APECS News

In this online seminar, Arctic PASSION is introducing its pan-Arctic requirements-driven Permafrost Service. The Permafrost Service is based on remote sensing analyses, and detection and mapping of permafrost disturbances at high spatial resolution across large regions. The data helps to quantify landscape change, hydrological dynamics and permafrost vulnerability. In order to make the scientific findings easily accessible, we designed a tailored web-based portal specifically targeting non-scientific user communities, stakeholders and rightsholders. With the Arctic Landscape EXplorer (ALEX), we provide interactive maps for recent information on land surface changes, hot spots of disturbances and potential areas of active permafrost thaw and erosion.

Each year APECS seeks to recognize and honor the efforts of its mentors within the international polar scientific community. The APECS Mentorship Award is designed to recognize the time and energy that mentors devote to Early Career Researchers (ECRs), and their efforts to build a community of support. APECS will award a mentor who works with the ECR polar scientific community (including Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine areas).

Are you passionate about the Arctic and its unique challenges and opportunities? Do you want to engage in meaningful discussions with fellow youth from across Europe and the Arctic? If so, we invite you to apply for the Arctic Youth Dialogue held in Brussels on May 11-15, 2024!

Several APECS members played a pivotal role at the recent Polar Symposium 2024 in Monaco, held 22-23 February. The APECS rapporteurs were José Queirós as APECS President, Hugo Guímaro and Lina Madaj as APECS Vice-Presidents, Gwenaëlle Gremion as ExOfficio for the Executive Committee and Alice Guzzi as National Committee Coordinator. Sarah Strand was also part of the APECS delegation as Executive Director. The rapporteurs’ responsibility was to summarise key points from the discussions during workshops and to ensure that the voices of early career scientists (ECSs) were heard.

Fig. 1 - APECS members with SCAR and IASC fellows at the Polar Symposium 2024 in Monaco (from left to the right: Alice Guzzi, Beatriz Recinos, Lina Madaj, Sarah Strand, Gwenaëlle Gremion, Hugo Guímaro, Archana Dayal, José Queirós). © Philippe Fitte / FPA2

Join APECS Canada and Arctic Science for a webinar on the reviewing process as an early career researcher (ECR). Our guest speaker is Dr. Lisa Loseto, editor in chief at Arctic Science, who will give an overview of the review process and tips for reviewing. This will be an interactive webinar with breakout rooms, for a chance to participate in hands-on exercises and receive real time feedback from journal experts at Arctic Science. 

Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) is a consortium of international institutions with research infrastructure in and around Svalbard. SIOS is building an integrated observing system for long-term measurements addressing Earth System questions.

SIOS publishes an annual State of Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report. The first issue was released in January 2019. The report summarises the state of current knowledge of key Earth System Science parameters and analyses how these parameters influence one another. The SESS report outlines the work that has been done in the previous year within the SIOS cooperation to optimise the observing system and recommends research priorities for the following year(s). 

The seventh issue of the SESS report will consist of updates of 12 chapters ranging from geology, biology, glaciology to the movement of the magnetic pole. The deadline for chapter submissions is 15 September 2024 and the report will be finalised in the beginning of December. An online workshop with authors is planned for April. The SESS report 2024 will be released at the beginning of the Polar Night Week in Longyearbyen.

The editorial board consists of five persons, two of which are senior researchers from SIOS member institutions and two are from the SIOS Knowledge Centre. We would like to appoint an early career scientist as fifth member of the editorial board.

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS, http://www.soos.aq) are looking for an early career scientist to join the leadership team of the following working group :

• Ross Sea RWG (https://soos.aq/activities/rwg/ross)

The successful applicant will have working knowledge of observational research of the Southern Ocean with a particular interest in the respective region of the working group. The ECR representative will attend RWG meetings, and be responsible for assisting with data collection, curation, and reportage, and will be an important link in liaising between APECS and SOOS. The group is interested in receiving applications from any countries, including those not yet represented by the RWG Leadership Group.

Join us for an APECS get-together during the upcoming EGU General Assembly in Vienna! Organized by APECS Germany and APECS ExCom, we would like to invite you to our splinter meeting for networking, sharing experiences, presenting activities and much more. The meeting will be an open space for National Committees and Project Groups to present their activities, but also for any APECS member (or those interested in becoming one or alumni) for meeting each other, asking questions and generally getting inspired.

 Join APECS for a series of webinars as part of the Polar Week March 2024!

Youth Together For Arctic Futures - The EU is supporting a new project to empower Arctic youth to influence policies that affect them, and to help foster exchanges between European and Arctic youth.

Youth around the world will live with the consequences of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. The Arctic, as a region, and Europe, as a continent, are warming several times faster than the global average. The impacts of climate change are already felt all cross the Arctic and Europe. Current and future decisions by policymakers at all levels shape the severity of these consequences, and the EU is committed to ensure that future generations have a liveable and thriving planet. Young people want to have greater agency to act and influence the policies that affect them. For this they are in need of the skills, opportunities, and connections to advocate for good climate and environmental policies.

image by Dora Kurobasa: Youth Gathering in Tromsø, Norway