Historical records, recent observations, and geomorphological evidence indicate that rates of retreat and downwasting of the tidewater Stephenson Glacier, and concurrent expansion of ice-marginal melt-lakes, has increased by an order of magnitude since 1987. Melt-lake expansion is partly the product of greatly accelerated ablation of older, ice-cored twentieth-century moraines. The timing of these changes broadly coincides with reported increases in atmospheric and sea-surface temperatures around other sub-Antarctic islands, but correlates less well with changes along the northern Antarctic Peninsula, where warming has been more rapid. These recent changes in landscape character and geomorphological processes have implications for geodiversity, biodiversity, and cultural heritage values in this World Heritage Area. If the causal climatic warming is anthropogenic, it reinforces the fact that even the most remote and littlevisited nature conservation reserves may be compromised by off-site human impacts, confronting management authorities with difficult philosophical and practical issues.

The roots of a British Antarctic policy can be traced, paradoxically, back to the establishment of a meteorological station by the Scottish Antarctic Expedition in the South Orkneys, in 1903, and the indifference of the British Government to its almost immediate transfer to the Argentine Government. It was from that modest physical presence upon Laurie Island that Argentina came increasingly to challenge British claims to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands Dependencies (FID), first in the late 1920s and then more extensively in the second world war. This challenge shaped British policy for the next forty years, with further complications caused by overlapping territorial claims made by Chile and the possible territorial ambitions of the USA. Britain's eventual response, at the height of World War II, was to establish permanent occupation of Antarctica from the southern summer of 1943–1944. This occupation was given the military codename Operation Tabarin. However, it was never a military operation as such, although monitoring the activities of enemy surface raiders and submarines provided a convenient cover story, as did scientific research once the operation became public. Whilst successive parties, rich in professional scientists, considerably expanded the pre-war survey and research of the Discovery Investigations Committee, their physical occupancy of the Antarctic islands and Peninsula was essentially a political statement, whereby the Admiralty and Colonial Office (CO) strove to protect British territorial rights, whilst the Foreign Office (FO) endeavoured to minimise disruption to Britain's long-standing economic and cultural ties with Argentina, and most critically, the shipment of war-time meat supplies. In meeting that immediate need, Tabarin also provided the basis from which Britain's subsequent post-war leadership in Antarctic affairs developed.

Radiocarbon age determinations on shells of the common mussel (Mytilus edulis) show that this species was present in central East Greenland from approximately 9500 to 5400 cal. years BP. It probably arrived first at the outer coast, at a time when the inner parts of the fjords were still occupied by glaciers. After perhaps a millennium it spread to the central fjord region where it lived for at least three millennia. The former occurrence of Mytilus edulis indicates higher sea surface temperatures than at present and more extensive fjord water, which may have been a consequence of higher summer insolation, perhaps amplified by changes in atmospheric circulation, bringing more warm air masses to the north. The timing of the Holocene thermal maximum in the lowlands of East Greenland was later than recorded in the Renland ice core. This delay was probably related to the continuing recession of the margin of the Greenland ice sheet in the early Holocene. The lingering decaying ice meant that large lowland areas were still ice covered, and other areas were cooled by the ice.

The admission of China as an observer in the Arctic Council in 2013 was a significant step in the ongoing evolution of the country's Arctic policy, but Beijing is still concerned about being accepted as a regional player given its geography and arguably lack of an Arctic history. As the Arctic becomes more open to scientific and economic engagement, China wishes to develop the idea of the Arctic as more of an international space as opposed to strictly a regional one, and to allow non-Arctic states, such as China itself, to become accepted as Arctic actors. However, in order to avoid a backlash from the Arctic states and potential exclusion from the region's development, Beijing cannot effectively be a unilateral ‘norm-maker’ in the Arctic. Instead, China has sought to develop the identity of a regional ‘norm entrepreneur’, engaging the Arctic on many levels to promote the norm of partnerships between Arctic and non-Arctic actors to promote positive sum outcomes. Through engagement via several areas and governmental levels, Beijing hopes to succeed in being widely viewed as a ‘near-Arctic state’ which can contribute to new norms, and possibly new regimes, in an Arctic which shows many signs of becoming further internationalised.

Evidence from colony surveys and local Inuit knowledge strongly suggest that the Canadian population of ivory gulls (Pagophila eburnea) has declined dramatically. The observations of ivory gulls at sea presented here are consistent with this. Ivory gulls were observed during two cruises on the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov in the eastern Canadian high Arctic in August 1993 and 2002. Ivory gulls were seen 3.5 times more often in 1993 (n = 176) than in 2002 (n = 149), and, corrected for observation effort, four times more ivory gulls were seen in 1993 than in 2002. Ivory gulls are scavengers: they were never observed feeding on fish behind the vessel while ice-breaking, although black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) often were seen feeding in this way. Ivory gulls were observed scavenging around polar-bear (Ursus maritimus) kills in 1993 but not in 2002. By far the largest number of ivory gulls was seen near Grise Fiord in 1993. There, opportunities for them to scavenge were likely good at the community landfill as well as at Inuit and polar-bear kills due to complete ice coverage of the surrounding marine area. No ivory gulls were seen there in 2002. Observations of four individuals in 1993 and five individuals in 2002 near the southern end of Eureka Sound and in Norwegian Bay, 150 km from the nearest known breeding colonies, suggest that as yet undiscovered colonies might exist in this area. With three lines of evidence (colony surveys, local Inuit knowledge, at-sea surveys) now indicating population decline, urgent reassessment of the status of ivory gulls in Canada needs to take place.

This article summarises the history of the discovery of emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri colonies. Emperor penguins were probably first seen on James Cook's second voyage (1773–1775) but were not recorded as a separate species until 1844. The first breeding colony of these birds was found in 1902 and a further 32 were sighted over the next century. The total number of colonies is still unknown but today satellite technology is aiding the process of discovery.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic MarineLiving Resources has met annually since 1982, with the task of implementing the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources; the treaty which was designed to manage rationally the exploitation of resources in the Southern Ocean. The central resource of the region is Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba Dana) and despite nine years of meetings the Commission has yet to adopt any conservation measures to protect krill. This article examines the published work of the Commission, seeking to determine how the Commission has dealt with the krill fishery and why it has not yet developed a krill management plan.

The traditional methods of studying the marine biology of any coastline almost always involve the collection of plants and animals when the shore is exposed by the fluctuation of the tides. In the Antarctic, however, intertidal collecting is generally impossible due to the continuous abrasive action of floating ice, which scours this zone clean. Further difficulties are encountered in areas where fast ice extends out directly into the water, leaving no intertidal zone exposed. Thus our knowledge of the marine plants and animals of the Antarctic has been obtained largely through the use of the dredge. Skottsberg, in 1906, provided the first indication that there was, below the action of the ice, a rich growth of large marine algae. Unfortunately the bulk of his collections were lost when the Antarctic, the ship of the ill-fated Swedish Antarctic Expedition, 1901–03, was crushed and sunk by pack ice.

The north of Yakutia has long been known to be an immense storehouse of frozen disjointed bones of many hundreds of thousands of large Pleistocene mammals—mammoths, horses, woolly rhinoceroses, bison, musk-oxen— “horned cattle”, as the first Russian travellers called them. Such knowledge had a commercial value, of whichmore will be said below, for the quarrying of mammoth ivory has gone on for many centuries. In quality these tusks, which have lain in frozen ground for tens of millennia, are as good as those of modern African and Indian elephants and are sometimes two or three times larger. For naturalists, the greatest interest lies in the discovery of whole frozen bodies or of skulls and complete skeletons. Study of the position of these bodiesand their morphology and of the contents of their stomachs and intestines may answer the age-old question of why the mammoth (or woolly elephant), together with this rich assemblage of large herbivores, died out. Would even a partial restoration of such previously abundant life be possible there today?

This article compares Russian–Western cooperation in the Arctic and Space, with a focus on why cooperation continued after the 2014 annexation of Crimea. On the basis of this comparative approach, continued cooperation is linked to the following factors: (1) the Arctic and Space are remote and extreme environments; (2) they are militarised but not substantially weaponised; (3) they both suffer from ‘tragedies of the commons’; (4) Arctic and Space-faring states engage in risk management through international law-making; (5) Arctic and Space relations rely on consensus decision-making; (6) Arctic and Space relations rely on soft law; (7) Arctic states and Space-faring states interact within a situation of ‘complex interdependence’; (8) Russia and the United States are resisting greater Chinese involvement in these regions. The article concludes with the following contribution to international relations theory: The more that states need to cooperate in a particular region or issue-area, and the more they become accustomed to doing so, the more resilient that cooperation will become to tensions and breakdowns in other regions and issue-areas. This phenomenon can be termed ‘complex and resilient interdependence’, to signify that complex independence is more than a description. It can, sometimes, affect the course of state-to-state relations.

The principal field activity of the A.N.A.R.E. party at Mawson during the 1957–58 summer was the determination of ice thickness along a section of the Antarctic plateau. In previous years the summer expeditions inland had concentrated on the survey and geology of the Prince Charles Mountains, south-east of Mawson. While this programme was continued in 1957–58 as opportunity presented, and in fact air photography of the ranges almost completed, the main I.G.Y. field effort was directed towards seismic ice-depth determinations. These were the responsibility of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, and a seismologist was seconded to the Antarctic Division, together with equipment for the purpose.

The traverse made lay southwards from Mawson, following approximately the meridian 62° 08′ E. It was known from prior air reconnaissance that a south-westerly spur of the Prince Charles Mountains system cut across the route in the vicinity of lat. 73° to 74° S., but the exact location was unknown. The intention was to map this spur, then skirt it to the west and resume the seismic traverse southwards.

Despite its numerous valuable contributions to Arctic governance, throughout its history the Arctic Council (AC) has been subject to criticism and reform proposals from academic, non-governmental and practitioner communities alike. In order to inform this ongoing debate, the paper evaluates the proposals that have been presented for the AC thus far. The proposals are grouped into three clusters: legal reforms, organisational reforms and functional reforms. Each of them is examined in terms of its applicability and usefulness to the case of the AC, and specifically its suitability given the prevailing conditions in the Arctic. What the conducted analysis reveals is that the ideas regarding means to enhance the AC’s effectiveness can be largely attributed to the assumptions their proponents make—oftentimes implicitly—about the nature of state actors and international relations more broadly, without attending to the particular conditions of the case study at hand. This is an important inference, given the unrelenting change happening in both Arctic and global socio-environmental settings that calls into question the usefulness of past modes of thinking and forms of international cooperation. Far from offering solutions, their continuous application in particular circumstances might even impede progress in addressing present and future challenges.

This article attempts to reconcile the fact that fishing has been and continues to be a large part of the Gwich'in local economy with the fact that fishing has been neglected in both popular and scientific accounts of Gwich'in practice. The article puts forth an explanation for why fishing has been neglected while at the same time documenting the corpus of fishing activities included in the yearly round. It also situates fishing as an important, but largely underestimated, part of the Canadian fur trade and explains how fish came to be used by traders and Gwich'in in a system of advances that benefited both parties. As a so-called secondary activity, fishing is entangled in Gwich'in history and their current way of life, and this article challenges the idea that it can be easily separated from other land based activities.

Captain Scott has been criticised for indecisiveness and for not making use of the dog teams for his own relief in his Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913). This essay will demonstrate how a mistake made in Roland Huntford's double biography of Scott and Amundsen in 1979, repeated in polar writing by various authors until the present day, has maligned Scott's reputation. In fact, Scott left appropriate written orders in October 1911 for the polar party's relief by the dog teams, orders that were not subsequently implemented by the men at base. A re-examination of the actions and roles of two expedition members in particular, Lieutenant E.R.G.R. Evans and Surgeon Edward Atkinson, suggests strongly that misjudgements back at Cape Evans led to the failure of the mission to rescue Scott and his polar party. In this account all distances are in geographical miles.

Since the end of the Cold War, cooperative and region-building endeavours involving Arctic governments and peoples have flourished. These efforts have been rooted in a desire to pursue northern sustainable development and in assertions about the shared experiences and values of Arctic states and peoples. In this paper, a case study is presented concerning a Canadian development project designed to promote Canadian sustainable economic development models to indigenous and non-indigenous leaders and bureaucrats in the Russian north. In their efforts to move knowledge across northern borders, the Canadian project team relied clearly upon two central discourses of the Arctic region-building process: a common Arctic space and the shared pursuit of sustainable development. Drawing upon over thirty qualitative interviews and a year of participant observation at project events, the aim of this article is to map the currency and reach of these Arctic regional discourses at a more ‘local’ level amongst the Russian and Canadian Arctic residents involved in the project. The continuing debate during this development project over what Arctic regionalism and sustainable development mean in practice calls into question a key assertion of contemporary region-building rhetoric, the assumption or hopeful injunction that not only is a regional landscape or environment shared but that values and experiences are, or will come to be, shared as well.

The cause of the phenomenally high winds recorded by Sir Douglas Mawson's party at Cape Denison during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911–14 (Mawson, 1939), and by the French expedition to Port Martin in 1950–51 (Boujon, 1954) has never been satisfactorily explained. As indicated in the Table, the annual mean wind recorded at those stations, 71·1 and 64·6 km per h respectively, is about 70 per cent greater than recorded elsewhere around the coast at stations fully exposed to katabatic flow, notably Mirny and Mawson. Admittedly, the total number of coastal stations is small, considering the length of the Antarctic coastline, and one cannot exclude the possibility that similar very strong winds prevail in other places. Nevertheless, the figures for Cape Denison and Port Martin are notable, if not unique, and the question arises why this should occur on the coast of Terre Adélie.

During the last decades, scholarly studies on Arctic identities have been on the increase, but less is known about how academic viewpoints diverge from aboriginal perspectives. The aim of this article is to compare both points of view, by looking at the way some academic specialists define Arctic identities, in contrast — or convergence — with how one Arctic people, the Inuit, perceive who they are. Twelve scholars conducting social research in the north and recognised for their competence were interviewed on their definition of identity and their assessment of the current situation of Arctic aboriginal populations. Their responses show that they view identity as a relational and constructed process, a process that continues without much disruption despite rapid social and cultural change. As modern Inuit are concerned, ethnography and personal testimonies tend to show that they perceive identity as an open-ended and individual — as opposed to collective — relationship rather than as a way of classifying people. Inuit perceptions agree on some points — the relational aspects for instance — but diverge on others — for example, the primarily individual nature of identity — from those of the interviewed scholars, and they should be taken into account in any assessment of the current human situation in the Arctic.

The Arctic Ocean is the home of three major groups of mammals that depend on the sea for survival and show varying degrees of adaptation for maritime life. Most fully adapted are the whales (Cetacea), which never leave the water, and the seals and walruses (Pinnipedia) that feed entirely at sea but emerge onto land or ice for pupping and basking. Less exclusively marine are two species of the order Carnivora—Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus), that seldom live far from the sea because they feed almost entirely upon seals, and Arctic Foxes (Alopex lagopus), some of which move out onto the sea ice during the winter, mainly to scavenge on the remains of seals killed by Polar Bears.

During the last decade, aboriginal peoples in Russia have sought to improve their legal rights, including their rights to their homelands and the resources of these lands. The Russian government initially responded to an aboriginal lobby by including discrete articles addressing aboriginal rights in a number of its laws, including those on forests, sub-surface resources, and protected areas. More comprehensive laws, specifically addressing aboriginal rights to land, were finally adopted at the turn of the twenty-first century, in 1999, 2000, and 2001. This article summarizes the rights of aboriginal peoples regarding land ownership/tenure, access to natural resources (renewable and sub-surface), and protection of ancestral lands, in the light of the new federal legislation. It also notes how the federal laws' provisions concur with international requirements for aboriginal land rights.