Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020
The ocean is a lifeline for human existence, but current practices risk severely undermining ocea... more The ocean is a lifeline for human existence, but current practices risk severely undermining ocean sustainability. Present and future social−ecological challenges necessitate the maintenance and development of knowledge and action by stimulating collaboration among scientists and between science, policy, and practice. Here we explore not only how such collaborations have developed in the Nordic countries and adjacent seas but also how knowledge from these regions contributes to an understanding of how to obtain a sustainable ocean. Our collective experience may be summarized in three points: 1) In the absence of long-term observations, decision-making is subject to high risk arising from natural variability; 2) in the absence of established scientific organizations, advice to stakeholders often relies on a few advisors, making them prone to biased perceptions; and 3) in the absence of trust between policy makers and the science community, attuning to a changing ocean will be subject...
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2019
Climate change yields both challenges and opportunities. In both cases, costly adaptations and tr... more Climate change yields both challenges and opportunities. In both cases, costly adaptations and transformations are necessary and desirable, and these must be based on realistic and relevant climate information. However, it is often difficult for climate scientists to communicate this information to decision-makers and stakeholders, and it can be equally difficult for such actors to interpret and put the information to use. In this essay, we discuss experiences and present recommendations for scientists producing climate services. The basis is our work in several climate service projects. One of them aimed to provide local-scale climate data for municipalities in western Norway and to explore how the data were interpreted and implemented. The project was first based solely on climate science expertise, and the participants did not have sufficient competence on coproduction and knowledge about the regulatory and political landscape in which municipalities operate. Initially, we also s...
We need to imbue students with a central value: Adherence to the scientific method is, in itself,... more We need to imbue students with a central value: Adherence to the scientific method is, in itself, good citizenship.
ABSTRACT Skriufonnen is a small cirque glacier (0.03 km 2) in the continental mountains of Rondan... more ABSTRACT Skriufonnen is a small cirque glacier (0.03 km 2) in the continental mountains of Rondane in southern Norway. At present, it is the only glacier in Rondane, and very little is known about Holocene glacier fluctuations in this region. Direct observations of the glacier began in 2002, since which time Skriufonnen has been in a state of strong decline. In order to provide a temporal context, past glacier fluctuations were reconstructed based on a series of short HTH gravity cores (n = 8) and long piston cores (n = 6) retrieved from three downstream lakes of Skriufonnen. The cores were analysed for selected magnetic properties (χbulk, ARM, SIRM, 77 K/293 K), organic content (LOI), and geochemical trace elements. Soil catchment samples (n = 6) were collected along a transect running from the three lakes up to the present glacier terminus. Bulk susceptibility (χbulk) measurements show that the finest fractions systematically return the highest values and that ferromagnetic minerals are depleted with distance to the glacier front. This means that periods dominated by paramagnetic minerals indicate very little or no glacier activity, whereas intervals with more ferromagnetic minerals suggest increased glacier activity. The quantitative core analyses indicate that Skriufonnen existed prior to 10,200 b2k (years before A.D. 2000) and disappeared ~10,000 b2k. No glacier activity is recorded from c. 10,000 b2k until the glacier reoccurred at the onset of the local Neoglacial period, c. 4000 b2k. The glacier attained its maximum extent between 3200 and 2400 b2k and during the end of the 'Little Ice Age' (LIA) c. A.D. 1800. Neoglacial fluctuations of Skriufonnen are in line with shifts in local summer temperatures and show a delayed Neoglacial inception compared to western Norway.
In the late eighteenth century explorers and scientists started venturing into the Arctic beyond ... more In the late eighteenth century explorers and scientists started venturing into the Arctic beyond areas that were already populated by Indigenous peoples and a smaller number of new settlers, and ultimately towards the North Pole. It was about as far as anyone could get from civilization at the time, and in many respects it remains this way to this day. What the fi rst explorers saw had not yet been seen and recorded by Western civilization. They were the fi rst to tell the stories and document the state of the Arctic – its physical landscape and Indigenous cultures. The prosaic descriptions are many and colourful, moving and poetic, and they also soon began to provide detailed accounts of the state of Indigenous living conditions. A shared feature in these fi rst accounts, in prints and in paintings, is the descriptions of a harsh and barren landscape frozen in time; static and unchangeable, except for the swift sways in weather. Fanciful images of indigenous communities in isolated settlements, without any contact with “western civilization” came to shape the following generations perception of the Arctic. While the Arctic gradually became a place where new maps and lines drawn became a reality to outsiders, it was also, and had been for thousands of years, the homeland for many and diverse groups of indigenous peoples, surviving in at times unforgiving conditions while developing vibrant cultures, including strong traditions for adapting to changing conditions. The storytelling is today highly valued by itself and for its importance as a complement to science. And northern art has become more vibrant than ever as shown in some chapters here integrating the changes occurring on so many grounds. B. Evengård , MD, PhD (*) Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical Microbiology , Umeå University Hospital , Umeå SE-901 85 , Sweden e-mail: birgitta.evengard@umu.se Ø. Paasche , PhD Bergen Marine Research Cluster , Professor Keysersgt. 8 , Bergen NO-5020 , Norway University of the Arctic (UArctic) , PO Box 122 , Rovaniemi FI-96101 , Finland e-mail: Oyvind.paasche@uib.no J. N. Larsen Stefansson Arctic Institute and University of Akureyri , Akureyri , Iceland e-mail: jnl@unak.is
The maritime plateau glacier of northern Folgefonna in western Norway has a short (subdecadal) re... more The maritime plateau glacier of northern Folgefonna in western Norway has a short (subdecadal) response time to climatic shifts, and is therefore well suited for reconstructing high-resolution glacier fluctuations. The reconstruction presented here is based on physical parameters of glaciolacustrine sediments retrieved from two glacier-fed lakes and a peat bog north of the ice cap. Bulk density and modelled glacier net mass balance for the last 200 years show a remarkably similar pattern, where maximum sediment yield lags the glacier net mass balance by-10 years. The record of glacier variations has been transferred into an equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) variation curve. Glaciers respond primarily to changes in summer temperature and winter precipitation. At present there is a high correlation between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index and measured (since the early 1960s) net mass balance on maritime glaciers in western Norway (r=-0.8). Reconstructed glacier variations from...
Analysis of two continuous, high-resolution palaeo-flood records from southern Norway reveals tha... more Analysis of two continuous, high-resolution palaeo-flood records from southern Norway reveals that the frequency of extreme flood events has changed significantly during the Holocene. During the early and middle Holocene, flood frequency was low; by contrast, it ...
Experimental rock mechanics studies have shown that brittle failure of porous granu- lar rocks is... more Experimental rock mechanics studies have shown that brittle failure of porous granu- lar rocks is governed by the growth of microcracks. Under triaxial compression, at low confining pressures, the mechanical behaviour of rocks is usually compactive up to the onset of dilation, beyond which cracks start to nucleate and propagate. Macroscopic failure occurs when these cracks coalesce by mutual interaction.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020
The ocean is a lifeline for human existence, but current practices risk severely undermining ocea... more The ocean is a lifeline for human existence, but current practices risk severely undermining ocean sustainability. Present and future social−ecological challenges necessitate the maintenance and development of knowledge and action by stimulating collaboration among scientists and between science, policy, and practice. Here we explore not only how such collaborations have developed in the Nordic countries and adjacent seas but also how knowledge from these regions contributes to an understanding of how to obtain a sustainable ocean. Our collective experience may be summarized in three points: 1) In the absence of long-term observations, decision-making is subject to high risk arising from natural variability; 2) in the absence of established scientific organizations, advice to stakeholders often relies on a few advisors, making them prone to biased perceptions; and 3) in the absence of trust between policy makers and the science community, attuning to a changing ocean will be subject...
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2019
Climate change yields both challenges and opportunities. In both cases, costly adaptations and tr... more Climate change yields both challenges and opportunities. In both cases, costly adaptations and transformations are necessary and desirable, and these must be based on realistic and relevant climate information. However, it is often difficult for climate scientists to communicate this information to decision-makers and stakeholders, and it can be equally difficult for such actors to interpret and put the information to use. In this essay, we discuss experiences and present recommendations for scientists producing climate services. The basis is our work in several climate service projects. One of them aimed to provide local-scale climate data for municipalities in western Norway and to explore how the data were interpreted and implemented. The project was first based solely on climate science expertise, and the participants did not have sufficient competence on coproduction and knowledge about the regulatory and political landscape in which municipalities operate. Initially, we also s...
We need to imbue students with a central value: Adherence to the scientific method is, in itself,... more We need to imbue students with a central value: Adherence to the scientific method is, in itself, good citizenship.
ABSTRACT Skriufonnen is a small cirque glacier (0.03 km 2) in the continental mountains of Rondan... more ABSTRACT Skriufonnen is a small cirque glacier (0.03 km 2) in the continental mountains of Rondane in southern Norway. At present, it is the only glacier in Rondane, and very little is known about Holocene glacier fluctuations in this region. Direct observations of the glacier began in 2002, since which time Skriufonnen has been in a state of strong decline. In order to provide a temporal context, past glacier fluctuations were reconstructed based on a series of short HTH gravity cores (n = 8) and long piston cores (n = 6) retrieved from three downstream lakes of Skriufonnen. The cores were analysed for selected magnetic properties (χbulk, ARM, SIRM, 77 K/293 K), organic content (LOI), and geochemical trace elements. Soil catchment samples (n = 6) were collected along a transect running from the three lakes up to the present glacier terminus. Bulk susceptibility (χbulk) measurements show that the finest fractions systematically return the highest values and that ferromagnetic minerals are depleted with distance to the glacier front. This means that periods dominated by paramagnetic minerals indicate very little or no glacier activity, whereas intervals with more ferromagnetic minerals suggest increased glacier activity. The quantitative core analyses indicate that Skriufonnen existed prior to 10,200 b2k (years before A.D. 2000) and disappeared ~10,000 b2k. No glacier activity is recorded from c. 10,000 b2k until the glacier reoccurred at the onset of the local Neoglacial period, c. 4000 b2k. The glacier attained its maximum extent between 3200 and 2400 b2k and during the end of the 'Little Ice Age' (LIA) c. A.D. 1800. Neoglacial fluctuations of Skriufonnen are in line with shifts in local summer temperatures and show a delayed Neoglacial inception compared to western Norway.
In the late eighteenth century explorers and scientists started venturing into the Arctic beyond ... more In the late eighteenth century explorers and scientists started venturing into the Arctic beyond areas that were already populated by Indigenous peoples and a smaller number of new settlers, and ultimately towards the North Pole. It was about as far as anyone could get from civilization at the time, and in many respects it remains this way to this day. What the fi rst explorers saw had not yet been seen and recorded by Western civilization. They were the fi rst to tell the stories and document the state of the Arctic – its physical landscape and Indigenous cultures. The prosaic descriptions are many and colourful, moving and poetic, and they also soon began to provide detailed accounts of the state of Indigenous living conditions. A shared feature in these fi rst accounts, in prints and in paintings, is the descriptions of a harsh and barren landscape frozen in time; static and unchangeable, except for the swift sways in weather. Fanciful images of indigenous communities in isolated settlements, without any contact with “western civilization” came to shape the following generations perception of the Arctic. While the Arctic gradually became a place where new maps and lines drawn became a reality to outsiders, it was also, and had been for thousands of years, the homeland for many and diverse groups of indigenous peoples, surviving in at times unforgiving conditions while developing vibrant cultures, including strong traditions for adapting to changing conditions. The storytelling is today highly valued by itself and for its importance as a complement to science. And northern art has become more vibrant than ever as shown in some chapters here integrating the changes occurring on so many grounds. B. Evengård , MD, PhD (*) Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical Microbiology , Umeå University Hospital , Umeå SE-901 85 , Sweden e-mail: birgitta.evengard@umu.se Ø. Paasche , PhD Bergen Marine Research Cluster , Professor Keysersgt. 8 , Bergen NO-5020 , Norway University of the Arctic (UArctic) , PO Box 122 , Rovaniemi FI-96101 , Finland e-mail: Oyvind.paasche@uib.no J. N. Larsen Stefansson Arctic Institute and University of Akureyri , Akureyri , Iceland e-mail: jnl@unak.is
The maritime plateau glacier of northern Folgefonna in western Norway has a short (subdecadal) re... more The maritime plateau glacier of northern Folgefonna in western Norway has a short (subdecadal) response time to climatic shifts, and is therefore well suited for reconstructing high-resolution glacier fluctuations. The reconstruction presented here is based on physical parameters of glaciolacustrine sediments retrieved from two glacier-fed lakes and a peat bog north of the ice cap. Bulk density and modelled glacier net mass balance for the last 200 years show a remarkably similar pattern, where maximum sediment yield lags the glacier net mass balance by-10 years. The record of glacier variations has been transferred into an equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) variation curve. Glaciers respond primarily to changes in summer temperature and winter precipitation. At present there is a high correlation between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index and measured (since the early 1960s) net mass balance on maritime glaciers in western Norway (r=-0.8). Reconstructed glacier variations from...
Analysis of two continuous, high-resolution palaeo-flood records from southern Norway reveals tha... more Analysis of two continuous, high-resolution palaeo-flood records from southern Norway reveals that the frequency of extreme flood events has changed significantly during the Holocene. During the early and middle Holocene, flood frequency was low; by contrast, it ...
Experimental rock mechanics studies have shown that brittle failure of porous granu- lar rocks is... more Experimental rock mechanics studies have shown that brittle failure of porous granu- lar rocks is governed by the growth of microcracks. Under triaxial compression, at low confining pressures, the mechanical behaviour of rocks is usually compactive up to the onset of dilation, beyond which cracks start to nucleate and propagate. Macroscopic failure occurs when these cracks coalesce by mutual interaction.
Uploads
Papers by Øyvind Paasche