Welcome back to our Polar Times mini-series: “Our changing oceans : from Ancient Waters to Modern Crisis” episode 2/3. In this episode, we are very happy to welcome post-docs Dr. Nan Wu and Dr. Emily Rowlands and PhD student Alena Sakovich from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), an UK-based organization! We discuss especially about the CUPIDO project that stands for CalcUlating the strength of the Plastic pump in counteracting the Deep export of Oceanic carbon. In our next episode, we will be joined by Dr. Melanie Bergmann, a professor at Alfred-Wegener Institut, Germany. Stay tuned! Technical details: Podcast host: Nadia Frontier, Nathalie Nickells, Nastasia Freyria and Emilie Pillon Guests: Nan Wu, Emily Rowlands and Alena Sakovich Editing: Emilie Pillon and Nadia Frontier Mastering: Nadia Frontier Recorded on Thursday 8th May 2025 with Riverside FM Covert art: modified by Nastasia Freyria from original idea by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA This podcast is produced by APECS, the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists.
Welcome back to our Polar Times mini-series: “Polar Plunge in the Science Beyond the Polar Bears” episode 2/3. In this episode, we welcome Adrian Heath, a past graduate student from Oregon State University, who has done research on coast erosion in the Arctic continental shelf. In our next episode, we will be joined by Dr Kim Bernard, a professor at Oregon State University's College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and a National Geographic Explorer in the Southern Ocean. Stay tuned! Technical details : Podcast host : Nastasia Freyria, Maria Cristina Alvarez, Mayra Meléndez, Varvara Kharlamova and Sneha Sivaram Guest: Adrian Heath Editing : Nastasia Freyria Mastering : Nastasia Freyria Recorded on Friday 27th June 2025 with Riverside FM Covert art : modified by Nastasia Freyria from original idea by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music : "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Our changing oceans : from Ancient Waters to Modern Crisis APECS Podcast - Episode 1/3 Welcome to the first episode from the Polar Times mini-series: “Our changing oceans: from ancient waters to modern crisis”. This three-episode podcast series explores the complex relationship between humans and our polar environments. In the next episode, four guests from the British Antarctic Survey will discuss microplastics. Technical details : Podcast host : Nastasia Freyria, Nadia Frontier, Nathalie Nickells, Emilie Pillon and André Reis Editing : André Reis and Nadia Frontier Mastering : Nadia Frontier and Emilie Pillon Recorded on Monday 31st March 2025 with Riverside FM (thanks to BAS) Covert art : modified by Nastasia Freyria from original idea by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music : "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nadia: Hello and welcome to another episode of Polar Times, bringing you science and stories from literally the coolest places on the planet! I am one of your co-hosts, Nadia Frontier, a masters student at the University of Glasgow and I used to work at the British Antarctic Survey where I was studying the fate of coastal seaweeds and invertebrate biology. In this episode I will be joined by four lovely people, Emilie: Hi I’m Emilie Pillon PhD student in Anthropology from Paris Nanterre University. I’m exploring the relationship between scientists and Antarctica. Natalie: Hi I’m Natalie Nickells, PhD student from the British Antarctic survey. I specialise in humpback and fin whale foraging ecology:basically, what kind of krill swarms do they like to eat? Nastasia: Hi I’m Nastasia Freyria postdoctoral researcher from McGill university in Montreal. My research focuses on the natural attenuation of Arctic microbial communities and the development of optimal bioremediation strategies for the remediation of potential oil spills on Arctic beaches. André: Hello I’m André Torres Reis, I’m a marine arctic biologist and I am currently working as a cetacean wildlife guide and science communicator. Natalie: We will start with an opening quote to introduce the theme of our episode about polar microplastics from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring Book written in 1962. Natalie: “The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the “sinister” and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world--the very nature of its life.” (Carson, 1962: 6) Let’s reflect a little on that quote… André: Well, when hearing this passage from over 60 years ago now, it’s just only seems too unreal, to me, that we continue to remain plagued with the very nature of what Rachel “brought to light” so eloquently in her book- although, now, this has slightly shifted from major concerns around unknown ‘chemicals’ and radiation, to an increased concern around plastic pollution….What does that make you think Nadia. Nadia: When we think about plastic, we might conjure up the emotive images of plastic straws impacting turtles survivability which flooded social media after they were featured in Blue Planet 2’s final episode in 2017. This seemed to kick off public awareness of ocean plastic pollution, and individuals began to move towards reducing single use plastic in their daily lives in order to protect marine life. As scientists, we all are aware that what's visible is only the tip of the iceberg, see what we did there!, and that the causes and effects of environmental pollution are complex, multifactorial and deeply damaging to humans and the very ecosystem which supports us . Emilie: In the first episode of Our Changing Oceans, we will discuss issues surrounding sources of pollution impacting polar oceans. Nastasia: Today, we're diving deep into how human activities have transformed our oceans, from ancient times to our modern crisis. We will be your guides through this journey of discovery and science facing our uncertain futures. In this first episode, we will briefly retrace how scientists and the general public first became aware of pollution facing our oceans and the extending reach into the most inhospitable places on earth… the polar regions. André: It was in 1962, when Rachel Carson first published Silent Spring. A book, a journey where she unveils the impacts and damages of chemical products on bird populations with wide reaching and complex cascading effects across entire ecosystems. Rachel focuses especially on DDT, an acronym shortened for dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane which was originally believed to be a ‘miracle pesticide’ that could effectively eliminate insect infestations on crops. The book is, today, not only a huge success, raising awareness about the use of chemicals and their long lasting effects in our environment, but is considered to be the pivotal moment, the true core of the environmental movement itself. Emilie: The polar regions were a pristine word that seemed untouchable until 2005 when Marla Cone introduced the concept of “Arctic Paradox”. In her book ‘Silent snow: The slow poisoning of the Arctic’ she described the impact of the pollutants on Arctic communities. The Arctic paradox is the fact that the ecosystem and the society that are the most impacted by pollutants are the one that are furthest away from the contaminant source. Indeed As early as 1966, Sladen and co-authors found evidence of DDT in Adelie Penguin and crabeater seals. Natalie, did they find how the penguins were contaminated ? Natalie: Sources of contamination increasingly began to come to light and extended to the other pole- to Antarctica. In the early 60s, the scientific occupation of Antarctica was in its infancy. Faecal matter from bases and other scientific operations had been, and in many cases continues to be, discarded into the ocean. This was one possible source of pollutants. Another source could be air contamination, or, as per Sladen and co-authors: “It is also possible that DDT might have been carried into Antarctic waters by ocean currents. The penguins and seals feed in the Antarctic surface current, which, moving northwards, sinks below through warmer sub-Antarctic water at the Antarctic Convergence.” (Sladen and al, 1966 : 672) Nastasia: The scandal of DDT was well known but high-profile pollution events continued to unfold amongst increasing evidence of ocean pollution. The presence of plastic litter in the oceans was documented back in the 70’s by researchers such as Carpenter and co-authors (Carpenter et al, 1972; Rochman, 2020 : 60) . In 1996, the discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage patch was termed a floating beast or a new continent drifting in the Pacific ocean. At the time, we didn’t fully understand how the oceans functioned from the complexity of food chains to incredible marine mammal migration patterns. Our society didn’t understand the impact of pollutants in the vast ocean- they were out of sight and out of mind. Emilie: What kind of pollutant are we finding in our ocean - and in the polar region ? Why is monitoring and studying the effect of en-vi-ron-mental pollution in the polar region important today ? In 2019, 460 Tonnes of plastic were produced, a 13 fold increase compared to nineteen seventy. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCDE) estimated that zero point five percent of Plastic ends up in the ocean. That could represent an equivalent of one point seven million tons of plastic…can you imagine that ? André: Plastic pollution can be commonly classified as either macroplastic, so plastic we can clearly see with the naked eye, or microplastic, plastics smaller than 5 mm in size and that can also be seen as small strands and really small pieces need to be viewed under the microscope. Nastasia: In Antarctica, microplastic pollution has led to the creation of a working group, a network of scientists from all around the world working on the subject. The Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research Plastic states that “Recent estimates suggest there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. Because of the persistence and longevity of plastics, it is likely that the problem will only get worse. While there has been a great deal of research in the more populated regions of the world, little is known about plastic pollution in Polar Regions. The Plastic-Expert Groups aims to assess the current state of the problem, share knowledge and expertise and propose solutions to the problems of plastic pollution in Polar ecosystems” As such, they are involved in science to policy events. Nadia: In November 2024, the ‘Inter governmental Negotiating Committee’ on the Plastic Treaty met to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the oceans. However, no agreement was achieved, stressing the need for further research to understand the interconnection between the different anthropogenic pollutants and their effect on a variety of ecosystem processes which we will explore more in future episodes. Natalie: The melting of sea ice, especially in the Arctic, demonstrates the link between climate change and ocean pollution. Obbard and co-authors (2014), have shown that there is microplastic within the arctic sea ice, which is released into the ocean when the sea ice melts. With the current melting trend, it could represent 1 trillion pieces of plastic released into the ocean in the next d
Welcome to the first episode from the Polar Times mini-series: “Polar Plunge in the Science Beyond the Polar Bears”. This three-episode podcast series explores the complex relationship between humans and our polar environments. In the next episode, one guest from Oregon State University, Adrien Heath, a past graduate student who has done research on coast erosion in the Arctic continental shelf. Technical details : Podcast host : Nastasia Freyria, Mayra Meléndez, Varvara Kharlamova and Sneha Sivaram Editing : Nastasia Freyria Mastering : Nastasia Freyria Recorded on Wednesday 9th April 2025 with Riverside FM Covert art : modified by Nastasia Freyria from original idea by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music : "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Welcome back for the sixth and final episode of Sense of the Arctic, a podcast miniseries from the APECS Science and Diplomacy Project Group in collaboration with the Polar Times. We round out our series by hopping over to Greenland and chatting with Dr. Gitte Reimer, the rector at the University of Greenland, and Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) Rink, a professor at Montana State University whose research examines sexual and reproductive health in Greenland through community-based participatory research. The conversation touches on past and current uses of community-based participatory research in Greenland and how the methodology has evolved over the past three decades. We also discuss Gitte's efforts to implement Greenland's recently-released national research policy, which emphasizes the local and nationwide importance of community-based participatory research. We hope you enjoy this important final episode of Sense of the Arctic! Technical details: Podcast Hosts: Inge Deschepper and Nicholas Parlato Edition: Inge Deschepper Mastering: Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Hello and welcome back to Polar Times! On today’s episode, we are excited to welcome Hanne Nielsen, a Senior Lecturer of Antarctic Law and Governance at the University of Tasmania in Australia. We always say that we bring you stories from the coldest places on the planet. And today's episode, we really bringing you stories! We are going to talk about how Antarctica is represented in the media and popular culture, how that representation has changed over time, and why. Hanne Nielsen comes to us from the Humanities and will help us tackle these questions, and even include a story about cows in Antarctica. Since this interview was recorded, Hanne Nielsen wrote a book, to be published later this year titled Brand Antarctica: How Global Consumer Culture Shapes Our Perceptions of the Ice Continent. Good listening! If you would like to get in contact with us or recommend a guest, contact us on the APECS twitter: @Polar_Research or on Instagram apecs.polar. We would love to hear from you. Technical details: Podcast Host: Jack Buckingham Edition and Mastering: Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Welcome back for the fifth episode of Sense of the Arctic, a podcast miniseries from the APECS Science and Diplomacy Project Group in collaboration with the Polar Times. In this episode, we have the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Vera Kuklina, a Buryat scholar from Ust-Ordynskiy Buryat Autonomous Okrug (now part of the Irkutsk region in Russia) who is currently a research professor in the Department of Geography at George Washington University. Dr. Kuklina has conducted and published research across a wide range of topics, including Arctic infrastructure, transport, and urbanization, as well as Indigenous resource management and resilience. We speak about the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, how it is impacting research in Siberia, and how we can ensure the safety of research collaborators and communities whilst doing research in Siberia. We also spoke about the history of including northern communities in research from a Russian perspective. Links to add to bio: https://artslink.space/ https://arcticinfrascapes.com/ https://frozencommons.unh.edu/maps/ Technical details: Podcast Hosts: Inge Deschepper and Nicholas Parlato Edition: Inge Deschepper Mastering: Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Hello and welcome back to Polar Times! Today’s episode features self-reflective poems submitted to APECS for the International Polar Week of March 2023. The poems here are presented by (in order): Marilena Dracea-Chelsoi Parnika Gupta Sarah Johnson Damien Ringeisen The text of these poems and the other submitted self-reflective poetry are available here, as well as on Twitter (@Polar_Research), Facebook (APECS4u), and Instagram (@apecs.polar). Technical details: Edition and Mastering: Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Welcome back for the fourth episode of Sense of the Arctic, a podcast miniseries from the APECS Science and Diplomacy Project Group in collaboration with the Polar Times. In this episode, we had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Tero Mustonen, a Finnish researcher at the University of Eastern Finland and the president of SnowChange cooperative. He was also a lead author of the 6th IPCC assessment released in 2021, which had the first attempt at including traditional and indigenous knowledge in the report's findings. We spoke about winter seining, SnowChange, the past and present impacts of colonisation and the importance and differences of community-driven research in the Northern European context. He also gave some sound advice on how and when to do research in the polar systems. Here are some of the links spoken about during the podcast: SnowChange: http://www.snowchange.org/ As usual, if you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be a guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question, then you can email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research any time- we would love to hear from you. You can download the episode transcript here: Transcript The captions and transcript were partially generated using whisper.cpp Technical details: Podcast Hosts: Inge Deschepper and Nicholas Parlato Edition: Inge Deschepper Mastering: Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Welcome back for the third episode of Sense of the Arctic, a podcast miniseries from the APECS Science and Diplomacy Project Group in collaboration with Polar Times. In this episode, we had the pleasure of chatting to two members of the organization Ikaarvik, Justin Sigluk Milton, who is from Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), Nunavut, now living in Ottawa, and Shelly Elverum, currently living in Mittimatalik. We spoke about Ikaarvik and the importance of community-driven research, as well as what Qaujimajatuqangit is. They also spoke about a couple of key points and actions to take when thinking about doing research in the north. Here are some of the links spoken about during the podcast: Ikaarvik: https://ikaarvik.org/ ScIQ publication: https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.1139/as-2020-0015 As usual, if you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be a guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question, then you can email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research any time- we would love to hear from you. You can download the episode transcript here: Transcript The captions and transcript were partially generated using whisper.cpp Technical details: Podcast Hosts: Inge Deschepper and Nicholas Parlato Edition: Nicholas Parlato Mastering: Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
*TRIGGER WARNING: discussion of systemic racism and inequality were discussed and may be triggering to those that have experienced similar situations* Welcome to the second episode of Sense of the Arctic, a podcast miniseries from the APECS Science and Diplomacy Project Group in collaboration with the Polar Times. This series highlights the importance and implementation of scientific collaboration with Arctic communities through community-based monitoring (CBM), co-production of knowledge, and equitable data management. Our second guest is Margaret Rudolf, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, working at the International Arctic Research Center with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy and the Research Networking Activities for Sustained Coordinated Observations of Arctic Change (CoObs RNA). Margaret talked with us about her experiences as an Inupiat woman in the sciences that led her into her current field of research in evaluation and success metrics of Indigenous-led co-production of knowledge and the role of boundary spanners in enhancing scientist-community relations. Below are some links and references that are mentioned in the podcast that you may be interested in: Margaret’s research website: https://uaf-accap.org/research-activities/understanding-coproduction-ak-native-communities/ https://sites.google.com/view/tektalks/home Links to programs mentioned in the podcast: Arctic Food Sovereignty Working Group- https://arcticobservingsummit.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/AOS2022_poster_P-015.pdf https://akcasc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FSWG-Presentation-2022.pdf SAON Roadmap- https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532146/1/ARCTIC_2021_SAON_Roadmap.pdf Arctic PASSION- https://arcticpassion.eu/ As usual, if you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be a guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question, then you can email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research any time- we would love to hear from you. Podcast Hosts: Inge Deschepper and Nicholas Parlato Edition: Inge Deschepper Cover art by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Welcome to the first episode from the Science and Diplomacy Project Group in collaboration with the Polar Times Team mini-series: Sense of the Arctic This series highlights the importance and need for collaboration with communities through community based monitoring (CBM) and how it started and has changed over the years. Our first guest is Dr. Noor Johnson, a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She provides us with some information about what CBM is, where it was effectively used, its importance, and how you can start incorporating CBM into your own research. Below are some links and references that are mentioned in the podcast that you may be interested in: Professional Website: https://nsidc.org/about/our-people/Noor_Johnson ELOKA: https://eloka-arctic.org/ SIKU: https://siku.org/about SIZONet and AAOKH: https://eloka-arctic.org/sizonet Arcticcbm.org Graeme Reed, Nicolas D. Brunet, David C. Natcher, 2020, Can indigenous community-based monitoring act as a tool for sustainable self-determination?, The Extractive Industries and Society, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages 1283-1291, ISSN 2214-790X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2020.04.006. David C. Natcher, Nicolas D. Brunet, 2020, Extractive resource industries and indigenous community-based monitoring: Cooperation or cooptation?, The Extractive Industries and Society, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages 1279-1282, ISSN 2214-790X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2020.10.005. Wilson NJ, Mutter E, Inkster J, Satterfield T. Community-Based Monitoring as the practice of Indigenous governance: A case study of Indigenous-led water quality monitoring in the Yukon River Basin. J Environ Manage. 2018 Mar 15;210:290-298. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.01.020. PMID: 29407189. To contact Dr. Noor Johnson about the book published by Finn Danielsen contact her through the email available on her website. As usual, if you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be a guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question then you can email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research any time- we would love to hear from you. Episode edited by Nicholas Parlato and Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson, Nicholas Parlato, and Damien Ringeisen Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Hello and thank you for tuning in to another episode of Polar Times! In this episode, our host Henrietta talks to Christie Grekul and Dr Grant Zazulaabout all things Beringia, palaeontology, archaeology and museums. Christie is the Manager of the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre and Grant is Manager of the Yukon Government Palaeontology Program. They both live and work in city of Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon, and between them know everything there is to know about Beringia–the land bridge that once connected Siberia to the Yukon. Staytuned for mammoth fossils, a mummified wolf pup, and to find out what Thomas Jefferson has to do with giant ground sloths... To learn more about the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre and their amazing science-communication work, visit their website here: https://www.beringia.com/ If you have anything you’d like to tell us, no matter how big or small, please get in touch via email (therearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS (@Polar_Research). We’d love to hear from you! Episode edited by Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: “Scuba” by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Hello and welcome back to Polar Times! On today’s episode we are excited to welcome Pierre Coupel, oceanographer, biogeochemist and documentary maker for ArctiConnexion, currently based in Canada! Post-PhD, Pierre has been fortunate enough to participate in many field seasons and chats to Jack all about life at ice camps and on board research vessels from several nations. From Chinese icebreakers to the salt pans of Bolivia, we talk travel, how this led to an exploration of his love for film-making, how this led to the decision to leave academia, and how these two talents (science and cinema!) come together in his current position at ArctiConnexion. We then talk all about his current work as well as his past documentary endeavours. ArctiConnexion is an organisation which aims “to support, through mentorship and knowledge sharing, indigenous communities in the development of local competencies and leadership for research and applications promoting community well-being.” We’ve talked on Polar Times before about the power of the picture when it comes to science communication, and yes we’re going to revisit it again because creative scicomm is obviously something that we can’t get enough of! If you would like to see Pierre’s winning photo, follow this link: https://www.apecs.is/component/phocagallery/category/34-category-research.html?Itemid=392 If you would like to see his body of other work then go here: https://pierrecoupel.wixsite.com/life-patchwork Or check out his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pierre_coupel/ Finally, for ArctiConnexion, here’s the tea: https://arcticonnexion.ca/mission/ Episode edited by Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Get ready for an episode all about fieldwork! The guest of today’s episode is Floreana Miesen who is a field technician at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Floreana came in contact with fieldwork at the beginning of her studies, and it excited her from the start. After participating in field campaigns in Svalbard and in the Andes, she decided to make her passion her profession. By now, she organises complete field campaigns and manages all the details from scientific issues and sample transport to security and the little things in everyday life, such as a toilet. She tells us how the organization of a camp works, what are the nice sides of her job and what situations can be tough in her job. Read a blog post on Floreana’s field experiences in the Swiss Alps: https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2020/11/04/running-a-live-stream-of-proglacial-processes/ If you would like to get in contact with us or recommend a guest, send us an email to thesearepolartimes@gmail.com or tweet APECS: @Polar_Research. We would love to hear from you. Episode edited by Alexandra Zuhr Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Today on Polar Times: We welcome Samantha Jones from the University of Calgary who speaks to Jack all about her research on carbon cycling and fluvial biogeochemistry in the Canadian Arctic, her experience of fieldwork there and her niche method of science communication- yes Sam is our first Polar Poet! Winner of the APECS Polar Week Poetry Competition with Spring Pulse, and feature at the COP26 Ocean Pavilion with Ocean Acidification, Sam tells us all about the inspiration behind her work, why poetry is such a good metric for scicomm and even the benefits of using it to reframe and view your own scientific data. Read Spring Pulse here: https://www.apecs.is/news/apecs-news/4753-polar-poetry-competition-winner-is.html View/listen to Ocean Acidification here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2HQr_mWKKI Or read check out Samatha's work on Watch Your Head here: https://www.watchyourhead.ca/watch-your-head/poetry-samantha-jones As ever, if you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be a guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question then you can email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research any time- we would love to hear from you. Episode edited by Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Hello and Happy New Year! Welcome back to Polar Times! On today's episode, Jack is joined by Dominik Arend an ecologist from the University of Freiburg who is currently writing an MSc thesis on Arctic foxes, specifically looking at their denning activity and how this impacts soil nutrition and vegetation. Turns out foxes are ecosystem engineers! We talk about fieldwork in Iceland and Domink's experiences with Arctic foxes, how Iceland's Arctic foxes differ from their more northern relations, and how Arctic foxes interact with and are impacted by human activities... We also chat about funding and Dominik has some great tips for writing your own research proposal and getting funding for a project, even at the early-career stage! As usual, if you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be a guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question then you can email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research any time- we would love to hear from you. Episode edited by Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Polar Times! Have you ever been crawling around in a cave and collecting speleothems? If not, then this episode is definitely made for you! Alexandra is joined today by Gina Moseley who is an Ingeborg Hochmair Professor at the Institute for Geology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. Gina is passionate about speleothems from caves all around the world and especially in Greenland. Her project about greenlandic caves started in a pub during her PhD in Bristol, UK, but it took her many years until she finally travelled to northeast Greenland in 2015 to visit the first caves. Gina and Alexandra chat about how to use speleothems to reconstruct past climatic conditions and the related advantages and disadvantages of them in the context of different climate archives as well as how Gina ended up in the American breakfast television (hint: check out the movie Ancient Caves)! We hope you enjoy today’s episode. More information on Gina’s project can be found here: https://northeastgreenlandcavesproject.com/ and on Twitter @Greenland_Caves. If you would like to get in contact with us at Polar Times, send us an email to: thesearepolartimes@gmail.com OR tweet APECS: @Polar_Research Episode edited by Damien Ringeisen Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Hello one hello all, and welcome back to Polar Times! Today we are delighted to feature a former Polar Times team member, our original head-editor, Elise Gallois, Arctic tundra biogeographer extraordinaire from the University of Edinburgh! Elise comes on to talk to Jack all about her research including dendrochronology, shrubification, and microclimates. We hear all about the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX), Team Shrub and the Teabag Index. What is Elise’s favourite shrub? What happened with fieldwork during Covid? What will the Arctic tundra look like in the future? All these questions answered and more! Moreover, Elise chats science communication, about her passion for science stand-up comedy and why this is a great tool for communicating difficult topics like climate change. For info on the Bright Club, check out this link: https://scienceshowoff.wordpress.com/bright-club/ For the Coding Club Elise mentioned in her plug, go here: https://ourcodingclub.github.io And finally, to see Elise’s comedy set at the British Ecological Society’s Science Slam go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVKQm07kCcY As ever, if you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be a guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question then you can email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research any time- we would love to hear from you. Episode edited by Elise Gallois Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Welcome back to a special episode of PolarTimes in celebration of Antarctica Day 2021! Every year on the 1st of December the polar community celebrates the signature of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959. As such, the annual event serves the purpose to increase global awareness about the frozen continent and the establishment of the Antarctic Treaty System, under which Antarctica is designated as a space for science and peaceful purposes. Under the motto “What we always wanted to know about Antarctica”, Katharina Heinrich is joined by Jack Buckingham and Azamat Tolipov in answering questions that have been submitted by K-12 students. As such, this episode aims to increase the interest, knowledge, and awareness about Antarctica also amongst younger people. In line with the podcast a FAQ Handbook, soon available as a pdf file with answers to all the questions that have been submitted, will be released. Keep a lookout for the release of the Handbook on the APECS Antarctica Day Website https://apecs.is/upcoming-event-highlights/apecs-antarctica-day-2021.html If you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question then you can email us (therearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research any time-we would love to hear from you! From all of us here at Polar Times and APECS, Happy Antarctica Day! This episode has been edited by Katharina Heinrich Cover art by Matthew Nelson Music: “Scuba” by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA