Polar Times

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

Shrubification!

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

Antarctica Day ‘21

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

Climbing Climate

Welcome back to Polar Times! In today’s episode, Alexandra is interviewing Ronja Gronemeyer and Hanna Knahl, two fellow podcasters. Together with four other members, their podcast Climbing Climate is going to be launched in the beginning of December 2021. Ronja and Hanna tell us all about their podcast, how it all started and what they are going to feature. They also chat about the different ways into (polar) science and the importance of having fun projects, like a podcast, next to scientific tasks and how enlightening/revealing it can be for a personal academic development.

Tune in to hear all about Climbing Climate!

Tweet APECS (@Polar_Research) or email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) to get in contact with us!

Episode edited by Alexandra Zuhr

Cover art by Matthew Nelson

Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA

Season 2 Trailer

We're back! 

Here we go launching into Season 2 of Polar Times and the team here at APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists) couldn't be more excited! Join Alexandra and Jack here in the trailer to hear what we have coming up in the near future and what we'd like to bring to you on our lovely polar podcast. 

We also put a call out there for guests, so if you're a polar person and you'd like to feature on Polar Times then please let us know! 

As ever you can contact us via email (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or you can tweet APECS (@Polar_Research). 

We can't wait for you to hear what we have in store for Season 2!

 

Episode edited by Alexandra Zuhr

Cover art by Matthew Nelson

Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA

 

Bit of the Moon

Hello and welcome back to Polar Times! We have a very exciting episode for you today. Our guest this episode is James Karner of the University of Utah who chats to Jack all about the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET). Aside from answering some vital questions (how on Earth do you find a meteorite in Antarctica?!), James gives us all the facts about how to spot a meteorite, where they may come from and where they go having been plucked from the Antarctic ice by the ANSMET team. We also hear about some of his many field experiences, the lows of sheltering in a tent on the brink of blowing away, and the highs of discovering objects from out of this world!

You can find out more about ANSMET and how to potentially join the team here: https://caslabs.case.edu/ansmet/

And, 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 Swati Nagar & Ryan O’Hara

Cover art by Matthew Nelson

Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA

A Quixotic Twelve

Hello hello from the Polar Times Team! We have another excellent episode for you today. We’re pleased to welcome Klaus Dodds from Royal Holloway University of London! Klaus is a professor of geopolitics and researches security, media/popular culture, ice studies and the international governance of the Antarctic and the Arctic. He joins us today to speak about all things Antarctic Treaty!

You may have heard of the Antarctic Treaty- perhaps you’ve heard it’s the most successful peace treaty the world has ever known… but is it all its cracked up to be? Why was it established? How does it work today? What will happen to Antarctic governance in the future? Klaus answers all of these questions and more! But if international politics doesn’t usually tickle your pickle then stick around for the drama because the tale of the Treaty is one of intrigue and compromise, set in the crucible of 20th century history…

You can read the Antarctic Treaty here: https://www.ats.aq/e/key-documents.html

And find links to some of Klaus’ body of work here: https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/klaus-dodds(fb99b223-7661-4aa1-95f6-1cd527dd0fc7)/publications.html

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 Swati Nagar & Ryan O’Hara

Cover art by Matthew Nelson

Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA