Science and earth science

Polish Polar Research

Content

Polish Polar Research | 2018 | vol. 39 | No 2

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Abstract

The analysis of climate changes in of the Tarfala valley and Kebnekaise Mts area, and changes within the range of the Scandinavian Glaciation shows that even in the warmest period of Holocene there were favourable environmental conditions for permafrost of the Pleistocene origin to be preserved in this area. The results of electrical resistivity surveys together with analysis of available publications indicate that two layers of permafrost can be distinguished in the Storglaciären forefield. The shallower, discountinuous, with thickness ca. 2–6 meters is connected to the current climate, The second, deeper located layer of permafrost, separated with talik, is older. Its thickness can reach dozens of metres and is probably the result of permafrost formation during Pleistocene. The occurrence of two-layered permafrost in the Tarfala valley in Kebnekaise area shows the evolution of mountain permafrost may be seen as analogous to that in Western Siberia. This means that the effect of climate changes gives a similar effect in permafrost formation and evolution in both altitudinal and latitudinal extent. The occurrence of two-layered permafrost in Scandes and Western Siberia plain indicates possible analogy in climatic evolution, and gives opportunity to understand them in uniform way.
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Authors and Affiliations

Wojciech Dobiński
Michał Glazer
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Abstract

Beach pollution is one of the most common hazards in present-day anthropogenic environments. Even in the remote Svalbard Archipelago, pollution impacts the beach system and can pose environmental threats. The significant increase in human activity observed in Svalbard over the last 20–30 years has resulted in a visible change in the amount of coastal pollution. A 5 km long transect of modern beach developed along Calypsostranda (Recherchefjorden, Bellsund) was surveyed in the summer of 2015 in order to characterize the beach pollution. During the survey 296 pieces of trash were found on beach surface. 82% of found trash was plastic, followed by glass (8%), and metal (5%). The comparison with previous pollution survey showed the significant increase of plastic waste in local beach environment. Similar problem has been recently recorded in other parts of Svalbard suggesting an urgent need for coastal pollution monitoring.
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Authors and Affiliations

Marek Wojciech Jaskólski
Łukasz Pawłowski
Mateusz Czesław Strzelecki
Piotr Zagórski
ORCID: ORCID
Timothy Patrick Lane
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Abstract

Unique and independent historical observations, carried out in the central Arctic during the early twentieth century warming (ETCW) period, were used to evaluate the older (20CRv2) and newer (20CRv2c) versions of the 20th Century Reanalysis and the HIRHAM5 regional climate model. The latter can reduce several biases compared to its forcing data set (20CRv2) probably due to higher horizontal resolution and a more realistic cloud parameterization. However, low-level temperature and near-surface specific humidity agree best between 20CRv2c and the surface-based observations. This better performance results from more realistic lower boundary conditions for sea ice concentration and sea surface temperature, but it is limited mainly to polar night. Although sea level pressures are very similar, the vertical stratification and baroclinicity change in the transition from 20CRv2 to 20CRv2c. Compared to observed temperature profiles, the systematic cold bias above 400 hPa remains almost unchanged indicating an incorrect coupling between the planetary boundary layer and free troposphere. In addition to surface pressures, it is therefore recommended to assimilate available vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and wind speed. This might also reduce the large biases in 10 m wind speed, but the reliability of the sea ice data remains a great unknown.
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Authors and Affiliations

Daniel Klaus
Przemysław Wyszyński
Klaus Dethloff
Rajmund Przybylak
Annette Rinke
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Abstract

The aim of this research was to study the biodiversity of cyanobacteria and microalgae in hydro-terrestrial habitats from the area of Hornsund fjord (Svalbard archipelago). This research is particularly important, because hitherto no complex research (including all taxonomic groups) has previously been conducted on the cyanobacterial and microalgal flora in Arctic water ecosystems. The research was conducted during the summer seasons of 2011 and 2013. Shannon’s diversity index was used to describe species diversity and evenness. Data on cyanobacteria and microalgae were analyzed using the MVSP and PCA. Additionally, a basic analysis of the physicochemical properties of water in the studied ecosystems was performed. A total of 506 taxa were noted in the studied hydro-terrestrial habitats. The most numerous group was cyanobacteria, constituting 35% of all recorded taxa. Ochrophyta and Chlorphyta were almost equally numerous (percentage again as for cyanobacteria). Nineteen types of assemblages were noted in all studied hydro-terrestrial habitats. The diversity of cyanobacteria and microalgae and the assemblages formed by them were used to determine the characteristics of the studied ecosystems. Each type of water ecosystem was represented by specific phycoflora and assemblages. Ecological parameters along with biological data (the diversity of cyanobacteria and microalgae) allowed us to sort the studied hydro-terrestrial habitats by similarity. Our analyses clearly distinguished water ecosystem groups differing in species composition determining their trophic status. The research shows the usefulness of cyanobacteria and microalgae diversity defined by the Shannon-Weaver index for characterizing bodies of water and determining the trophic status of these habitats.
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Authors and Affiliations

Dorota Richter
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Abstract

Usnea aurantiaco-atra is the dominant flora around King George Island, Antarctica, whose specimens exhibited various phenotypes, even for those with the same ITS sequences in both mycobiont and photobiont. A comprehensive analysis of morphological traits of U. aurantiaco-atra including the reproductive structures, growth forms and ornamentation, cross section of the branches, and the substratum was carried out. Four arbitrary groups were identified based on their reproductive characters, but these groups cannot be distinguished from molecular phylogenetic trees based on fungal or algal ITS sequences. Further, the complicated morphological diversity of the thalli with the same ITS haplotypes in both mycobiont and photobiont suggest that some other factors in addition to the symbionts could influence the morphology of lichens. This implies that lichen is indeed a complex-mini-ecosystem rather than a dual symbiotic association of fungus and alga. Also, a lichenous fungi Phacopsis sp. was identified based on its anatomical characters and ITS sequence, which was also responsible for the black burls-like structures on U. aurantiaco-atra.
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Authors and Affiliations

Shunan Cao
Hongyuan Zheng
Yunshu Cao
Chuanpeng Liu
Lingxiang Zhu
Fang Peng
Qiming Zhou

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The quarterly Polish Polar Research invites original scientific papers dealing with all aspects of polar research. The journal aims to provide a forum for publication of high-quality research papers, which are of international interest.

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