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After World War II, the Cold War generated significant barriers between the East and the West, and this affected all sorts of cooperation, including research and scientific collaboration. However, as the political situation in the Soviet Union started to change in the 1980s under the leadership of Mikael Gorbachev, the environment for international collaboration in many areas gradually improved.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can be used as chemical sentinels for the assessment of anthropogenic influences on Arctic environmental change. We present an overview of studies on PCBs in the Arctic and combine these with the findings from ArcRisk—a major European Union-funded project aimed at examining the effects of climate change on the transport of contaminants to and their behaviour of in the Arctic—to provide a case study on the behaviour and impact of PCBs over time in the Arctic. PCBs in the Arctic have shown declining trends in the environment over the last few decades. Atmospheric long-range transport from secondary and primary sources is the major input of PCBs to the Arctic region. Modelling of the atmospheric PCB composition and behaviour showed some increases in environmental concentrations in a warmer Arctic, but the general decline in PCB levels is still the most prominent feature. ‘Within-Arctic’ processing of PCBs will be affected by climate change-related processes such as changing wet deposition. These in turn will influence biological exposure and uptake of PCBs. The pan-Arctic rivers draining large Arctic/sub-Arctic catchments provide a significant source of PCBs to the Arctic Ocean, although changes in hydrology/sediment transport combined with a changing marine environment remain areas of uncertainty with regard to PCB fate. Indirect effects of climate change on human exposure, such as a changing diet will influence and possibly reduce PCB exposure for indigenous peoples. Body burdens of PCBs have declined since the 1980s and are predicted to decline further., Environmental Science and Pollution Research, ISSN:0944-1344, ISSN:1614-7499

This article provides a synthesis of the latest observational trends and projections for the future of the Arctic. First, the Arctic is already changing rapidly as a result of climate change. Contemporary warm Arctic temperatures and large sea ice deficits (75% volume loss) demonstrate climate states outside of previous experience. Modeled changes of the Arctic cryosphere demonstrate that even limiting global temperature increases to near 2 °C will leave the Arctic a much different environment by mid-century with less snow and sea ice, melted permafrost, altered ecosystems, and a projected annual mean Arctic temperature increase of +4 °C. Second, even under ambitious emission reduction scenarios, high-latitude land ice melt, including Greenland, are foreseen to continue due to internal lags, leading to accelerating global sea level rise throughout the century. Third, future Arctic changes may in turn impact lower latitudes through tundra greenhouse gas release and shifts in ocean and atmospheric circulation. Arctic-specific radiative and heat storage feedbacks may become an obstacle to achieving a stabilized global climate. In light of these trends, the precautionary principle calls for early adaptation and mitigation actions.

Long–term air monitoring programs are today recognized as a powerful tool for global studies of atmospheric long–range transport processes. Based on the combined efforts from multi–national atmospheric monitoring programs, principles and pathways of long–range contaminant transport into the pristine Polar Regions (Arctic and Antarctic) have been revealed. The defining factors and mechanisms of the principal atmospheric transport into the Polar Regions for a wide array of contaminants ranging from inorganic and organic contaminants, nutrients to aerosols and particulate matter, have been established and verified based on long–term monitoring data. At present, empirically derived monitoring data is the only way to evaluate the accuracy of the projections and results obtained from modern modeling tools that aim to describe future contamination scenarios in various regions of the world. Although the fundamental importance of continuous atmospheric monitoring for the evaluation of global long–range transport and distribution processes of anthropogenic contaminants is recognized, three major challenges for global monitoring of contaminants remain: (1) A more thorough co–ordination and co–operation between all international monitoring programs with focus in global contaminant transport and fate must be achieved. (2) Strategies for rapid and effective adaptation of programs following the identification of new priority contaminants. (3) Application of appropriate sampling and analytical protocols as well as quality control and quality assurance measures; that must be developed and adopted by all relevant monitoring programs in order to allow effective comparison of measurement results and information between the respective monitoring initiatives.

The Arctic cryosphere is a critically important component of the earth system, affecting the energy balance, atmospheric and ocean circulation, freshwater storage, sea level, the storage, and release of large quantities of greenhouse gases, economy, infrastructure, health, and indigenous and non-indigenous livelihoods, culture and identity. Currently, components of the Arctic cryosphere are subjected to dramatic change due to global warming. The need to document, understand, project, and respond to changes in the cryosphere and their consequences stimulated a comprehensive international assessment called “SWIPA”: Snow, Water, Ice, Permafrost in the Arctic. Some of the extensive key SWIPA chapters have been summarized and made more widely available to a global audience with multi-disciplinary interests in this Special Report of Ambio. In this article, an overview is provided of this Special Report in the context of the more detailed and wider scope of the SWIPA Report. Accelerated changes in major components of the Arctic cryosphere are documented. Evidence of feedback mechanisms between the cryosphere and other parts of the climate system are identified as contributing factors to enhanced Arctic warming while the growing importance of Arctic land-based ice as a contributor to global sea-level rise is quantified. Cryospheric changes will result in multifaceted and cascading effects for people within and beyond the Arctic presenting both challenges and opportunities.

The Arctic cryosphere is a critically important component of the earth system, affecting the earth’s energy balance, sea level, greenhouse gases and atmospheric circulation, transport of heat through ocean circulation, ecology and human resource use and well-being. The Arctic cryosphere is, however, changing rapidly with multiple important consequences that will potentially affect the earth system including the human population. The drivers of changes in the Arctic’s cryosphere, the recent and projected changes in the cryosphere and the consequences for future climate warming, sea level rise, ecology and human well-being, have been comprehensively assessed by the Arctic Council’s Snow Water, Ice, and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) Project through its Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Working Group. This article introduces the assessment and the associated papers within a special issue of the journal Ambio that extract and present some of the major findings of the SWIPA report.

The fccal pellet production of Abra alba was measured during exposure to different concentrations of diesel oil, drilling muds with different base fluids, oil-based cuttings and barite. For oil-based drilling muds a curvilinear regression ( y = ax + b log x + c ), gave a very good description of the relationship between fecal pellet production ( y ) and concentration of drilling mud in the sediment ( x ). EC 50 ) (5 days) values calculated from the regression equation ranged from 57 to >1000 mg kg −1 . The response was significantly correlated to the content of naphthenics in the mud. After 5 days of exposure to diesel oil and to two oil-based muds, no increase in the concentration of total hydrocarbons was found in the soft tissue of A. alba , and normal fecal pellet production was restored within 4–6 days in uncontaminated sediment. This suggests that the reduction in fecal pellet production may be due to a negative stimulus to feeding activity and ingestion, as well as to internal toxic effects on the organism. A reduction in feeding activity of A. alba may slow down the bioturbation of the sediments.

The overall objective of RADARC’s research programme is to perform simulation scenarios for the 21st century, including global warming scenarios, of potential radioactive spreading from sources in the Russian Arctic coastal zone and its impact on Barents, Greenland and Norwegian Seas and the Arctic Ocean in order to supportdecision making for: risk prevention, forecasting and preparedness for probable crisis, alert and detection, relief and mitigation and damage assessment. These studies were realised using hydrodynamic modelling of the rivers, estuaries, coastal Kara Sea and the open ocean aquatic systems of the northern Russia and the Arctic and a related comprehensive database that was organised in a Geographical Information System (GIS). Under the RADARC project a new modelling approach was implemented using Generic Model System, where the four types of models were integrated and merged. The Generic Model System (GMS) that was created for the first time include the GIS and an interactive hydrodynamic models chain for simulations of radionuclide transport from relevant land-based sources through the river and estuary system to and in the Kara Sea as well as in the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. The GMS consist of four adopted and validated hydrodynamic models: a medium resolution (50 km) 3-D numerical ice-ocean model for the Arctic and North Atlantic Ocean; nested with a high resolution (5 km) model for the Kara Sea including a sediment module; nested with the river model system including a one-dimensional model of river dynamics and radionuclide transport and three-dimensional model of Ob ́ and Yenisey estuarine and coastal areas hydrodynamics and radionuclide transport model. The most probable release scenarios for radionuclides were developed and simulation studies for selected future scenarios of radionuclear contamination was carried-out, using atmospheric forcing scenarios, including global warming, likely consistent with a CO2 doubling and control runs. Thus a new tool for an assessment of the potential radioactive spreading in the Arctic was created and the assessment of the potential radioactive spreading from rivers and external sources in the Russian Arctic Coastal Zone was developed and assessed, NERSC Technical report no. 249. Funded by the european Union under Contract no. ICA2-CT-2000-10037

In 1991, Ministers of the eight Arctic countries (Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and USA), adopted the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS). To implement part of this strategy, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) was established and requested by Ministers to “ examine levels of anthropogenic pollutants...from any sources...and to assess their effects in all relevant compartments of the Arctic environment ”. In 1996 the AEPS, including all its working groups, was reorganized under the newly formed Arctic Council. (Int J Circumpolar Health 2002; 61(4):300-318)