Search Results (310)

Environmental damage assessment has become an important institutional component of regional sustainability transitions, especially in resource-dependent northern territories where industrial risks, fragile ecosystems, sparse monitoring networks, and limited institutional capacity intersect. Existing oil-spill valuation approaches provide well-developed legal, economic, and ecosystem-service tools; however, their use as decision-support instruments for compensation governance, prevention investment, monitoring design, and regional resilience policy remains insufficiently operationalized. This article addresses this gap by developing a modular institutional framework for selecting and combining established environmental damage valuation methods under the ecological, legal, data-related, and socio-cultural constraints of the Russian North. The study applies a transparent narrative methodological review and framework-building design based on international and Russian literature, official regulatory sources, natural-resource damage assessment practice, ecosystem-service valuation studies, and publicly available evidence on the 2020 Norilsk diesel fuel spill. The analysis organizes six established valuation approaches into three complementary modules: direct harm, indirect and opportunity-related losses, and non-market ecosystem-service losses. The Norilsk case is used as an illustrative plausibility check rather than a full empirical recalculation. It shows that legally recognized compensation can provide a liability signal, but indirect losses and ecosystem-service components require separate evidence, sensitivity analysis, and double-counting control. The contribution of the article is to adapt established valuation methods into a transparent decision-support protocol that links environmental liability, compensation governance, prevention, monitoring, institutional resilience and regional sustainability transitions in Arctic and sub-Arctic resource regions. Full article

This study examines why ice covers on the Churchill River in Labrador crack during winter and how weather, river flow, freezing conditions, and riverbed features contribute to these events. Using data from 2010 to 2025 and satellite imagery, the study shows that cracks most often occur in December to February when heavy snow, rapid flow changes, or long cold periods place stress on the ice. Cracking also frequently starts near sandbars where the ice is weaker. The results highlight that no single factor causes cracking. Instead, a combination of snow load, temperature, flow variability, and local river conditions determines when and where cracks form. There is also a disconnect from flow regulation since cracks also formed in 2012 before the construction of the dam began in 2015. A field survey was also carried out employing a combination of borehole jack (BHJ) testing and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys to quantify spatial variations in ice strength and thickness across a portion of the lower Churchill River across two sandbars. In situ BHJ measurements were conducted at multiple sites to determine confined compressive ice strength under both floating and grounded conditions, revealing substantial local variability linked to differences in ice support and the presence of white versus black ice. Complementary GPR transects using 500 MHz and 1000 MHz systems provided high-resolution profiles of ice thickness and internal structure, enabling identification of transitions between grounded and floating ice. The integrated BHJ–GPR approach allowed direct comparison between point-scale strength measurements and spatially continuous thickness and grounding patterns, demonstrating that grounded ice and ice containing higher proportions of white ice exhibited more complex stress states and greater variability in mechanical response. Together, these measurements highlight the importance of combining geophysical surveying with in situ mechanical testing to better understand how environmental conditions control ice integrity and potentially influence ice-jam lodgement propensity along regulated subarctic rivers. Full article

Petroleum hydrocarbon contamination of soils remains a persistent environmental problem in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, where oil extraction, pipeline transportation, fuel storage, industrial legacy sites, and diesel-dependent infrastructure coexist with fragile cold-climate ecosystems. Remediation in these regions is constrained by low temperatures, short thaw seasons, permafrost, waterlogged active layers, slow vegetation recovery, limited infrastructure, and high mobilization costs, which limit the direct transferability of conventional temperate-zone technologies. This study presents a structured narrative review of international and Russian evidence on petroleum-contaminated soil management in cold regions, focusing on monitoring as a basis for remediation decision-making. Peer-reviewed studies, technical guidance documents, regulatory frameworks, and regional case studies were analyzed across key domains, including environmental constraints, hydrocarbon behavior, monitoring methodologies, and remediation technologies. Particular attention is given to chemical analysis, hydrocarbon fractionation, bioavailability-oriented methods, ecotoxicological bioassays, and microbial indicators as tools linking contamination assessment with remediation strategy selection. Reliance on total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) concentration as a primary endpoint is shown to be insufficient, especially in cold-region soils where strong sorption and limited mass transfer decouple concentration from biological exposure. Multi-endpoint monitoring systems provide a more reliable basis for assessing contaminant risk, treatment effectiveness, and soil recovery. For the Russian Arctic, the integration of national recultivation frameworks with risk-based assessment and ecotoxicological monitoring is identified as a key pathway for improving remediation outcomes. A decision-oriented framework is proposed that links environmental conditions, contaminant properties, and monitoring data to support the selection and optimization of remediation strategies. This study supports a transition from concentration-based cleanup toward risk-informed and ecosystem-oriented management of petroleum-contaminated soils in Arctic and sub-Arctic environments. Full article

Benthic foraminifera are widely used as indicators of marine environmental conditions due to their sensitivity to ecological changes and their excellent preservation in sediments. In this study, benthic foraminiferal assemblages from a sediment core collected in the central Yellow Sea were investigated to document faunal composition and examine temporal changes since the Late Pleistocene. A total of 54 benthic foraminiferal species belonging to 33 genera, 25 families, seven orders, three classes, and one phylum were identified. Among them, 12 species are newly recorded in Korean waters, reflecting the current incompleteness of regional faunal inventories and the importance of detailed taxonomic studies. The assemblages exhibit distinct stratigraphic variations. The lower interval (>30 ka) is characterized by low-diversity assemblages dominated by taxa commonly associated with marginal marine environments. The middle interval (ca. 20–25 ka) shows the occurrence of taxa typically reported from boreal to subarctic environments, suggesting changes in environmental conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum. In contrast, the upper interval (Holocene) is marked by increased species diversity and the dominance of taxa characteristic of normal marine shelf environments. These assemblage changes are interpreted as reflecting long-term responses of benthic communities to sea-level fluctuations, sedimentary conditions, and regional oceanographic variability in the Yellow Sea. In particular, the development of fine-grained deposits in the Central Yellow Sea Mud (CYSM) and the establishment of stable marine shelf conditions during the Holocene likely played important roles in shaping benthic habitats. This study provides new baseline data on benthic foraminiferal diversity in the Yellow Sea and demonstrates the potential of these assemblages as useful, though indirect, indicators for reconstructing past environmental changes. The results highlight the importance of integrating detailed taxonomic analyses with stratigraphic records to improve our understanding of marine biodiversity and paleoenvironmental variability in marginal seas. Full article

Rising temperatures, driven by global climate change, are profoundly altering high-latitude ecosystems, influencing vegetation phenology and productivity. However, understanding the long-term, nuanced responses of these ecosystems remains a critical challenge. Soil warming experiments have served as useful tools for understanding these shifts. However, many of these studies have relied on a single measure, predominantly the Normalized Difference Vegetation (NDVI), measured at a single level of warming. This approach often fails to separate structural greening from underlying physiological responses. To address these gaps, this study provided a comprehensive snapshot assessment of growing season vegetation dynamics in a subarctic grassland ecosystem in Iceland that had been exposed to continuous geothermal soil warming for over 60 years. Using high-resolution multispectral drone imagery, twelve different vegetation indices (VIs) were derived to assess not only greenness but also physiological stress and photosynthetic efficiency across a range of mean annual soil temperatures (MATs). Using linear regression and redundancy analysis (RDA), the responses of these indices to warming and their relationships with other environmental drivers, such as standing biomass and plant nutrient concentrations (nitrogen and phosphorus), were analyzed. The results revealed significant positive linear relationships between most of the indices and MATs across the 5 to 11 °C range. This indicated that higher MATs led to increased biomass and structural growth, without revealing any significant thresholds or tipping points in vegetation response within the observed warming range. However, the Photochemical Reflectance (PRI) showed a significant negative relationship with warming, suggesting a decoupling between structural greening and photosynthetic light-use efficiency. Furthermore, RDA results indicated that, while most of the VIs were primarily driven by biomass, the decline in PRI was likely a compounding effect of physical canopy self-shading and plant phosphorus constraints. Ultimately, this study demonstrated that, while these subarctic grasslands exhibited local evidence of “Arctic greening” under further warming, multispectral drone remote sensing could detect underlying physiological adjustments and nutrient constraints that traditional greenness indices might overlook, providing a more nuanced understanding of ecosystem response. Full article

Anthropogenic pollution may impose additional pressure on European populations of large protected carnivores due to the systemic toxicity of contaminants such as cadmium, lead, and radiocaesium (¹³⁷Cs). Our aim was to carry out ¹³⁷Cs, radiopotassium (⁴⁰K), and stable element distribution analysis through seven tissues of grey wolves (Canis lupus) from temperate forests of Croatia using ultra-low background gamma-ray spectrometry and ICPMS, respectively. In addition, radiolead (²¹⁰Pb) massic activity was quantified in femoral bone. The massic activity of ¹³⁷Cs in the heart, kidney, liver, spleen, lungs, and femoral bone (in decreasing order) ranged from 9–61% relative to muscle and showed strong inter-tissue correlations. However, correlations between radionuclides and their stable analogues in wolf tissues indicated considerable uncertainty in the use of stable element data for radiological risk assessment. In addition, concentration ratios (CR_{whole organism-soil}) derived from stable element data should be applied with caution when radionuclide data are lacking. Overall, radionuclide activities and element levels not subject to homeostatic regulation in grey wolves were comparable to or lower than those reported for other populations, particularly those from sub-Arctic regions. Despite being apex terrestrial predators, wolves inhabiting temperate ecosystems do not currently appear to be at risk of adverse health effects from exposure to the most relevant inorganic anthropogenic pollutants. Full article

Tourism and hospitality organisations in remote, highly seasonal Arctic and sub-Arctic destinations face persistent workforce instability, multicultural team dynamics, and well-being risks that threaten service reliability and organisational continuity. Previous research has focused mainly on destination- and community-level resilience, while giving less attention to how resilience is built within tourism organisations through everyday workforce-related practices. This study examines people-centred organisational resilience through a qualitative comparative design in two northern contexts: Iceland and Finnish Lapland. The empirical material comprised semi-structured interviews in Iceland and interviews, organisational documents, and field observations in Finnish Lapland, collected in autumn 2025. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings identify four recurring resilience mechanisms: leadership under seasonal and environmental pressure; employee experience across employment phases; living conditions and belonging; and ethical governance. Here, “mechanisms” refers not simply to broad topics but to organisational processes through which recurring practices support resilience in remote, highly seasonal tourism settings. Together, these mechanisms show that resilience in remote tourism is built not only through operational flexibility or crisis response, but through people-centred organisational practices that support continuity, coordination, safety, and trust across seasons. The study contributes a workforce-centred extension of resilience theory in tourism and offers a comparative account of how these mechanisms operate across two northern tourism settings. Full article

Wintertime extratropical cyclones frequently traverse the Kuroshio–Oyashio Extension frontal system. However, their net impacts on synoptic sea-surface temperature (SST) variability and mixed-layer structure remain uncertain in the presence of strong fronts and intrinsic ocean variability. Using reanalysis data, we classify extreme events into cyclone cold-sector and warm-sector types based on synoptic air–sea flux anomalies. With ensembles of single-column model experiments, we decompose the upper-ocean response into surface heat-flux forcing, wind-driven mechanical mixing, Ekman temperature advection, wave-breaking mixing, and freshwater effects. Cold-sector events amplify synoptic SST variability and deepen the mixed layer, whereas warm-sector events suppress SST variability and shoal the mixed layer. Surface heat flux is the primary driver of both responses. Ekman advection provides crucial modulation within the frontal zone. Wave-breaking mixing generally damps temperature perturbations. Freshwater forcing exerts a pronounced regional influence southeast of the subarctic front. The combined effects yield an asymmetric spatial fingerprint on SST variability and mixed-layer depth across the frontal system. Comparison between forced variability and total reanalysis variability indicates that within the frontal zone, atmospheric impacts can be redistributed or partly offset by intrinsic ocean processes, while outside the frontal zone, the behavior is closer to an externally forced response. Full article

In Canada, Indigenous communities have been disproportionately flooded. Specifically, Fort Albany First Nation (FN) located on a flood plain near the mouth of the Albany River in subarctic Ontario, Canada, has been evacuated frequently due to flooding or the threat of flooding―even though dikes were constructed in the late 1990s to safeguard the community. Thus, a fundamental question needs to be asked: Why is Fort Albany FN located on a flood plain in the first place? We answer the question through an Indigenous environmental justice lens using document and archival research in the context of the treaty making process between Fort Albany FN and the British Crown, and the establishment of reserves. In brief, procedural issues were noted, as there was no transparency in reserve choice at the time of signing the treaty, and during the actual surveying of the reserve boundaries with certain types of land being excluded from reserve locations, unbeknownst to the FNs peoples. The Cree were also misled into believing that they would retain access to their whole traditional homeland―and not be confined to reserve land―the Cree believed that they only agreed to share the land. Historically, the Cree harmonized with the seasons and would not be residing in the Albany River floodplain during river freeze-up and during river break-up―adaptive behaviour to avoid flooding. Harmonizing with the environment had allowed the mobile Cree to live successfully with the annual flooding of the Albany River for millennia, until being forced to live permanently on reserve land by the colonial government. Nonetheless, the Cree still sustain their cultural worldview acknowledging the Cree cycle of life. The way forward for Fort Albany First Nation will be either relocation to high ground or trying to tame nature by reinforcing the existing dikes—or some novel combination of both based on two worldviews. Full article

Wood and coal cofiring holds great potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from grate-fired combustion systems, as well as being widely technically feasible. This research was among the first to evaluate CO and NO_x levels within grate-fired cofiring at small utility scales. We evaluated two wood fuel types—high-quality aspen chips and lower-quality pellet mill residues. Each wood fuel was evaluated at two cofiring rates. Over 6 days of testing, CO contents ranged from 40 to 620 ppm, and NO_x contents ranged from 82 to 145 ppm. We found statistically significant differences in CO content when comparing low versus high cofiring rates, with high cofiring having greater CO concentrations. Relatively high CO emissions were attributed to greater moisture within the combustion chamber at higher levels of wood. Combustion efficiency versus cofiring rate was generally modeled the best as a quadratic relationship; carbon monoxide content versus cofiring rate was best modeled linearly. There were very few changes in combustion efficiency, fuel handing, or plant operation at the utility scale when cofiring at up to 15 percent of the energy value (versus no cofiring). From an operational standpoint, cofiring was relatively easy to implement and well received by plant managers. Full article

For the last three summers in Canada (2023–2025), and episodically in Siberia over the previous decade and a half, severe consequences from wildfires represent major ecological and societal impacts: the displacement of inhabitants; destruction of buildings, timber and infrastructure; and far-field air pollution. Wildfire occurrence is increasingly supported every summer by persistent surface warming and widespread atmospheric moisture deficits. The two recent major Canadian fire years in 2023 and 2025 show some contrasts: 2023 was dominated by an early June event with preconditioning, whereas 2025 saw repeated single events spanning June to early August, culminating in a significant late-summer event. Events in both years were associated with North Pacific–North American atmospheric blocking regimes. Over the longer term, 2003–2025, normalized June–September wildfire fraction anomalies in the Canadian sector (45–60° N, 150–60° W) show the post-2023 period as having new, clear, record-breaking fire intensities, highlighting wildfires as emerging dominant Arctic–subarctic extremes. Siberia shows an increase after 2010. Although multiple environmental Arctic–subarctic extremes are ongoing—such as sea-ice loss, storms, and glacial ice loss—the impacts from wildfires represent preeminent, growing societal consequences. Full article

The transition toward sustainable energy in Arctic and subarctic regions requires innovative approaches that account for both the unique geographical conditions and the economic and policy challenges associated with isolated power systems. This study examines how net energy metering (NEM) and net billing schemes influence distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption and financial performance among utilities in Alaska’s Railbelt. The Railbelt, which supplies power to three-quarters of the state’s population, remains heavily reliant on natural gas and exhibits limited renewable penetration compared to other arctic regions. Using a stochastic risk-based modeling framework with Monte Carlo simulations and the Bass diffusion model, the analysis estimates the 15-year financial impacts of different NEM adoption scenarios on utilities. Results show that while NEM drives PV adoption through higher compensation for exported generation, it also increases potential revenue losses for utilities compared to net billing. Policy innovations like those introduced in Alaska’s House Bill 164 (HB 164), which establishes a reimbursement fund to mitigate utility revenue losses, indicate that regulatory work is being designed to balance distributed generation incentives with economic sustainability. This work provides a baseline for understanding how a policy framework influences both utility and consumer economics in terms of NEM and solar PV adoption in Arctic and subarctic systems. Full article

Climate warming impacts arctic and subarctic lands, subjecting it to a generalized rise in soil temperature and causing changes in the surface cover. Land cover is a key control parameter for soil hydrothermal states, and its study by satellite imagery is necessary for monitoring boreal surface changes over time at large scales. Understanding the links between land cover and environmental conditions is also crucial to anticipate the impacts of atmospheric changes on continental surfaces. Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data combined with a field campaign in July 2024 were used to produce a 10 m spatial resolution land cover map in the Abisko region, northern Sweden, covering 2180 km² and including three watersheds with an overall accuracy exceeding 94%. In parallel, temperature and precipitation fields were statistically downscaled at 100 m spatial resolution using topography, ordinary kriging based on weather stations and reanalysis. The relationships between surface areas and average summer temperature–precipitation clusters reveal that the vegetation distribution closely reflects the recent atmospheric conditions with the treeline following the 10.2 °C July–August isotherm in the considered area. This study provides a spatial basis for investigating the complex atmosphere–surface interactions and for assessing the sensitivity of boreal landscapes to ongoing climate warming. Full article

Seals are keystone animals in the Arctic and a valuable resource for Indigenous communities, but their virome is poorly understood. Through a preliminary investigation of the virome of seven North Atlantic bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus) from northwest Newfoundland, Canada, we discovered a new member of the Paramyxoviridae, a family including important animal pathogens. The complete coding genome sequence (15,898 nt) of the novel paramyxovirus, which we named bearded seal-associated paramyxovirus 1 (BSAPV-1), encoded five core paramyxoviral proteins—nucleoprotein, matrix, fusion, hemagglutinin-neuraminidase, and polymerase—and three proteins with no identifiable homologues that may represent the phosphoprotein, a small hydrophobic protein, and a transmembrane protein. Phylogenetic analysis, including BSAPV-1 and all 153 currently known paramyxoviral species, positioned the novel virus in a long-branched clade with Wenzhou Pacific spadenose shark paramyxovirus (Skoliovirinae, Scoliodonvirus scoliodontis), its closest relative (pairwise identity of the L protein: 30.1%). According to ICTV criteria, BSAPV-1 is likely the first member of a novel paramyxoviral subfamily. As the virus was found in combined tracheal/fecal swabs of a single animal, we could not conclude whether this is a seal virus or a virus associated with seal food. This study expands our knowledge about marine paramyxoviruses, and future studies should investigate BSAPV-1 ecology, spread, and host spectrum. Full article

Small mammals play a central role in northern ecosystems, yet their diversity and habitat associations remain poorly documented in the subarctic mountains of northwestern Canada. I assessed small mammal assemblages across elevational and habitat gradients in Tombstone Territorial Park, located in the Taiga Cordillera Ecozone. My objectives were to document small mammal diversity and habitat associations. In 2005, small mammals were sampled at 27 sites representing seven common habitat types, ranging from lowland boreal forest to subalpine shrublands and alpine tundra. Twelve species of voles, lemmings, mice, and shrews were captured. Species richness and relative abundance were highest in lowland habitats and declined with increasing elevation. Alpine habitats supported fewer, highly specialized species. Several species were restricted to lowland habitats, whereas two species occurred exclusively in alpine tundra. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed a separation of species assemblages based primarily on moisture. These findings demonstrated that moisture, elevation, and habitat type structured small mammal assemblages in this northern mountain landscape. As a first approximation of small mammal assemblages in the Taiga Cordillera Ecozone, I provide a historical baseline for detecting recent and future ecological change. Climate change may facilitate the range expansion of lowland species and alter alpine assemblages, with potential consequences for community composition, trophic interactions, and ecosystem processes, highlighting the importance of small mammal monitoring in a rapidly warming subarctic. Full article