Alpine and Arctic Research

The Olson site (5BL147) is a multi-component rock walled game drive located in the James Peak wilderness
area of Northern Colorado, USA. It is one part of a much larger game drive complex located at
Rollins Pass, situated above modern tree limit and along the Continental Divide, at approximately
3600 m above sea level. Byron Olson and James Benedict conducted work at the site in the late 1960s.We
combined their efforts with our recent field and lab work to produce a synthetic overview of the site. At
least 45 blinds and 1307 m of rock walls are present, to funnel game upslope to waiting hunters.
Radiocarbon and lichenometric dates suggest occupations spanning the last 3200 years, with diagnostic
tools suggesting even older use. Lithic analysis of the debitage and tools, from both excavated (blinds)
and surface contexts (intercept and processing areas), provides possible scenarios for the use of the site.
Large game drives of the Colorado alpine zone represent accumulated landscapes of artifacts and features,
the byproduct of many years of construction, use, and re-use, and built for a variety of reasons.

The notion of landscape provides an important theoretical and practical framework, able to highlight relevant aspects and trends characterizing the complex socio-economic, political, and cultural dynamics of our globalized era. In fact, globalization phenomena can even be observed at the level of our individual and social lives through the transformation of our landscapes, surroundings, and territories. To tackle the question “Whose Alps are these?” is foremost to highlight their ethical and political relevance by slightly modifying the query to: “To whom ought the Alps belong?” or “Who ought to be responsible for the Alps?” !e basic thesis of this article is that a conversion from is to ought has important theoretical and practical consequences for understanding the role played by landscape in the contemporary transformation of the places we inhabit. Indeed, landscape is a social construction involving individual and social freedoms and responsibilities. However, as underlined by the philosopher Hans Jonas, modernity upsets the equilibrium between these concepts and produces an irresponsible spread of freedom, which in turn has serious consequences for landscape and territorial planning and management. Such problematics require a reestablishment of humanity’s ethical and political duty to counterbalance indiscriminate freedom with responsibility. !e many cases of democratic and public participation processes currently taking place in the Alps may be interpreted as an e"ort to move in this direction.

We compared on eight dates during the ice-free period physicochemical properties and rates of phytoplankton and epipelic primary production in six arctic lakes dominated by soft bottom substrate.  Lakes were classified as shallow (z ̅ < 2.5 m), intermediate in depth (2.5 m < z ̅ < 4.5 m), and deep (z ̅ > 4.5 m), with each depth category represented by two lakes.  Although shallow lakes circulated freely and intermediate and deep lakes stratified thermally for the entire summer, dissolved oxygen concentrations were always >70% of saturation values.  Soluble reactive phosphorus and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN = NO3—N + NH4+–N) were consistently below the detection limit (0.05 μmol l-1) in five lakes.  However, one lake shallow lake (GTH 99) periodically showed elevated values of DIN (17 μmol l-1), total-P (0.29 μmol l-1), and total-N (33 μmol l-1), suggesting wind-generated sediment resuspension.  Due to increased nutrient availability or entrainment of microphytobenthos, GTH 99 showed the highest average volume-based values of phytoplankton chlorophyll a (chl a) and primary production, which for the six lakes ranged from 1.0 to 2.9 μg l-1 and 0.7-3.8 μmol C l-1 day-1.  Overall, however, increased z ̅ resulted in increased area-based values of phytoplankton chl a and primary production, with mean values for the three lake classes ranging from 3.6 to 6.1 mg chl a m-2 and 3.2-5.8 mmol C m-2 day-1.  Average values of epipelic chl a ranged from 131 to 549 mg m-2 for the three depth classes, but levels were not significantly different due to high spatial variability.  However, average epipelic primary production was significantly higher in shallow lakes (12.2 mmol C m-2 day-1) than in intermediate and deep lakes (3.4 and 2.4 mmol C m-2 day-1).  Total primary production (6.7-15.4 mmol C m-2 day-1) and percent contribution of the epipelon (31-66%) were inversely related to mean depth, such that values for both variables were significantly higher in shallow lakes than in intermediate or deep lakes.

Advanced modal analysis methods are integrated with seismic reconstructions, gravity/ magnetic, and well/core data, revealing the complex geo-history of Pangean organization, and its consequent tectonic break-up, mainly during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic 1,2. Sediment transport systems from orogenic Caledonian and Uralian terrains, as well as Fenno-Skandinavian shield areas, provide a wide variety of provenance signatures, as well clastic wedge basin fill sequences, recording the tectonic evolution of convergent margins creating the super-continent Pangea in this region. These sequences, are followed by rifting events related to the opening of the Arctic Ocean basins 3. Pronounced uplift and erosion episodes of Arctic Greenland-Norwegian continental margins also occur during these times of rifting. Such episodes are related to the lack of accommodation for Arctic sea-floor spreading rates, where the coupled continental margin drift rate is < ½ of the total ridge spreading rates, resulting in inversion displacement along pre-existing fault systems (inverse Beta motions). In more extreme cases, under-plating of the lithosphere, subduction and regional uplift can be realized over broad areas 4 , which would have significant implications for energy exploration in prospective basin areas, particularly where uplift/ erosion exceeds c. 1.5 km 5,6. These tectonically uplifted terrains may also contribute to the Earth's long-term climate shift from greenhouse to icehouse environmental conditions during the Cenozoic 7. The lack of accommodation for mainly North-South opening of the Arctic Ocean may be a global consequence of the predominant equatorial East-West spreading creating the Atlantic Ocean further South, including that of the Icelandic ridge system. This appears to be a common feature of Arctic continental margins, and possibly passive margins in general 8. Ultimately, this lack of accommodation may herald termination of the prevailing Wilson cycle 9 , where initiation of oceanic subduction below the uplifted continental margin followed by the transformation of passive continental margins into a convergent margin with thrust fault deformations, subduction, and volcanism, which begins the next super-continental cycle.

The attention to the Arctic is fuelled by the prospect of economic development, emerging shipping routes, and changing geopolitics. Since 1996 the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum for Arctic cooperation, has served to foster environmental protection and sustainable development in the region. The Arctic Council is composed of the eight Arctic states with territory north of the Arctic Circle and six Permanent Participants representing Arctic Indigenous People. Since its inception, the Arctic Council has admitted 13 non-Arctic Observer states. However, in 2021 three new candidates (Ireland, Czech Republic, and Estonia) were not successful with their applications despite proven records of Arctic research and influence in the region. This article will elaborate on the dynamics of Observer states admittance to the Arctic Council. Signalling theory is applied in this paper as a theoretical lens. More precisely, this paper will concentrate on fuzzy signalling, because such signals do not fall into binary classification and require a lot of contextual geopolitical information for interpretation. The data consists of research articles, publicly available statements, and media articles. The findings demonstrate that the admittance of Observer states to the Arctic Council can be viewed as fuzzy signalling. This paper will argue that fuzzy signalling is intrinsic to a multi-actor governance forum like the Arctic Council, where decisions are made on a consensus basis.

Russia and NATO still have significant military strength, albeit much reduced since the Cold War. The US also plans to improve its military presence in the Arctic in the future. According to Russian experts, the constant presence of the US nuclear submarine fleet and deploying sea-based missile defence systems that are being actively developed by the Americans will create opportunities in the Arctic to intercept Russian ballistic missiles and deliver a pre-emptive strike. But, as Stephanie Pezard puts it, “Russia is deploying capabilities that can defend a region it deems highly strategic, but could also, in theory, be employed for other purposes—for instance, locking Norway (a NATO member) behind an anti-access/area denial ‘bubble’”. Understanding Russia’s economic weaknesses, Moscow is concerned that the West (mainly) and other powers plan to deprive Russia of the Northern Sea Route and the economic resources of the Arctic. And to prevent such an outcome, Russia is strengthening its military presence in the region as a tool of détente.

The Isalo National Park is the fourth largest and one of the earliest protected areas in Madagascar. It was created in 1962, and covers an area of about 82 000 ha. The whole park (especially its southern section) is intensively managed by the local community and frequented by tourists. This may create many conflicts between the objectives of nature protection and human activities such as tourism, cattle grazing and gathering of useful plants. Although scientists frequently visit the area (comp. Andrew and Hawkins 1999; Nicoll and Langrand 1989), the fauna and flora of Isalo are still insufficiently described. There are no ecological papers related exclusively to the Isalo Massif (Andrew and Hawkins 1999), and thus all information should be useful for future study. That is why I have decided to present a short characteristic of the vegetation of this area, which summarises my observations carried out in January 2002.

The book presents the publication and analysis оf an archive documents about old­ time traditional Russian sea ship (lodia) of Solovetsky monastery named "Saint Zosima". She was builded by a peasant-pomor in 1790. Amongst the documents the unique and single drawing оf a traditional pomors' ship is presented.
In the book the particularities оf lodia’s body, rigginng аnd history are presented. Analysis of archive documents еnаbles to suggest а programs for historical experiment оп reconstruction оf lodia аnd sail her.

Despite continued heavy state subsidies, Russian and Norwegian mining operations in the Svalbard archipelago occupy increased strategic importance given recent heightened tensions between the two nations. At the same time, the industries of scientifi c research and adventure tourism are growing in importance to Svalbard's economic self-suffi ciency. This chapter explores recent geoeconomic changes in the archipelago within the contexts of shifting relationships between Russia and Norway, and of a global Anthropocenic consciousness. Considering the histories of the archipelago's settlements of Barentsburg and Longyearbyen, and of the Russian (Arktikugol) and Norwegian (Store Norske) mining companies, the chapter explores linkages between the industries that fuel Svalbard's settlements, the international geopolitical interest in the region, and the symbolic and real value of resource extraction within broader Arctic geo-political discourse.

The rapid growth of human population, the ownership of the automobile, the rapid introduction of technologies and the science and the global form of economic development have led to an outrageous rapid change of the earthy landscape and the way we behave against it. Thoughts about the reasons, the results and the challenges of the new era.

This paper explores the relationship between tourism and the challenges of governance in the Arctic region. Recently, both political and academic interest in the Arctic has been on the rise as a result of the increasing geopolitical importance of the region. Changes of the climatic conditions and melting of the Arctic ice caps have resulted in increased access to the “world´s last wilderness”. The increased access and interest are contributing to a growing number of tourists visiting the North. As yearly arrivals continue to rise, a number of problematic issues need to be addressed. This paper reviews the main instruments relevant to the discussion of tourism currently employed in the governance of the Arctic, and critically evaluates the insufficiencies of the current legal framework for Arctic governance and regulation of tourism in the Arctic. It concludes that although tourism in the Arctic has a number of advantages, particularly for the indigenous populations, the current legal and regulatory framework in the region lacks the scope and authority to minimize the potential (and increasing) environmental, economic, and social risks associated with increased tourism and other human activity in the region.

The mangrove forest in four sampling sites in Ormoc Bay, namely; Benabaye, Calunagan, Puerto Bello and Tahusan Islet, was reassessed ten years after the implementation of the Fisheries Sector Program. The density ha-1 and the species diversity decreased by 50% or more; in addition, the basal areas were greatly reduced indicating that there was excessive harvesting of large mangrove trees since 1992. More than 50% of the different mangrove genera exhibited high regenerative capacities. Avicennia and Rhizophora have high regenerative capacities in all sampling sites; in contrast the regenerative capacities of Nypa and Sonneratia in four, of Ceprios in three and of Aegiceras and Bruguiera in two sampling sites were way below 50%. The mangroves in all sampling sites do not exhibit a distinct species zonation pattern; almost all the species overlap with each other.

The mangrove forest is highly utilized by the local communities. People gather different mangrove species and a variety of edible invertebrates both for household consumption and for economic gains by selling them to the market. The resource, however, is seriously threatened by human-induced stresses, such as, over-exploitation, conversion of mangrove areas to fishponds, and soil erosion due to the denuded forest cover in the uplands. Recommendations to prevent further degradation of the mangrove resource are given.

Grazing exclusion zones used as a means to control excessive erosion of a unique friable substrate and the associated flora on Cronkley fell has been in place for 43 years. Increases in the extent of grazing exclosures across the habitat have occurred at various intervals offering temporally distinct grazing exclusion zones across the habitat. Analysis of vegetation and lichen species data relating to grazing exclosures across 3 broad time scales (43 to 39 years, 9 to 3 years and 0 years) are presented.
Differences in the vegetation cover are related to age of grazing exclosure. Increases in Sesleria caerulea are tied to grazing exclosure age and a reduction in phytodiversity and lichen diversity is evident as a result of this dominance. A typical result from grazing exclosure was noted i.e increases in sward height, species reduction, dominant species etc. However, ecologically distinct mechanisms related to species diversity are noted but not tested for. The regeneration niche is an important element in the maintenance of botanically rich lichen and vascular plant communities on Cronkley fell, the maintenance of the grasslands in equilibrium for both lichen and vascular plant communities requires no more than 60% cover of Sesleria caerulea with reductions in species diversity noted as this figure increases beyond 60%. Festuca ovina is critical in maintaining niche availability requirement within both lichen and vascular plant communities.

"From the YUP web site: "Amateurs and professionals studying birds at the end of the nineteenth century were a contentious, passionate group with goals that intersected, collided and occasionally merged in their writings and organizations. Driven by a desire to advance science, as well as by ego, pride, honor, insecurity, religion and other clashing sensibilities, they struggled to absorb the implications of evolution after Darwin. In the process, they dramatically reshaped the study of birds.

Daniel Lewis here explores the professionalization of ornithology through one of its key figures: Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian Institution’s first curator of birds and one of North America’s most important natural scientists. Exploring a world in which the uses of language, classification and accountability between amateurs and professionals played essential roles, Lewis offers a vivid introduction to Ridgway and shows how his work fundamentally influenced the direction of American and international ornithology. He explores the inner workings of the Smithsonian and the role of collectors working in the field and reveals previously unknown details of the ornithological journal The Auk and the untold story of the color dictionaries for which Ridgway is known.""

The Conspectus of the vascular flora of Bulgaria – fourth revised and enlarged edition – contains information about 4102 species of plants, with distribution maps according to the floristic regions, vertical range of distribution, floristic elements and protection status according to the Biodiversity Act.

Pavla Jesih je bila v času med obema vojnama ena največjih alpinistk v svetovnem merilu. V njenem najbolj plodnem obdobju od leta 1927 do 1934 je preplezala 17 prvenstvenih smeri. Njeno plezalno pot je leta 1934 prekinil padec s težko poškodbo, ki pa je tlakovala njeno nadaljnjo pot. S petimi kini je postala največja kinopodjetnica v slovenskih deželah; in sicer s po enim na Ptuju, Dobrni, v Ljubljani in dvema v Celju. Med vojno ni prekinila s projekcijami, ni pa se uklanjala okupatorju, še več, tesno je sodelovala z OF. Junija leta 1945 je v navezi z Jožem Čopom v Triglavski severni steni preplezala največji plezalski problem predvojne generacije in takrat najtežjo smer, ki so jo prvi preplezali Slovenci. V steni je omagala in šele peti dan je s pomočjo reševalcev izplezala. Približni isti čas jo je nova oblast že razlastila in jo obsodila zaradi domnevnega sodelovanja z Nemci, Italijani in domobranci.

In 1845, the British Royal Navy sent two discovery vessels, complete with a crew of 129 men under the command of Sir John Franklin, into the Canadian Arctic in search of a northwest passage through to the Pacific Ocean. None survived. This paper focuses on one particular relic of the Franklin expedition, a series of fragmentary private documents – poetry, scattered notes, addresses, and jottings – known as the Peglar Papers.

Feature article on a new biography of John Tyndall, and how the scientist/mountaineer's relationships with the mountains offers ways of thinking about contemporary engagements with the natural world. Includes some Classics!

https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/john_tyndall_-_our_changing_relationships_with_mountains-11486

The forests of Victoria were once the scene of a thriving industry of sawmilling and timber cutting. The relatively undisturbed remains of the industry provides the basis for an historical and archaeological investigation of sawmill sites which includes a general survey of sites and detailed recording of three representative sites. The study concentrates on aspects of location and technology and establishes patternsof variability and change in the industry through time and space. In recognising the primary nature of the study the problems of preservation and visibility are ass eased and a recording strategy is established.