Building on each other’s work - Impact and inspiration of permafrost research from 1998 to 2017

Research on permafrost has intensified in recent years, due to enhanced warming in the Arctic and in alpine regions, and the direct feedbacks between thawing permafrost and climate. To explore how scientists build on existing knowledge on permafrost and identify which studies inspire more research, we analyzed scientific articles published over two decades, before (1998-2007) and after (2008-2017) the 4th International Polar Year (2007/2008). We compared this bibliometric data to results from an online survey in which respondents were asked to list the most influential and inspiring publications on permafrost in their view. While publications per year have more than doubled for multidisciplinary geosciences from 1998 to 2017, permafrost publications have increased more than six-fold for the same period, according to bibliometric data from Web of Science. Permafrost publications have increased the most in journals focusing on biogeosciences (e.g. Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences) but also in the broader geoscience and science journals (e.g. Geophysical Research Letters, Nature), reflecting a shift towards more carbon-cycle focused research in later years. From the survey, many listed books as the most influential publications and comments also revealed that conferences, photographs, movies and (non-science) books inspire permafrost researchers. Keeping track on how knowledge is collectively built within a scientific discipline and community, can help us to identify how to design impactful studies and how to coordinate research efforts in a time when high quality and impact research is badly needed

“Frozen-Ground Cartoons”: Permafrost comics as an innovative tool for polar outreach, education, and engagement

Permafrost occupies 20 million square kilometres of Earth’s high-latitude and high-altitude landscapes. These regions are sensitive to climate change and human activities; hence, permafrost research is of considerable scientific and societal importance. However, the results of this research are generally not known by the general public. Communicating scientific concepts is an increasingly important task in the research world. Different ways to engage learners and incorporate narratives in teaching materials exist, yet they are generally underused. Here we report on an international scientific outreach project called “Frozen-Ground Cartoons”, which aims at making permafrost science accessible and fun for students, teachers, and parents through the creation of comic strips.We present the context in which the project was initiated, as well as recent education and outreach activities. The future phases of the project primarily involve a series of augmented reality materials, such as maps, photos, videos, and 3D drawings. With this project we aim to foster understanding of permafrost research among broader audiences, inspire future permafrost researchers, and raise public and science community awareness of polar science, education, outreach, and engagement

Es taut! Frozen-Ground Cartoons: Eine internationale Kooperation zwischen Künstlern und Permafrost-Wissenschaftlern

Dieses Projekt startete im Oktober 2015 mit einer verrückten Idee: Schreiben und Einreichen eines Antrags auf Förderung einer internationalen, multidisziplinären und nicht-traditionell wissenschaftlichen Projektinitiative… innerhalb von 48 Stunden. Und es hat geklappt ! Eine Gruppe hoch motivierter, junger Forscher aus Kanada und Europa hat sich gebildet, um Kunst und Wissenschaft zu kombinieren und eine Reihe von Comics über Permafrost (gefrorene Böden) zu produzieren. Unser Ziel ist es, zu zeigen, wie wissenschaftliches Arbeiten im hohen Norden funktioniert, mit dem Schwerpunkt auf Geländearbeit und den schnellen Umweltveränderungen in der Arktis. Die Zielgruppe sind Kinder, Jugendliche, Eltern und Lehrer, mit dem allgemeinen Ziel, Permafrost zugänglicher und mit Spaß zu vermitteln. Denn ratet mal: Permafrost ist ein Gebiet von mehr als 20 Millionen km2 auf der Nordhalbkugel – ein riesiges Gebiet. Durch die Klimaerwärmung taut der Permafrost und wird zu instabil, um Häuser, Straßen und Flughäfen zu tragen. Durch das Auftauen von gefrorenem Boden werden außerdem Pflanzen- und Tierhabitate zerstört, die Wasserqualität und Ökologie von Seen beeinflusst und auf Grund der Freisetzung von Kohlenstoff als Treibhausgas in die Atmosphäre wird der Klimawandel sogar verstärkt. Daher betrifft Permafrost und seine Reaktion auf den Klimawandel uns alle. Die Internationale Permafrost Gemeinschaft (IPA) hat das Projekt als „Action Group“ von Beginn an unterstützt und seitdem sind noch viele weitere Sponsoren dazugekommen. Und hier sind wir nun: Zwei Jahre nach der ersten Idee. Ihr seid kurz davor das zu lesen, was das Ergebnis eines ständigen Austauschs zwischen Künstlern und Wissenschaftlern ist. Zunächst hatten wir eine Ausschreibungsrunde und erhielten 49 Bewerbungen von Künstlern aus 16 Ländern. Durch ein Bewertungsverfahren wählten wir zwei Künstlerinnen aus, um an diesem Projekt zu arbeiten: Noémie Ross aus Kanada und Heta Nääs aus Finnland. Mit den Beiträgen von Wissenschaftlern erstellten Noémie und Heta fantastische Cartoons, die ein paar der Veränderungen erklären, die in Permafrost-Gebieten passieren. Zum Beispiel: wie wird die Welt der Menschen und Tiere beeinflusst und was machen Forscher, um diese Prozesse besser zu verstehen, sodass sie den Einheimischen helfen können, innovative Wege zur Anpassung zu finden

Frozen-Ground Cartoons: An international collaboration between artists and permafrost scientists

Communicating science about a phenomenon found under ground and defined by its thermal properties in an easy, funny, and engaging way, can be a challenge. Two years ago, a group of young researchers from Canada and Europe united to tackle this problem by combining arts and science to produce a series of outreach comic strips about permafrost (frozen ground). Because this concerns us all. As the climate warms, permafrost thaws and becomes unstable for houses, roads and airports. The thawing also disrupts ecosystems, impacts water quality, and releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, making climate change even stronger. The Frozen Ground Cartoon project aims to present and explain permafrost research, placing emphasis on field work and the rapidly changing northern environment. The target audience is kids, youth, parents and teachers, with the general goal of making permafrost science more fun and accessible to the public. The project has so far produced 22 pages of comics through an iterative process of exchanging ideas between two artists and thirteen scientists. The project artists were selected through an application call that received 49 applications from artists in 16 countries. With input from scientists, artists Noémie Ross (Canada) and Heta Nääs (Finland) have created a set of beautiful, artistic, humoristic, and pedagogic comics. The comics are available for free download through the project web page (in English and Swedish), and printed copies have so far been handed out to school kids and general public in Europe and Canada. The next steps of this project are (1) to distribute the comics as wide as possible, (2) work towards translations into more languages, and (3) to evaluate the effectiveness of the science communication through the comics, in collaboration with schools and pedagogic experts

Paleolimnology of thermokarst lakes: a window into permafrost landscape evolution

Widespread across northern permafrost landscapes, thermokarst ponds and lakes provide vital wildlife habitat and play a key role in biogeochemical processes. Stored in the sediments of these typically shallow and dynamic waterbodies are rich sources of paleoenvironmental information whose potential has not yet been fully exploited, likely because of concerns over stratigraphic preservation and challenges to develop reliable sediment core chronologies. Here, we present an overview of recently-derived informative paleolimnological reconstructions based on multi-parameter analysis of sediment archives from permafrost aquatic basins. We include examples from across the Canadian North, Alaska, and Siberia that illustrate their value for providing insights into temporal patterns of lake inception, catchment erosion, aquatic productivity, hydrological evolution, and landscape disturbances. Although not captured in our survey, emerging research directions focused on carbon accumulation, storage, and balance hold much promise for contributing to global climate change science

Permafrost Comics: Bridging the gap between science and society

The “Frozen-Ground Cartoons” IPA Action Group has teamed up with artists Noémie Ross and Heta Nääs to come up with a series of entertaining comics aimed mainly at youth, but relevant to the general public. The comics focus on permafrost, permafrost research and the effects of climate change on northern communities and wildlife. The topics surrounding permafrost research have recently been evolving, garnering an interest to frozen-ground sensitivity and behaviour that extends beyond scientific researchers and organizations. The expression “permafrost is melting” (sic) now pops up frequently in the news, with such phenomena as “methane explosions” and “permafrost landslides” elevated to the honorable rank of click-baits on social media newsfeeds. While “permafrost” is a word now recognized by many, it is still a challenge to demystify the Arctic environment and the work that is done by researchers on this topic. The “Frozen-Ground Cartoons” address this gap between scientists and the public and are available as printed booklets (free giveaways at the poster!) and free public downloads of the comics on the website frozengroundcartoon.com. Available in English, the comics are to be translated in many languages in the near future, including northern native languages. This project was initiated exclusively from early career researchers who built on the networking opportunities of large projects such as ADAPT and PAGE21, as well as from the Arctic early career researcher groups APECS and PYRN. It is of great interest to every researcher, as outreach is now an important part of the work of scientists. The framework could also be applied to other disciplines, and we strongly hope this project can serve as an inspiration to budding outreach specialists across the ArcticNet community

The future of permafrost research: a contribution from early career researchers to ICARP III and beyond.

Over the past two decades, the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) have organized activities focused on international and interdisciplinary perspectives for advancing Arctic and Antarctic research cooperation and knowledge dissemination in many areas (e.g. Kennicutt et al., 2014). For permafrost science, however, no consensus document exists at the international level to identify future research priorities, although the International Permafrost Association (IPA) highlighted the need for such a document during the 10th International Conference on Permafrost in 2012. Four years later, this presentation, which is based on the results obtained by Fritz et al. (2015), outlines the outcome of an international and interdisciplinary effort conducted by early career researchers (ECRs). This effort was designed as a contribution to the Third International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP III). In June 2014, 88 ERCs convened during the Fourth European Conference on Permafrost to identify future priorities for permafrost research. We aimed to meet our goals of hosting an effective large group dialogue by means of online question development followed by a “World Café” conversational process. An overview of the process is provided in Figure 1. This activity was organized by the two major early career researcher associations Permafrost Young Researchers’ Network (PYRN) and the Association of Polar Early career Scientists (APECS), as well as the regional research projects PAGE21 (EU) and ADAPT (Canada). Participants were provided with live instructions including criteria regarding what makes a research question (Sutherland et al., 2011). The top five questions that emerged from this process are: (1) How does permafrost degradation affect landscape dynamics at different spatial and temporal scales? (2) How can ground thermal models be improved to better reflect permafrost dynamics at high spatial resolution? (3) How can traditional environmental knowledge be integrated in permafrost research? (4) What is the spatial distribution of different ground-ice types and how susceptible is ice-rich permafrost to future environmental change? (5) What is the influence of infrastructures on the thermal regime and stability of permafrost in different environmental settings? As the next generation of permafrost researchers, we see the need and the opportunity to participate in framing the future research priorities. Across the polar sciences, ECRs have built powerful networks, such as the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN), which have enabled us to efficiently consult with the community. Many participants of this community-input exercise will be involved in and also affected by the Arctic science priorities during the next decade. Therefore, we need to (i) contribute our insights into larger efforts of the community such as the Permafrost Research Priorities initiative by the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project together with the IPA and (ii) help identify relevant gaps and a suitable roadmap for the future of Arctic research. Critical evaluation of the progress made since ICARP II and revisiting the science plans and recommendations will be crucial. IASC and the IPA, together with SCAR on bipolar activities, should coordinate the research agendas in a proactive manner engaging all partners, including funding agencies, policy makers, and local communities. Communicating our main findings to society in a dialogue between researchers and the public is a priority. Special attention must be given to indigenous peoples living on permafrost, where knowledge exchange creates a mutual benefit for science and local communities. The ICARP III process is an opportunity to better communicate the global importance of permafrost to policy makers and the public

Permafrost Comics: Bridging the gap between science and society

Here we present the first results of an entertaining and easily understandable scientific-based comic on the impacts of climate change in permafrost areas. Education and outreach is a fundamental component of scientific research activities. Especially for Arctic science, the involvement of local communities and the diffusion of scientific knowledge in schools is now an essential task on every researcher’s to-do list. The International Permafrost Association (IPA) Action Groups “A Frozen-Ground Cartoon” and “Permafrost and Culture” aim at filling the gap between indigenous knowledge, complex scientific results and outreach to the general public. It is possible to change global thinking, especially in relation to environmental friendly policy and industry, but only if awareness to the sensitive Arctic regions can be brought to the general public and to political decision makers. This can be hard to achieve, as scientific publications and knowledge are difficult to access for the general public. Permafrost comics explain the impact of climate change in permafrost areas, its effects on local communities, 172 ASM2016 Conference Program Oral Presentation and Poster Abstracts wildlife and changing landscape. We provide handouts with simple scientific background information that can be used by school teachers as educational material. The comics are part of a larger outreach and education project including posters and a short Frostbyte video. Everything will be freely available on the IPA website for download. For more information: https://www. researchgate.net/project/A-Frozen-Ground-CartoonExplaining-international-permafrost-research-usingcomic-strips http://ipa.arcticportal.org/activities/actiongroup

The future of permafrost research; contributions of early career researchers from the European Conference on Permafrost to ICARP III

The Permafrost Young Researchers’ Workshop 2014, held during the latest European Conference on Permafrost in Évora, Portugal (June 2014) gathered 100 early career researchers from 20 countries to discuss and elaborate on the future of permafrost research. The event was a joint initiative of the two major early career researcher associations Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) and the Association of Polar Early career Scientists (APECS), as well as the regional research projects PAGE21 (EU) and ADAPT (Canada). Early career permafrost researchers worldwide were invited to submit important questions for permafrost research in the coming decade through an online survey. In total, 71 questions were submitted by 31 people from 15 countries, including males (54 %) and females (46 %), ranging from undergraduate students (19 %) to PhD students (35 %) and post docs (42 %). During the workshop, small groups of participants reviewed sets of submitted questions, grouped by topic, in an elaborate discussion exercise. The questions were evaluated using a series of predefined criteria to provide realistic and sound research questions. In each discussion group, questions were criticized, merged and re-written until each group produced a comprehensive question to submit to the rest of the participants. The participants then voted to elect questions that best represented the most important research avenues for permafrost research for the next decade. The top five questions that emerged from this process are: - How does permafrost degradation affect landscape dynamics at different spatio-temporal scales and which are the most important processes controlling these dynamics? - How can ground temperature models be improved to better represent factors affecting degradation, preservation, and aggradation of permafrost at high spatial resolutions? - In what ways can traditional knowledge be quantified and used in permafrost research? - What is the spatial distribution and the thaw susceptibility of massive ground ice, syngenetic ground ice, and epigenetic ground ice? - What is the influence of different types of infrastructure on the permafrost thermal regime and stability in different environmental settings? These questions relate to many disciplinary areas of research, including landscape dynamics, modeling, traditional knowledge, geocryology, and engineering. This effort engaged early career permafrost researchers in a constructive discussion, and reflection on the future directions of their field of research. These participants represent a new generation of permafrost researchers and offer a fresh insight into permafrost science, an important area within Arctic research. As such, the results of this effort provide an important perspective to consider in the future research agendas that are about to be redefined at international level

The future of permafrost research: Contributions of early career researchers from the European Conference on Permafrost to ICARP III

In June 2014, more than 75 Early Career Researchers (ECRs) attended the ECR Workshop 2014, a one-day event held prior to the 4th European Conference on Permafrost (EUCOP) in Évora, Portugal. One of the goals of this workshop was to elaborate future avenues of permafrost research from an ECR perspective during a forum with participants from various disciplines and countries. The outcome of this workshop is a “Permafrost Priority Sheet”, which will be presented to the International Permafrost Association (IPA) and will contribute to the establishment of research priorities leading up to into the 3rd International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP III) in 2015 in Toyama, Japan. This presentation will highlight some of the results that were obtained during the workshop, in a similar fashion as what will be presented at ICARP III. Additionally, it will focus on the organisation of the forum, the consultation process and the lessons learned from the overall experience. The results from this workshop took the form of research questions, from which five questions were elected by the participants as the most relevant at identifying gaps that need to be addressed in permafrost research. The broad range of topics include, engineering, remote sensing, traditional knowledge, massive ice, permafrost distribution, and more. Overall, these topics underscore the wide variety of specialties of the participants as well as the need for further research across a spectrum of permafrost-related topics. To date, this operation has been a success largely due to the extensive collaboration between the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN), and the ECR organisations of inter-disciplinary projects Changing Permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century (PAGE-21) and Arctic Development and Adaptation to Permafrost in Transition (ADAPT). This workshop was an ECR initiative from the beginning to the end and is a great example of collaboration between National and International organizations. It also shows how ECR projects can be conveyed using existing networks and events in order to broadcast their opinions and increase their contribution to the future of Arctic science