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Executive Summary for December 28th

We review and analyze the latest news and most important developments in the Arctic, including a report that Russia is beefing up its military presence in the region and a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that cold-season emissions of methane gas from melting permafrost may be having more of an impact than previously realized.

Published on Dec. 28, 2015 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Russia is increasing its military presence in the Arctic, the Times of London has reported.

Moscow “is opening new permanent bases and deploying its most advanced anti-aircraft missiles to the region as it asserts its claim to billions of tonnes of oil and gas in disputed waters,” it reported, adding that the country has nearly completed six new military bases “designed to rebuff foreign intruders who endanger its economic interests.”

“The conditions are very tough, especially in winter, so these new bases will allow Russian troops to be located there all year and to control the airspace for hundreds of kilometres around,” Igor Korotchenko, editor of the Moscow-based journal National Defence, was quoted as saying.

The report added that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long-term plan is to build 13 airfields and 10 radar posts in the Arctic, and that there are currently 150 Russian troops at the Arctic Trefoil base, on the Russian island of Alexandra Land.

Moscow announced earlier this month that S-400 air defence missiles are being established on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and at the Arctic port of Tiksi. The other five military bases nearing completion are on Kotelny Island in the New Siberian islands, Sredny Island in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, the Rogachevo settlement on Novaya Zemlya, and Wrangel Island and Cape Schmidt on the Chukotka peninsula, the newspaper reported.

Cold-season methane emissions ‘significant’: study

Cold-season emissions of methane gas in the Arctic may be having more of an impact than previously realized, a new study has suggested.

Researchers writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences noted that many of the previous studies on the release of methane gas from melting permafrost have focused on the summer months. Scientists are concerned melting permafrost, which can also release large quantities of carbon dioxide when it thaws, may become a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming, according to the Washington Post.

“The cold period in general is the time of the year that is warming the fastest in these Arctic ecosystems,” said the new study’s lead author Donatella Zona, an assistant professor at San Diego State University and research fellow at the University of Sheffield. “Really, if we’re thinking about the future of climate change, we need to understand if this time of the year is important.”

The researchers examined data collected from five different sites in Alaska between June 2013 and January 2015, as well as data collected from aircraft in the same region. They found that cold-season methane emissions were, in fact, significant.

Zona was quoted as saying that emissions varied somewhat from site to site, but that overall, emissions from September to May accounted for about half of all the methane emitted from those sites throughout the entire year, the newspaper reported. She added that the key to understanding where cold-season emissions come from lies in the way Arctic soil is structured and how it reacts to changes in temperature.

Top image: A massive landslide fell across the toe of Tyndall Glacier in Icy Bay, Alaska, in October. A new monitoring system gives scientists more opportunity to study these events. (NPS / Jacob W. Frank)

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