At the present time, only Antarctica and Greenland carry ice sheets comparable with the ice sheets that covered vast areas of the Northern Hemisphere as recently as 20 000 years ago. At the time of maximum glaciation, some 300 000 years ago, the volume of ice on earth was three times what it is today, and it covered the northern parts of continents all around the Arctic Ocean. In North America, ice stretched south as far as Kansas; in Europe, it extended down ot the River Thames and the Sudety mountains and covered much of Siberia. Even now, the Antarctic ice sheet covers an area of 12 million km2 and in places reaches depths of more than 4 km. The smaller Greenland ice sheet has an area of 1.8 million km2 and exceeds 3 km in depth.

The personal papers of Admiral Dufek, former Antarctic Projects Officer of the United States Department of Defense, provide insights into the political negotiations (May 1958 to October 1959) that immediately preceded the international Antarctic Conference and prepared the way for the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. The papers, lodged with the University of Syracuse, disclose information hitherto unpublished on the first 26 preparatory meetings, with interesting sidelights recording the attitudes of the 12 governments taking part in the discussions, and showing the origins of the draft treaty from which the Antarctic Treaty evolved.

Beauchêne Island was visited by HMS Protector on 22 December 1962, when the coastline was delineated by radar, and vertical photographs taken from a helicopter. A party landed by boat on the east coast, near to the southern end of the island, and walked about much of the coastline but failed to penetrate far into the tussock grass covering the interior. On this occasion no trained naturalist was in the party, but on two later visits by Protector, on 2 December 1963 and 6 December 1964, the author was fortunate in being present and in landing.

The thermodynamic conditions within the active layer overlaying perennially frozen ground and in ground subjected to seasonal frost are such that there is continuing translocation of water and ice and the displacement of soil particles. The introduction of an immiscible hydrocarbon contaminant (Arctic diesel fuel) into this dynamic porous medium results in microstructural changes that take place as a function of both cryogenic processes and contaminant concentration. Micromorphological and scanning electron microscope observations combined with image analysis revealed evidence of reorganisation of silt microfabric and changes to intra-particle porosity. The degree of interaggregate porosity increased as a function of increasing concentration of the hydrocarbon contaminant. Intra-particle porosity within individual soil aggregates was observed to decrease as a function of increasing contaminant concentration.

Waders are among the most characteristic birds breeding in Arctic regions. The group includes species such as the Knot Calidris canutus and Turnstone Arenaria interpres whose breeding distribution spreads to the. most northerly points of land in the world, along the shores of Greenland and Ellesmere Island bordering the Arctic Ocean. To succeed, these species must be highly adapted to their environment, able to fit all the events of the nesting season—territorial procurement, laying, incubation and hatching of eggs, and raising of young—into the short Arctic summer, able to withstand extremes of weather and fluctuations in food supply, and to avoid the attentions of mammalian and avian predators. To exploit their Arctic niche, these birds make long and spectacular migrations from a wintering area where climate and food supply are suitable for subsistence but not for reproduction. Owing to the remoteness of the Arctic breeding areas, details of the migrations of these species have remained obscure or undocumented until relatively recently. This article describes the development of research on wader migration in Britain and the research expeditions which have taken place since 1970 to various Arctic, sub-Arctic (and sub-tropical) areas, and which together have clarified or solved many aspects of the migration of species wintering in Europe. Some of the features of the migration of the Knot are discussed in particular, as a representative species of the group.

This note considers the 10–11th March 2013 Falkland Islands referendum. As accredited observers, the authors were granted access not only to the work of the international observation mission but also the actual organisation of the referendum itself. The background to the referendum is explained and thereafter the result and longer-term significance is considered. Notwithstanding Argentine opposition to the referendum, the latter was widely considered within the Falkland Islands and beyond to be the most significant event since the 1982 South Atlantic conflict.

The preambles of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty and the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic state that Antarctica is to be managed in the interest of all mankind. However, key phrases such as ‘interest of all mankind’ and ‘wilderness and aesthetic values’ are subject to interpretation. The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of public perceptions of the Antarctic wilderness, proceeding from the assumption that public views should be incorporated into the consultative parties’ decision making process. The study expands on previous research by exploring whether perceptions of the Antarctic environment varied between students at two comparably sized public universities in Spain and the United States. Four hundred undergraduate students were asked about their values, beliefs and attitudes with respect to environmental management practices in Antarctica. After controlling for course type, responses showed little variation based on nationality. A large proportion of students valued Antarctica as a science laboratory for the benefit of mankind, as one of the world's last great wildernesses, and an important component of the climate system. Students did not support an increase in the number of people going to Antarctica, and favoured limitations on infrastructure development.

Evidence for the disturbance of king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) and other seabirds at sub-Antarctic islands by fixed-wing aircraft making airdrops is reviewed. Based on direct observations of panicking birds at king penguin colonies at Marion Island as Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft flew past, it is postulated that the incident at Macquarie Island in 1990 when many king penguins were found dead shortly after a flypast was most likely caused by panic induced by the aircraft's passage. Visits by fixed-wing aircraft to sub-Antarctic islands should be kept to a minimum and no airstrips should be built on them. Specific recommendations are given for fixed-wing aircraft visits to Marion Island, in order to reduce disturbance to king penguins and other seabirds to the absolute minimum. These recommendations should be adopted at all sub-Antarctic islands.

This paper identifies education, skills training and improved social infrastructure as key development issues to address population decline in regions of steady out-migration from the Russian Arctic. Migration flows have mostly stabilised after the sharp and unexpectedly large population decline in the Arctic in the 1990s, during the transition to a market economy. However, the trends set in motion during that collapse, including falling general levels of education, declining size of all but the largest cities, and ageing of the populace, are becoming more serious for some regions, even where government resettlement programmes exist. As young professionals continue to leave, resettling compatriots and hiring shift labour may contribute to the vitality of more resilient regions, for example, Krasnoyarsk and Yamalo-Nenets. However, the European part of the Russian Arctic, despite its critical importance to commerce and to military security, and despite assistance programmes and subsidies, is conforming more to the ageing, less productive contours of neighbouring Arctic states on the periphery of Europe.

In the ambitious strategy of Greenland to attract foreign companies to engage in extractive industries as a means to create increased national independence the question of minerals emerges as pivotal. The article investigates how two prominent Greenlandic premiers (2009–2014) translated hard rock into soft human welfare in a complex post-colonial context. The article develops the concept of “brokers of hope” which points the analytical attention to the entrepreneurial activities of future- and people-makers in a dense field of indigenous politics. By linking this concept to the idea of “resource materialities” it becomes possible to see resources as relational assemblages that are in a constant state of becoming and also to examine how different engagements with substances can make certain political struggles and political systems legitimate. Furthermore, the article investigates how these “brokers of hope” use the Chinese interests, and ideas of new cooperation with Chinese partners to underpin the intrinsic motivation to create new beginnings and thus to transform existing asymmetrical relations between Denmark and Greenland. This process is conceptualised as “double orientalism”. The article points out how hope and promise in two quite different ways are creatively used to make the future work in the present and how people and nations are made up in that process.

Despite five difficult and distinguished scientific expeditions to Svalbard and Franz Josef Land between 1871 and 1882, the British yachtsman and explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith published no detailed account of his expeditions. Best known for a dramatic shipwreck at Cape Flora in Franz Josef Land in 1881, his early work in Svalbard — particularly his first effort when he developed the Arctic voyaging and scientific techniques he would employ on his subsequent expeditions — has received scant attention. In the summer of 1871, Leigh Smith launched the first of three consecutive annual geographic and oceanographic explorations of Svalbard. His unpublished 1871 journal details his growing appreciation of and expertise in the European high Arctic; corrects misstatements in later accounts of this first effort; details his exploration of Hinlopenstretet and the discovery and naming of Brochøya, Foynøya, and 31 other points in northeast Svalbard; and offers glimpses of an explorer who kept his personality well-hidden behind pioneering oceanographic and geographic observations of Svalbard and its surrounding seas.

This article addresses knowledge management in governing vulnerable polar areas and tourism. Since the 1870s, Svalbard has been a cruise tourism destination. Due to less ice during the summer period, the number of tourists visiting the remote northeast corner of the archipelago has increased significantly, and the potential negative impact on this vulnerable natural environment has become an issue. The standard modes of managing these areas have either been to apply the precautionary principle or measures based on scientific evidence. As management models, however, both principles are contested for a number of reasons. This paper argues for a third model that is partly based on a form of monitoring knowledge that has circulated in ‘communities of practice’ and that has been developed over time. This form of knowledge constitutes viable expertise for the governing and management of the environment-tourism nexus in the area, but it needs to be acknowledged as a complementary management platform. This article demonstrates how such monitoring can be done, and it suggests some principles for the development of monitoring knowledge for administrative and management purposes.

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) is an important legacy of the International Polar Year (IPY). APECS continues to foster engagement in education, outreach and communication (EOC) activities relating to the polar regions and provide training for early career researchers (ECRs). We highlight opportunities for training, leadership and skills development, such as the annual Polar Weeks and Antarctica Day celebrations. Participation and engagement in EOC activities actively contributes to career development by enabling ECRs to develop valuable soft skills such as networking, communication and interdisciplinary knowledge. A pilot survey on EOC engagement highlighted that those who organise events also gain leadership skills such as team management. We discuss several factors contributing to the success of APECS in training the next generation of polar leaders. These include the geographical rather than discipline-specific focus of the organisation, utilisation of online resources, including social media, and the strong links with partner organisations. These examples demonstrate how the EOC legacy of IPY has continued due to APECS’ targeted efforts to create EOC opportunities and provide skills and leadership training for ECRs.

The Arctic region is widely recognised to be one of the most sensitive to climate change. Here, the consequences of current trends will be felt most keenly; ice cap melting and thinning and the consequent implications for sea level rise and loss of habitat may be profound. Yet these regions remain amongst the most poorly chronicled. Recent advances in satellite monitoring and instrumental observations now provide valuable information, but this record extends over little more than half a century. For earlier times, the record is, at best, patchy and inconsistent. This is not, however, to imply that all such data and information have been recognised and fully exploited. This is far from the case and this paper draws attention to largely overlooked documentary sources that can extend our knowledge of the far North Atlantic climate back to the late eighteenth century. These documents consist of the logbooks of sailing ships navigating those hazardous waters in the late eighteenth and early- to mid-nineteenth centuries.

This paper focuses specifically on those logbooks kept on board Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) ships on their regular annual voyages between the UK and Hudson's Bay between 1760 and 1870. The information they contain is shown to be detailed, reliable and of unique character for the period and place. The style and form of presentation of the logbooks is reviewed and particularly those aspects that deal with the daily meteorological information they contain. Attention is also drawn to the high degree of homogeneity found in the logbooks in terms of presentation and methods of preparation, rendering them directly and helpfully comparable one with another. A specific example is offered of the benefits of using these data and it is proposed that this set of logbooks, when taken collectively and, embracing as it does over a century from 1750 provides a matchless, substantial and uniformly reliable source of oceanic weather information for the far North Atlantic for what can be regarded as the ‘pre-instrumental’ period (before 1850).

Due to poor weather conditions including common heavy cloud cover at polar latitudes, daily satellite imaging is not always accessible. Nevertheless, fast events including heavy rainfall inducing floods appear as significant in the ice and snow budget while being ignored by satellite based studies since the slower sampling rate is unable to observe such short phenomena. We complement satellite imagery with a set of ground based autonomous automated high resolution digital cameras. The recorded oblique views, acquired at a rate of 3 images per day, are processed for comparison with the spaceborne imagery. Delaunay triangulation based mapping using a dense set of reference points provides the means for an accurate projection by applying a rubber sheeting algorithm. The measurement strategy of identifying binary information of ice and snow cover is illustrated through the example of a particular flood event. We observe a snow cover evolution from 100% to 44.5% and back to 100% over a period of 2 weeks.

The flaws of the 20th century–type development ‘mega–projects’ in the circumpolar North prompt Arctic regions actively to search for alternative strategies of regional development that break away from resource–dependency and reconcile local (traditional) societies with the realities of post–Fordism and globalisation. This paper presents a study that focuses on the notion of creative capital (CC) and assesses its ability to foster economic development in Alaska. The findings suggest that some characteristics of the CC observed in Alaskan communities are similar to those found in southern regions, whereas others are distinct (but similar to those in the Canadian North). In Alaska, the synergy between cultural economy, entrepreneurship and leadership appear to be more important in characterising creative capacities than formal education. The geographical distribution of the CC is uneven and heavily clustered in economically, geographically and politically privileged northern urban centres. However, some remote regions also demonstrate considerable levels of creative potential, in particular associated with the aboriginal cultural capital (artists, crafters, etc.). A number of Alaskan regions, creative ‘hot spots’, could become places that can benefit from alternative strategies of regional development based on CC, knowledge–based and cultural economies.