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.

The International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere Program is coordinating intensive measurements of the Arctic Atmosphere in Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland, Sweden and the U.S. The focus of the program is to combine information so that it can be determined WHY and not just HOW the atmosphere is affecting Arctic climate change). The activities and partnerships initiated during the IPY are expected to continue for decades.

The University of the Arctic (UArctic) will provide and coordinate IPY higher education and outreach activities and services. The UArctic IPY office is located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Our aim is to provide opportunities for Arctic indigenous people and northern residents to be active IPY participants through UArctic education programs and IPY research projects. During IPY, UArctic’s objective is to increase the participation of indigenous people and northern residents of all ages in education and research, with the ultimate, longer-term goal of increasing their representation in the ranks of scholars who have attained the Ph.D.

"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."

Human Health in Arctic Regions The AHHI is an Arctic Council IPY (2007-2008) project that will focus on the health disparities that still exist among residents of Arctic communities when compared to communities in more temporate regions, and the human health challenges that are posed by climate change, environmental pollution, and sustainable development in Arctic regions. Research will be conducted in the US Arctic (Alaska), northern Canada, Greenland/Denmark, Iceland, Norway Finland, Sweden and northern Regions of the Russian Federation.

Narwhal Tusk Research combines the talents of fifty-one scientists around the world with the Traditional Knowledge of forty three Inuit hunters to discover the unique characteristics of nature’s most extraordinary expression of teeth. Initiated five years ago the ongoing expeditions and scientific analyses continue to discover new findings of a tooth that have unlocked clues from evolution to global warming.

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."

Three terrestrial components of the cryosphere: snow cover, permafrost, and small glaciers will be studied as well as their interactions with society and potential feedbacks to the Global Earth System. Within each area of research the foci of studies will be on the models’ development and creation of conditions for seamless their implementation to improve understanding and projections of environmental change and to serve numerous practical applications.