruitment, survival, growth and community composition in four benthic taxa settled on heated plate experiments deployed in the Otago region of New Zealand will be described.

• 20:50 - 21:05 GMT: Change detection on multi-temporal satellite imagery dataset: a novel deep-learning framework for alpine glacier melt analysis

  Presenter: Thomas Chen

  Institution: Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering

  Type: Oral Presentation

  Category: Alpine

  Abstract: Climate change is an existential threat globally, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimating a global warming of 1.5 degrees above industrial levels by some time between 2032 and 2052 if it continues at the current rate. One of the many reasons why this phenomenon is a serious threat is that it causes ice sheets and glaciers to melt. Sea levels are rising primarily due to melting ice sheets and glaciers, as well as the expansion of warming sea water. Satellite data from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) demonstrate that sea levels have been rising an average of 3.3 millimeters each year from 1993 to 2020. Sea level rise is shown to cause coastal erosion and elevate storm surge, increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters like hurricanes. Additionally, melting sea ice in the poles exposes dark patches of ocean, removing the reflection provided by the ice and diminishing the cooling effect in the poles. On the humanitarian front, melting glaciers are disastrous. For instance, in the Himalayas, which contain the largest mass of ice outside of the polar regions, meltage is causing issues in water availability, biodiversity, monsoonal shifts, and agriculture. In this work, we focus particularly on the aspect of alpine glacier meltage and harness deep learning to assess it. We propose a convolutional neural network to classify levels of alpine glacier meltage using satellite imagery. In this work, our primary contribution consists of presenting of a novel machine learning model trained on multi-temporal satellite imagery for change detection analysis. Future work in this area includes fine-tuning features to improve performance and enhance model efficacy. When deployed, these technologies identify areas of glaciers that are disproportionately affected by warming temperatures and how that thereby influences sea level rise and other factors.

• 21:05 - 21:20 GMT: Highlight curated collections of data through portals on the Arctic Data Center

  Presenter: Erin McLean

  Institution: Arctic Data Center

  Type: Oral presentation

  Category: Arctic

  Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more difficult for Arctic researchers to do their work; instead of facing the usual obstacles associated with field work in remote locations, researchers have had to cancel field seasons due to global restrictions around limiting the spread of COVID-19. However, research can continue through the reuse of existing datasets that have been archived in repositories like the Arctic Data Center, where all data is available for download and reuse. Comprehensive metadata make discovery of relevant datasets easy, enabling new synthesis research or analysis. Now, the Arctic Data Center has made it even easier to navigate the catalog and customize the datasets shown through portals. With portals, researchers create an environment where a collection of datasets and project information is available in a single location. By creating a portal through the Arctic Data Center, researchers can both increase discovery of a curated set of related project data and preserve information on the project’s objectives, scopes, and organization. Coupled with the data files, these portals will support data use and interpretation for years to come. Portals enable researchers to see all relevant datasets, subsetted from over 6000 datasets currently preserved at the Arctic Data Center, in one convenient location. Portals also leverage the Arctic Data Center’s metric features, which create statistics describing the project’s data packages. Join us to learn more about portal features and how to create your own, enabling researchers at home and in the field to find relevant data for analyses and synthesis projects.

• 21:20 - 21:35 GMT: Polar science outreach in Brazil: online resources during the pandemic scenario of COVID-19

  Presenter: Cristiane Caetano

  Institution: Institute of Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - APECS-Brazil

  Type: Oral Presentation

  Category: Antarctic

  Abstract: The National Brazilian Committee of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS-Brazil) was established in 2008 and is responsible for polar science outreach in Brazil. During the years, face-to-face and online events have been organized using different resources, and social media has been adopted as a strategy for science outreach and to disseminate polar contents to remote locations. This work presents data on APECS-Brazil activities experienced by basic and high education students, teachers and researchers between 2018 and 2021, in scenarios before and during COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 APECS-Brazil online Symposium gathered 299 Brazilian and foreign participants and featured simultaneous translation into English, Spanish, and Brazilian Sign Language while face-to-face 2018 Symposium was attended by 68 participants. The Antarctica Day in 2020 was celebrated exclusively through Instagram, reaching greater marks (509 views, 98 likes, 3 comments and 12 shares) compared to previous years. The first edition of 2020 Polar Week presented 5 online webinars (387-1000 views on Youtube Channel), and the second Polar Week of 2020 comprised 30 virtual lectures, given by 18 researchers for 21 educational institutions. In comparison, the 2019 Polar Week featured 4 virtual and 13 face-to-face lectures, given by 20 researchers at 29 academic institutions. Before the pandemic 966 individuals signed up for 14 webinars, however, only 349 attended the web-based seminars, while during the pandemic, the association was able to stream 9 webinars via YouTube, totaling 2,568 views. Overall, APECS-Brazil has greatly expanded the use of Youtube and Instagram during the pandemic due to its facilities and global reach for online outreach. In summary, APECS-Brazil was able to considerably increase the numbers generated by polar science outreach during COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, data shall be combined with information from other organizations working with polar science to investigate the COVID-19 scenario’s effect on polar education.

• 21:35 - 21:50 GMT: Arctic and Antarctic ice core organic matter markers of the past reveal new directions of cryosphere carbon cycling research for the future

  Presenter: Juliana D'Andrilli

  Institution: Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON)

  Type: Oral presentation

  Category: Collaboration

  Abstract: Reconstructing atmospheric composition during distinct climate periods is a central focus of ice core research, and the recent incorporation of organic matter (OM) chemistry is improving our understanding of Earth’s paleoecological history. Polar ice contains records of preserved carbon as OM, thus identifying its composition and reactivity become essential targets in a warming climate. This polar research success story developed near the beginning of the pandemic, without access to my laboratory but with an incentive to explore existing polar ice core data sets in new ways. We present our 2011-2012 catalog of ice core organic matter (OM) fluorescence signatures to reconstruct ancient and modern atmospheric compositions and relate OM signals to past ecological changes in both the northern and southern hemispheres. OM composition from three Arctic ice cores (Canada and Greenland) was characterized by fluorescence spectroscopy and compared to an Antarctic OM record. Similar OM existed across vast temporal scales in both hemispheres; signals were interpreted as materials externally produced from the ice and transported to polar regions. Concentration trends were inferred from fluorescence intensities of individual OM types and related to temperature fluctuations; stronger correlations were determined in the southern hemisphere. This marks the first global comparison of atmospheric reconstructions from OM and emphasizes the new directions achieved from archived resources. Extending our understanding of ice core OM will require dedicated collaborations across cryosphere, atmospheric, marine, and freshwater disciplines as new ideas emerge with global environmental change. As we move into the next realm of ice core OM research, more extensive comparisons with archived and newly drilled cores will create more opportunities to develop environmental OM proxies of our past, help predict future carbon biogeochemical cycling patterns, and build a more inclusive community where the polar field work propels research opportunities for those in the field and at home.
  

• 21:50 - 22:05 GMT: Measuring and Mapping the Arctic: Cartography and the Legacies of Nineteenth-Century Arctic Science

  Presenter: John Woitkowitz

  Institution: University of Cambridge

  Type: Oral presentation

  Category: Arctic

  Abstract: This paper provides a historical perspective on nineteenth-century Arctic science and cartography and how these continue to impact present-day perceptions of the Arctic regions. Maps of the Arctic are powerful instruments to support legal, political, commercial, and scientific claims and interests in the region. Polar projections on sea ice extension, the distribution of natural resources or the state of ocean currents in the Arctic, for example, are critical indicators for the future of the region. At the same time, natural scientific categories to describe the Arctic are products of historical processes in the production of geographical knowledge; they are not eternal givens. As disciplines such as oceanography, meteorology or hydrology emerged as fields of professional study during the nineteenth century, the Arctic was transformed into a field of scientific inquiry. Grounded in archival research, this paper discusses how cartographies re-defined the Arctic region, how they generated a surge in Arctic expeditions, and how they continue to inform modern understandings of the region. Specifically, this paper discusses the theory of an open polar sea—a body of navigable, ice-free water in the central Arctic Ocean—as a consequential re-envisioning of the central Arctic. It shows how maps acted as powerful instruments to advance the open polar sea theory and how they shaped the scientific agenda of Arctic exploration across nineteenth-century scientific networks, pioneering the first German Arctic expeditions in the 1860s and generating American and Norwegian voyages in the 1880s and 1890s that, in turn, informed contemporary field science such as the recent MOSAiC expedition. Based on these examples, this paper draws critical attention to the long history of European and American efforts at measuring and mapping the Arctic, illustrating the ways historical theories and their representation in maps continue to inform our understandings and perceptions of the Arctic today.
  

Poster Q + A 3: 22:05 - 22:30 GMT

• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Polar Science: APECS Alpine Cryosphere Group experiences

  Presenter: Rodrigo Paidano Alves

  Institution: Institute of Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

  Type: Poster

  Category: Alpine

  Abstract: The term ‘Alpine’ has a pre-Roman origin, with ‘alp’ meaning for “mountain” referring to the entire mountains system or used as a general substitute for mountains. These landscapes provide natural and patrimonial goods coming from their distinctive climatic, ecological, geological and hydrological settings. Mountains also have an integral part of the terrestrial cryosphere (encompassing snow, glaciers, and even permafrost), providing a regulating function for water collect, storage and distribution toward the lowlands. In these regions, alpine ecosystems can be defined as high-altitude habitats above the tree line and are subject to extreme abiotic conditions, playing a key role in terrestrial carbon storage. Understanding the structure and how alpine ecosystems are naturally regulated is a significant challenge, especially their global biogeochemical cycles. An increasing number of researchers are working in the mid-latitude cryosphere, including high-altitude alpine environments (e.g., Third Pole or Himalayas), not just the Polar Regions (e.g., Arctic and Antarctica). In this context, the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) Alpine Cryosphere Mountain Group was created to improve resources for non-polar researchers through building partnerships and sharing information. The project group aims to provide a network platform and provide valuable resources for early-stage scientists working on alpine and cryospheric environments. Thus, Alpine Cryosphere Mountain Group members can stimulate the defense, preservation, and conservation of the environment, and promote the sustainable development of polar, oceanic, and cryospheric environments. Regardless that research projects involve geology, ecology, chemistry, botany, hydrology, or zoology, the emergence of the covid-19 pandemic put a strain on research activities, forcing scientists to adapt and react to this new reality. Sharing these experiences with other research groups working on mountain ecosystems can be used as a valuable lesson, and a reminder to adapt and develop the capacity to amend unexpected scenarios, which will be essential to the future of research related to alpine sciences and perhaps also elsewhere.

  Poster

  APECS International Online Conference 2021_Poster presentation - Rodrigo Alves from APECS Webinars on Vimeo.

• Seasonal habitat selection in Arctic hares: explaining mass movements on Ellesmere Island

  Presenter: Ludovic Landry-Ducharme

  Institution: Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)

  Type: Poster

  Category: Arctic
  
  Abstract: Movement is key to animal survival in poor environments such as the polar deserts of Northern Canada. Studying animal movement is thus crucial to better understand Arctic ecosystems. In 2019, we documented with satellite telemetry a large-scale mass movement of Arctic hares captured around Alert (Ellesmere Island, Canada), going towards the Lake Hazen basin in the Quttinirpaaq National Park of Canada. Arctic hare migrations had already been suggested, but never demonstrated. Where Arctic hare populations are large, such as on Ellesmere Island, identifying the factors influencing habitat selection of this species across seasons will improve our knowledge on the dynamics of the entire tundra ecosystem. My project aims to determine the main factors explaining habitat selection of Arctic hares at the local and regional scales in the northern part of Ellesmere Island. In summer 2019, 25 hares were equipped with Argos satellite collars near Canadian Force Station Alert and tracked until spring 2020. In summer 2021, we plan to deploy GPS-Iridium collars on 20 more hares, yielding more precise locations than Argos collars. We expect Arctic hare habitat selection to be influenced by plant cover and landscape topography, but that it may vary depending on the 4 main phases of their life cycle (summer, winter, and spring/fall relocation phases). Hares rearing young around Alert during summer should select rocky and hilly areas, which provide good shelter from predators. In winter, they should occupy habitats with good primary productivity and limited snow accumulation. During their fall and spring relocations, hares should travel routes crossing plant-rich patches to replenish their energy reserves. It is surprising how little is still known about polar desert ecology, thus this research will help describe key aspects of wildlife biology in the northernmost region of Canada.

  Poster

  APECS International Online Conference 2021_Poster presentation - Ludovic Landry-Ducharme from APECS Webinars on Vimeo.

• Informing seal conservation efforts through computer vision and citizen science in the Arctic

  Presenter: Thomas Chen

  Institution: Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering

  Type: Poster

  Category: Arctic
  
  Abstract: Citizen science is crucial to wildlife conservation in the Arctic. The ability of many citizen scientists to capture animals in imagery, thereby helping to track populations and species, is one particular manner in which this can be conducted. There are six species of seal that inhabit the Arctic: hooded (Cystophora cristata), harp (Pagophilus groenlandicus), ribbon (Histriophoca fasciata), ringed (Pusa hispida syn. Phoca hispida), beared (Erignathus barbatus), and spotted (Phoca largha). The survival of populations is largely linked to sea ice, which is melting in many areas due to the progression of climate change. Therefore, some of these seal species are increasingly under threat as the Arctic warms. For example, as the sea ice extent decreases, ringed seals are especially threatened because they do not migrate to open water in the winter. Given the differences in behavior and strategies needed to conserve each species, automated mechanisms to facilitate rapid classification need to be in place. We propose the creation of a comprehensive seal imagery dataset by scraping images from Google, Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr. We remove duplicates by running an image hashing algorithm and further split the dataset into a 80:10:10 ratio for training, validation, and testing data, respectively. The images are labeled through an online crowdsourcing platform. The deep learning architecture we employ to segment and classify imagery is the convolutional neural network architecture called ResNet18. In this preliminary work, we expect to compare the efficacies of various models through ablation studies. This work represents the first comprehensive deep learning-based ecological remote sensing approach for ground-based seal imagery in the Arctic. By deploying these models as functionable technologies in the wild, we enable conservationists to gain insights into population-level and species-level trends, which leads to more accurate and targeted conservation mechanisms.

  Poster

  APECS International Online Conference 2021_Poster presentation - Thomas Chen from APECS Webinars on Vimeo.

APECS International Online Conference 2021 - Polar Science: Success Stories from the Field and from Home - Session 6 from APECS Webinars on Vimeo.