IPY 2007-2008

RESEARCH CONFERENCES

ESF-VR-FORMAS Conference on Global Change Research

Global Environmental Change: The Role of the Arctic Region

Utsikten Meetings, Nynäshamn * Sweden

13-17 October 2007

Chair: Jörn Thiede, Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), DE

Dramatic and manyfold news of changes in the Arctic (destruction of permafrost landscapes, shrinkage and thinning of the Arctic sea ice cover, reduction of the Greenland ice sheet) make us wonder what all of this will mean for the world. The presently ongoing International Polar Year offers a unique chance to assess the modern processes which alter marine and terrestrial environments in the Arctic and which control the quality of life of Arctic indigenous and non-indigenous populations. New coring records demonstrate that the Arctic was ice-free during the Early Tertiary, but that during mid-Tertiary it had cooled enough to acquire its first ice covers.

The Pleistocene ice cores from Greenland have demonstrated fast and dramatic changes of the atmospheric circulation over the Arctic whose imprint have also been traced in oceanic and terrestrial paleoclimate records from low latitudes. Only the ongoing warm climatic phase (the Holocene) seems to have been relatively stable.

Modelling Arctic climates and ocean environments suggests the complete dissappearance of the Arctic sea ice cover over the coming century. Hence questions are asked what is in store for the future, for the entire Arctic and its people, its lands and seas, as well as for the entire world. And the conference will assess if credible answers can be found.

Sessions will address the following topics: 1. The Contemporary Arctic 2. The Arctic in the Past 3. The Arctic in the Earth System 4. Future Climate Change: Consequences for the Arctic. Contributed talks are encouraged.

Invited Speakers will include:

L. Anderson, Gothenburg U., SE
J. Box, BPRC, US
T. Callahan, LDEO, SE
M. Claussen, MPI, DE
R. Corell, Former Head of Legal Issues at the United Nations, US
D. Dahl Jensen, NBI, DK
D. Darby, Old Dominion U., US
J. Dowdeswell, SPRI, UK
P. Egerton, ESF, FR
J. Fluckiger, ETH, CH
M. Grigoriev, RAS, RU
P. Groisman, NCDC, US
K. Hastrup, Copenhagen U., DK

M. Holland, NCAR, US
G. Hovelsrud, CICERO, NO
H.-W. Hubberten, AWI, DE
M. Jacobsson, Stockholm U., SE

I. Krupnik, Smithsonian Inst., US
K. Lambeck, ANU, AU
P. Langen, Copenhagen U., DK

J.N. Larsen, SVS, IS
K. Law, CNRS, FR
P. Lemke, AWI, DE
J. Mangerud, Bergen U., NO
S. Marshall, Calgary U., CA
T. Moore, Michigan U., US
H. Petersen, Copenhagen U., DK

C. Prentice, Bristol U., UK
G. Ramstein, CEA, FR
K. Richardson, Copenhagen U., DK
P. Schlosser, LDEO, US
A. Sher, RAS, RU
S. Sörlin, KTH, SE
T. Sterner, Gothenburg U., SE
J. Ström, Stockholm U., SE
K. Sturm, BCCR, NO
H. Svensmark, DTU, DK
D. Thompson, Colorado State U., US
M. Truffer, Alaska U., US


Application Form & Programme available from www.esf.org/conferences/07240

Closing Date for Application extended to 17 August 2007

European Science Foundation I Research Conferences Unit

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