Northern Material Culture through International Polar Year Collections, Then and Now: In the Footsteps of Murdoch and Turner This project is a modern version of the ethnological collecting by the 1st International Polar Year (IPY) expeditions to Pt. Barrow, Alaska and Fort Chimo in Quebec. It will involve Northern community residents, including students. Current material culture will be documented with digital photograpy and gathering of information on how the items are made and used. Educators can incorporate this into broader educational activities, which will expose students to the Arctic, Northern peoples and Arctic research history.

"What does it mean for an bird to be sick? How does this affect not only survival but also reproduction. In short, the aim of the project is: The role of parasites and pathogens in determining the size and distribution of arctic and antarctic bird populations. 1. Study geographic variation in infections, parasite loads, viral prevalence, immune system functioning 2. Study the effects of infections, parasites, viruses and immune response on fitness parameters and energetics of individually marked birds 3. Link the observed trends to pathogen-host (or parasite-host) interaction, dynamics of the pool of pathogens and pollution levels. 4. Modelling future scenario’s of geographic variation and relating the findings to climate change, nature management and human health."

Informing, educating and involving the next generation is vital to the success of IPY. The YSC is committed to maximizing the benefit of IPY for the world’s youth through youth involvement and youth-focused education and outreach information. Some YSC projects include an international youth conference (2008), an educational website (on-going) and a joint expedition series to both poles (2007-2008).

PPS Arctic: Present day processes, Past changes, and Spatiotemporal variability of biotic, abiotic and socio-environmental conditions and resource components along and across the Arctic delimitation zone. PPS Arctic investigates the causes and consequences of changes in the circumarctic treeline zone, using fieldwork and remote sensing to study and model temporal and spatial aspects of ecological, social and cultural factors. Changes in the zone affect Arctic ecosystem processes, resource availability and the entire Arctic climate through changes in tree and shrub cover and in albedo, with global consequences.

"Antarctic Sea Ice in IPY is the coordinated project for the sea ice zone surrounding Antarctica, covering over 20 million sqkm (the size of South America) at maximum extent. Our purpose is to determine, for the first time, the circumpolar year-round sea ice thicknesses in this zone. This effort requires extensive ship investigations, coordinated satellite monitoring and use of underwater technologies such as up looking sonar from moorings and use of unmanned autonomous underwater vehicles. The reflectivity or albedo of the earth's surface represents one of the main determinants of surface temperature and, Antarctic sea ice as one of the most large-scale changeable sources of reflected solar energy therefore represents a major contributor to climate and climate change."

Polar field stations have been a key part of polar research for the past two centuries and one of the most tangible legacies of previous IPYs, yet they have been little studied. This novel project will look at field stations, both as sites of production of scientific knowledge in the field, and as flag carriers and symbols of geopolitical and diplomatic conflict and cooperation.

In 2004, undergraduates of the University of South Carolina and informal educators of EdVenture Children’s Museum created a “Go Polar Festival” to bring the science, history, culture and politics of the polar regions to children and families. Funding is being sought to create an international “Go Polar Network” by training educators from museums, zoos, aquariums and science centers in order to deliver enhanced versions of the Polar Festival in parallel with IPY.

The Arctic coastal zone is sensitive to changes in marine, atmospheric, and terrestrial systems. Variations in sea ice extent, wave and storm intensity, air and water temperatures, and ground ice content affect the rate and magnitude of coastal change. A very sparsely populated region, the Arctic coastline is poorly observed when compared to temperate and tropical coastal zones, despite the fact that human systems in the Arctic are located in and dependent on processes in the coastal zone. The Arctic coastal zone needs to be monitored, both as a barometer for global change and for its human relevance. The international effort to align coastal observations in the Arctic is led by the Arctic Circumpolar Coastal Observatory Network (ACCO-Net). ACCO-Net includes a network of key sites setup by the Arctic Coastal Dynamics (ACD) project of the IASC, and 17 International Polar Year (IPY) projects from around the Arctic. ACCO-Net provides three categories of support to an SAON: 1) a network of regional experts responsible for running observations; 2) historical and current data in an Arctic circumpolar GIS database; and 3) a catalogue of site characteristics based on remotely sensed products. The regional experts have been assembled through IASC’s Arctic Coastal Dynamics project, and through the IPY project cluster on Arctic coastal observatories, which ACCO-Net leads. The coastal database is currently available in beta form, and includes a segmentation and classification of the circumpolar Arctic coastline. The current coastline used is the World Vector Shoreline, which has been divided into over 8000 segments on the basis of geomorphology, coastline position change rate, and ground composition, as well as other parameters. The GIS format allows searching and querying, and the database is currently mounted as an internet map server. The catalogue of site characteristics has two principle aspects: i) a monitoring template describing the primary and secondary monitoring parameters for each observatory site, and including links to standard operating procedures for each, and ii) standardized coastline position and digital elevation models for each observatory site, based on optical and infrared satellite data collected during IPY as part of the European Space Agency’s IPY program. ACCO-Net partner projects are currently selecting imagery for the catalogue and will co-ordinate their activities via a series of workshops supported by the International Space Science Institute.

LICHEN focuses on the languages and cultures of the northern circumpolar region. Faced with minority languages, governments have pursued policies of assimilation. This has applied to indigenous languages in Canada, to Gaelic and Scots in Scotland, and to Finnic minority languages in the Circumpolar region. The aim of the project is to create an electronic framework for the collection, management, online display, and exploitation of existing corpora of the languages of the circumpolar regions, which is also applicable to other corpora that represent regional, social and other varieties of languages.

The Network for ARCtic Climate and Biological DIVersity Studies (ARCDIV) is a multidisciplinary international research initiative. The project explores the diversity of ecosystem on Arctic archipelago Svalbard, central part of Isfjorden, Billefjorden and Petuniabukta, by integrating existing and new intensive measurements of key biological and physical variables and processes.