Venue: UiT, Medicine and Health Studies Building 1: Store auditorium (Hansine Hansens veg 62, 9019 Tromsø, Norway)
Date: Thursday 19/9.
All lectures will be delivered in English.
10.30
Arctic Festival 2024 opening and vernissage of the exhibition “Julius Payer: North Pole Expedition”
10.50–11.00
Welcoming remarks
H. E. David Červenka, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Norway and Iceland
Czech Arctic Research “Josef Svoboda Station” in Svalbard
11.00–11.15
Urbanisation and development of technological support for human life in the Arctic;
Development of low temperature algal bioprospection
Josef Elster, Centre for Polar Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice & Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Třeboň, Czechia, elsterjosef@gmail.com
Under present climatic changes, the Arctic brings new opportunities for industrial developments (oil and gas resources, fish and fisheries management, shipping in the Arctic Ocean, etc.). Urbanisation and development of all technological support for human life is one of the most globally urgent tasks for future. Development of low temperature biotechnology is the challenge for Czech Science. Development of novel technologies for low-temperature environments is crucial for minimalization of impacts of human activities and settlements on the pristine Arctic environment. Algal biotechnology based on local algal and/or cyanobacterial strains is one of the tools for the long-term sustainable development of the Polar Regions. A novel type of the photobioreactor for the polar environments with sun-tracking cuvette rotation was developed to receive as much solar energy as possible. After successful operation and performance tests in winter and spring conditions in the Czech Republic, the photobioreactor was transported to the Czech Arctic Research Station in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. At the end of the lecture, the Czech Arctic Research Infrastructure will be shortly presented.
11.15–11.30
Svalbard: Nature in rapid transformation with a changing climate
Kim Holmén, Special advisor, Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway, kim.holmen@npolar.no
The Svalbard archipelago is one of the areas in the world experiencing the fastest and largest climate change. Examples of change include widespread glacier melting, sea-ice decline, permafrost thawing and rapid consequences for ecosystems on land and in the ocean. Human beings are facing challenges with increased extreme weather risks, traditional activities being disrupted by the environmental changes and consequential economic hardship. The lecture includes reflections on what the consequences for the Arctic can mean for the rest of the world but also regarding what the rest of the world is imposing on the Arctic.
11.30–11.45
Polar researcher Julius Payer
Zdeněk Lyčka, AF’s main organizer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Czechia, zdenek.lycka@mzv.gov.cz
Julius Payer (1841–1915) was born in Teplice-Šanov in a German-speaking family. He graduated from the Cadet School in Lobzów near Krakow and the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. He was an excellent topographer who made many dangerous first ascents in the Tyrolean Alps. In 1869–70, he took part in the German Arctic expedition to the eastern shores of Greenland led by Karl Koldewey. In 1871, together with Karl Weyprecht, he made a preliminary exploratory voyage on the sailing ship Isbjørn in the Barents Sea, this time in the Austro-Hungarian expedition, which was to explore the navigation possibilities of the upcoming scientific expedition to the North Pole. The lecture will focus on the private Austro-Hungarian expedition to the North Pole in the years 1872–74 led by Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht. You will find out that the expedition ship Admiral Tegetthoff was permanently trapped in ice four months after her departure and drifted uncontrollably in the Arctic Ocean due to the force of winds and sea currents. In 1873, the crew discovered a new land, which they called Emperor Franz Josef Land in honour of the Austro-Hungarian monarch. After having survived the second winter, the decimated members of the expedition set off on foot, sleds and boats across the thawing sea towards the south. They escaped certain death by cold and hunger after three months full of harsh arctic experiences. In August 1874, they were rescued by the Russian fishing schooner Nikolai off the coast of Novaya Zemlya.
11.45–12.00
Norwegianization and education: a distant past?Lukáš Košner, Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Education, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway, lukas.kosner@uit.no
For more than 100 years, starting from the 1850s, the Norwegian authorities took systematic measures to assimilate the Sámi people and Kvens/Norwegian Finns, a process known as Norwegianization. These harsh policies, with the school system as one of the leading forces, resulted in severe traumas, including language loss in many Sámi and Kven/Norwegian Finnish areas. By contrast, nowadays, education represents a key measure of the language policies to reverse the language shift in Sámi and Kven/Norwegian Finnish communities. In this presentation, I will draw on my longitudinal ethnographic research in which I explore the language choices of primary and lower secondary pupils with the subjects of Sámi, Kven, or Finnish as a second language. I will show that even though the official policies of Norwegianization have been abandoned decades ago, Norwegianization still heavily affects the youth’s presence and future.
12.00–12.15
From Ice Age into today – The story of the spread of an Arctic-Alpine plant species from the Czech mountains to Svalbard and Greenland
Martin Hajman, Leading research technician, Botanical Garden, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway, martin.hajman@uit.no
The shining flowers of the purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) accompany the coldest parts of the Arctic-Alpine zone across the whole northern hemisphere to the northernmost places in the Arctic. Since the recent Ice Age, when Scandinavia was covered by glaciers and Palaeolithic hunters hunted mammoths and reindeers in Prague, until today, we have learned about this flowering messenger of spring from plant relicts and their evolution.
12.15–12.30
The forests of possibility – beneath the sea
Ann Eileen Lennert, Environmental Anthropologist,Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway, ann.e.lennert@uit.no
Beneath the surface of the sea there has always been world and forest of mystery. But, looking back in history this world has not been unknown. It has been explored, studied and used. It has supported, healed and given people along the coast great possibilities Can we learn from the past, unravelling forgotten knowledge to solve some of the challenges we have today?
12.30–12.45
How to do science in polar regions without a station – the case of Estonian polar research
Lauri Laanisto, Professor of macroecology, Head of Chair of Biodiversity and Nature Tourism, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia, laanisto@ut.ee
As a tiny nation, there are different kind of struggles in doing science in polar regions, than bigger countries face. One of them being not having your own station and being reliant of colleagues and infrastructures of other countries. However, there is a quite long history of Estonians doing research in both in the Arctic and in the Antarctic. For the last 40 years these researchers have been belonging to The Estonian Polar Club, which is an initiative bringing together people who have participated in polar research, but also introducing and popularizing polar issues in wider audiences. This presentation gives at first a short overview of the recent activities of the Polar Club, and secondly some more personal insights (from the presenter´s own work) about doing terrestrial plant ecology in Svalbard.
12.45–13.00
Arctic Festival – a traditional event connecting Czech and Arctic (Nordic) culture and science
Zdeněk Lyčka, AF’s main organizer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Czechia, zdenek.lycka@mzv.gov.cz
The Arctic Festival is a traditional festival of Arctic and Czech culture and science. Its main goal is to deepen existing contacts between Czech and Arctic artists and scientists and to establish cooperation between new partners. Thanks to the Festival, both the professional and non-professional public can enjoy the results of the work of Czech and Nordic scientists in Arctic research and learn about joint Czech-Arctic cultural and scientific activities in Czechia and the Arctic. The Czech public can gain an awareness of the Arctic nations and enjoy a unique culture from different parts of the High North. On the contrary, the public in the Arctic can get acquainted with Czech culture. The festival seeks to show how culture can generate media interest in Arctic scientific research, how science can be brought to a non-professional audience, and how public interest can influence the stakeholders’ access to further scientific research and increase its funding. And vice versa – the scientific community, with its long presence in the Arctic, the number of personal contacts and its prestige, opens the door to music, art and other cultural projects that would not otherwise get to these places, and even Arctic culture in the Czechia would not be so known. It is therefore a mutually beneficial symbiosis. It turns out that the presentation of scientific research together with culture is not a pointless slap in the water, but rather a very significant and innovative achievement, as evidenced by the science and culture festivals At Home in Svalbard 2018 and Arctic Festivals 2019-24.