Save the date! Announcing the IPY International Early Career Researcher Symposium from 4 Dec 2009 to 8 Dec 2009 in Victoria, B.C., Canada. The Symposium is organized in conjunction with the 2009 ArcticNet Science Meeting, which will be held after the Symposium in Victoria. With the support of IPY Canada, ArcticNet, and the Northern Research Forum, the Symposium will bring together Arctic and Antarctic early career researchers from across the world with experts to build skills, knowledge, and networks. The workshop is based around seven themes: *Community-based research; *Funding your id...

Bremerhaven, July 2nd 2009. A new measurement system for the detection of whales is used for the first time on board of the research vessel Polarstern. Whales are usually difficult to spot. On the one hand, they spend the greater part of their life under water. On the other hand, only a small part of their body can be seen when they surface, and this can even hardly be distinguished from the surrounding water. Visual sightings by marine mammal observers are therefore usually based on observations of the spout, the condensing and quite warm breathing cloud. It rises, depending on the whale species and wind conditions, between one metre and ten metres over the water surface and remains visible for only a few seconds. A thermal imaging camera specifically optimized for this purpose now uses t...

Why are diatoms so successful? Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute find hints to this question in the algae's evolution. Bremerhaven, June 25th. Diatoms play a key role in the photosynthesis of the oceans and are therefore intensively studied. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association together with international collaborators have made a new discovery regarding the diatoms' photosynthesis. It has so far been believed that diatoms have inherited their photosynthetic capabilities exclusively from red algae. The molecular biologists have now shown that a significant part of the diatoms' genes originates from green algae. The photosynthetic cellular structure of the diatoms, the plastids, therefore combi...

First Announcement: 2010 State of the Arctic Conference Hyatt Regency Miami at the Miami Convention Center Miami, Florida 16-19 March 2010 Registration and other information will be coming soon via a State of the Arctic website. -------------------- The State of the Arctic Conference, to be held 16-19 March 2010 in Miami, Florida, will be an international meeting to present, exchange, and discuss the latest knowledge on the state of the Arctic and future directions of arctic science and policy. CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES The State of the Arctic Conference will review our understanding of the arctic system in a time of human-induced, rapid environmental change. It will provide an open interna...