The Pacific Arctic Group Meeting Opened inShanghai on October 11-13^th

To improve the cooperation and collaboration among the member countries in Pacific Arctic regions during the International Polar Year, the Pacific Arctic Group meeting opened on October 11-13th, 2006 in Shanghai. 

Around 30 officials and scientists from Canada, USA, Russia, Japan, Korea and China gathered together to discuss the cooperation fields, ship coordination and other issues of the member countries for IPY. This meeting turned out to be very productive  , and ten themes was made at this meeting: (1) undertake seasonal and interannual ocean observations in the Pacific Arctic Sector where recent maximum sea ice retreat is occurring.; (2) understanding oceanic and atmospheric processes in the Pacific Arctic, including the feedback loops, are critical to mid-latitude climate variability; (3) monitoring fresh water input via precipitation, riverine input, oceanic input, glacial and sea ice melt in the Pacific Arctic sector will improve our understanding of mid-latitude climate variability and provide additional information to support theme 1; (4) identify and monitor ecosystem and biological indicators (ice, water column, benthic, higher trophic organisms) of climate change in the Pacific Arctic; (5)investigate sea ice thermodynamics including sea ice thickness, extent, and its interactions with ocean and atmospheric forcing in the Pacific Arctic region; investigate sea ice dynamics such as sea ice drift, interactions between different ice packs; (6) understanding the connectivity of warm Atlantic inflow to the Pacific sector, heat flux throughout Arctic, and associated biodiversity/invasion of Atlantic-species into the region. Physical gateways should be mapped and monitored, including outflow through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago; (7) the Arctic Ocean is very poorly mapped from the seafloor to the ice above.  Significant information gaps include the bathymetry, biodiversity, and knowledge of ocean currents and their variabililty over space and time.  Exploration of the unknown Pacific Arctic region is essential for the construction of base maps necessary for the planning of future monitoring efforts; (8) the Pacific water inflow through the Bering Strait region is a key conduit for heat, salt, nutrients, and biological material (including genetic material) to the Arctic basin that influences sea ice cover, halocline formation; (9) near shore coastal processes and sub sea permafrost dynamics are important processes in the shallow Pacific shelf areas are subject to climate change impacts; (10) the open and closing of the Pacific gateway has occurred over geological time periods with dramatic impact on the Arctic system. The paleorecord provides a long-term record for comparative evaluation of climatic processes relative to contemporary studies in prior themes.

The Pacific Arctic Group (PAG) is a loose confederacy of institutes and individuals having a Pacific perspective on Arctic science. Organized under the International Arctic Science Committee, the PAG has the mission to serve as a Pacific Arctic regional partnership to plan, coordinate, and collaborate on science activities of mutual interest. PAG now has six member countries and several observer countries, the PAG secretariat and website are located in Polar Research Institute of China, Martin Bergmann is the Chair, Zhanhai Zhang is the vice chair.