Open Access promotes Polar Research

The move of the journal Polar Research to an open access publisher has allowed us to highlight the results of a long-term survey in the Arctic. St Andrews researchers Tiago Marques and David Borchers are co-authors of: The effect of sea-ice loss on beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) in West Greenland, Polar Research, 29(2): 198-208.

Tiago and the survey team

David Borchers - CREEM; School of Mathematics and Statistics

“An aerial survey was conducted to estimate the abundance of belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) on their wintering ground in West Greenland in March–April 2006 and 2008. [...] These results, based on nearly 30 years of dedicated survey effort, are among the first available evidence showing a shift in distribution of an Arctic cetacean in response to changes in sea-ice coverage.”

Polar Research is now published by Co-Action Publishing with all content now freely available under a Creative Commons licence.

David Borchers has a number of CREEM reports already available in Research@Standrews:FullText

Tiago Marques already has his PhD thesis on distance sampling available in the repository, and has recently contributed another article: Estimating the Barents Sea polar bear subpopulation size in Marine Mammal Science 25(1). The article describes the importance of scientific methods for population sampling, given the "current intense interest in polar bear management due to the potentially disastrous effects of climate change".

Images taken during this large scale survey illustrate the dramatic Arctic terrain and the adventurous life some of our researchers lead!