Abstract: Mining development in the Canadian Arctic is commonly portrayed as a source of jobs and development for Northern communities. Yet its broader impacts on community well-being, especially after mine closure, remain understudied. This article presents post-mining scenarios as envisioned by the Inuit community of Qamini'tuaq (Baker Lake), 3 years before the Meadowbank gold mine's anticipated closure. Study participants rated mine closure impacts on the “Well-Being Wheel”, an evaluation tool co-designed with the authors and featuring five axes: Family Life, Jobs, Food Independence, Health and Learning (all closely tied to caribou-based subsistence lifestyles). Participants also explored best-case and worst-case outcomes. All scenarios highlighted far-reaching impacts on diverse aspects of Inuit well-being. A pessimistic scenario signified a sudden surge in unemployment, with stresses on mental health, family life and food security. An optimistic scenario promised new business development, social service support, and the resurgence of caribou herds. We conclude that in Qamini’tuaq, mining has failed to produce lasting “social and economic development” when we consider its holistic impacts on well-being and subsistence lifestyles. Yet participatory scenario construction may foster effective cross-sector collaboration in anticipation of mine closure. We recommend the strengthening of essential social services and local caribou livelihoods as a strategy to improve post-mining outcomes.

Abstract: We review recent literature on atmospheric, surface ocean and sea-ice observations and modeling results in the Antarctic sector and relate the observed climatic trends with the potential changes in the surface mass balance (SMB) of the ice sheet since 1900. Estimates of regional scale SMB distribution and trends remain subject to large uncertainties. Approaches combining and comparing multiple satellite and model-based assessments of ice sheet mass balance aim at reducing these knowledge gaps. During the last decades, significant changes in atmospheric circulation occurred around Antarctica, due to the exceptional positive trend in the Southern Annular Mode and to the climate variability observed in the tropical Pacific at the end of the twentieth century. Even though climate over the East Antarctic Ice-Sheet remained quite stable, a warming and precipitation increase was observed over the West Antarctic Ice-Sheet and over the West Antarctic Peninsula (AP) during the twentieth century. However, the high regional climate variability overwhelms climate changes associated to human drivers of global temperature changes, as reflected by a slight recent decadal cooling trend over the AP. Climate models still fail to accurately reproduce the multi-decadal SMB trends at a regional scale, and progress has to be achieved in reproducing atmospheric circulation changes related to complex ocean/ice/atmosphere interactions. Complex processes are also still insufficiently considered, such as (1) specific polar atmospheric processes (clouds, drifting snow, and stable boundary layer physics), (2) surface firn physics involved in the surface drag variations, or in firn air depletion and albedo feedbacks. Finally, progress in reducing the uncertainties relative to projections of the future SMB of Antarctica will largely depend on climate model capability to correctly consider teleconnections with low and mid-latitudes, and on the ability to correct them for biases, taking into account the coupling between ocean, ice, and atmosphere in high southern latitudes.

Abstract: The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) is a network of high-frequency (HF) radars located in the high- and mid-latitude regions of both hemispheres that is operated under international cooperation. The network was originally designed for monitoring the dynamics of the ionosphere and upper atmosphere in the high-latitude regions. However, over the last approximately 15 years, SuperDARN has expanded into the mid-latitude regions. With radar coverage that now extends continuously from auroral to sub-auroral and mid-latitudes, a wide variety of new scientific findings have been obtained. In this paper, the background of mid-latitude SuperDARN is presented at first. Then, the accomplishments made with mid-latitude SuperDARN radars are reviewed in five specified scientific and technical areas: convection, ionospheric irregularities, HF propagation analysis, ion-neutral interactions, and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves. Finally, the present status of mid-latitude SuperDARN is updated and directions for future research are discussed.

Abstract: Understanding the interactions of an organism and its environment is essential for us to integrate ultimate and proximate causation on a global scale. Organism–environment interaction includes all organisms including animals, plants, and non-eukaryotes, etc. because all of them are responsive to environmental change including those that are human-induced. A mechanistic approach is important for us to understand why some organisms can cope with change and others cannot. Here, we present three examples of environments (“the three poles”) that are changing rapidly and how avian species typical of these ecosystems are responding. These examples include apparently adaptive responses to change in climate (i.e. the predictable environment) in one species in which a lengthened breeding season now allows multiple breeding attempts. Why other species are unable to respond in a similar way remains unclear. A second example describes how changing weather (i.e. the unpredictable) may have disastrous results for breeding success in a species adapted to an extreme cold environment. Implications for climate change in which weather extremes will become more common again suggest a mechanistic approach will be important to understand how organisms may respond. The third example outlines a scenario in which multiple human-induced rapid changes (a combination of predictable and unpredictable such as development, habitat change, introduction of invasive species and climate change) may influence indigenous species in different ways. Organism–environment interaction is a fundamental concept that may unify ultimate and proximate causation and point the way for future investigations striving to understand coping mechanisms in a world where both predictable and unpredictable components of the environment are changing.