Polar Times

Sense of the Arctic: Episode 4

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

 

Sense of the Arctic: Episode 3

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

 

Sense of the Arctic: Episode 2

*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

Sense of the Arctic: Episode 1

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

Mythical Monsters in the Ground

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

The Life Aquatic

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

Fieldwork Insights

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

A Polar Poet

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

Fieldwork Fun with Foxes

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

Greenland Caves

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