The Sixth International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR-6)
Summary Statement from the ASM3 Special Session1
The Arctic is experiencing rapid environmental changes, creating far-reaching environmental,societal, and economic challenges for people living in the region. The consequences of these changes
are global, influencing the weather, ecosystems, and human societies well beyond the region. Despite
our increased knowledge of the underlying physics that drives these changes, many atmospheric,marine, and terrestrial processes are not fully understood; especially the roles of clouds, aerosols,sea ice, greenhouse gases, land processes, ozone depletion, solar activity, and other factors involvedin Arctic change.
The International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR), a quasi-biannual interdisciplinary
symposium on a wide range of topics in Arctic research, recently held its sixth meeting (ISAR-6). It
was originally scheduled to commence in March 2020 in Tokyo, but the symposium urgently moved
online due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the limitation of not meeting in person,
the interactive discussion between participants was made available through an online presentationsystem.
ISAR has been a forum where international researchers from various disciplines can bring theirlatest findings to a cross-disciplinary discussion on the ongoing changes in the Arctic, and their farreaching effects. It has proved to be an indispensable setting for furthering our understanding of thecomplexities of the climate, environment, and social systems of the Arctic. ISAR-6 included a special
session to present and discuss scientific contributions to the Third Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM3),
aimed to provide an opportunity to inform policymakers of essential issues.
Recommended Actions or the research topics to be focused
We focused on the activities where an improved and better-coordinated international scientific effort
can provide opportunities to advance understanding, and increase the ability to meet societal
challenges and opportunities. The actions and topics are grouped by four themes defined for thisspecial session.
1. Strengthening, Integrating and Sustaining Arctic Observations, Facilitating Access to Arctic Data•
It is necessary to support the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) and its roadmap if
we are to improve international efforts for coordinating observations and data management.
Setting up an expert panel to determine the essential observation elements for each region
will be the next step.
•The Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS), an international consortium to1

This document is not a comprehensive summary of the whole symposium, but summarizes thecontributions in the special session S20, titled "Scientific Contributions to the Third Arctic Science
Ministerial", with a focus on specific action items. The summary is based on the presentations andexchanges on the ISAR online platform and a virtual meeting discussion, as well as the survey form
inputs from the presenters and ISAR participants.

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develop and maintain a regional observing system, is a successful example of coordinating
observation and research.
The amount of data in the Arctic is growing, and many observing systems have been established.
However, the funding is mainly dependent on time-limited projects, thus impacting its
sustainability. Arctic observing systems should be advanced under the sustainable funded
programs and better coordinated with the operational monitoring systems.
Adequate funding mechanisms should be established to support a data management system
for multidisciplinary Arctic data, through which the Arctic data must be available openly.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the vulnerability of the Arctic observations. Stronger
cooperation between the scientists and more involvement of the Indigenous and local
communities are needed, to avoid the loss of long-term observation and important data.
The research infrastructures of countries should be easily accessed and open for collaborations.
It is important to maintain such schemes to access and share the facilities, not only to provide
opportunities for the research community, but also as a potential solution for human resources.
Such communications will be necessary for future planning of large international projects likeMOSAiC.
Hi-speed internet connection is one of the infrastructures now of high demand for the Arctic.
It is crucial to have a stable and fast connection for observing, education, and many otheractivities.

2. Understanding Regional and Global Dynamics of Arctic Change•Current research priorities based on IASC Working Groups reporting are: The role of the Arctic
in the global system, observing and predicting future climate dynamics and ecosystem
responses, understanding the vulnerability and resilience of Arctic environments and societies,and supporting sustainable development.
•It is necessary to revisit the value of basic natural sciences, even though some of them areseemingly not directly connected to societal problems. They are often indispensable to fill theknowledge gap in order to understand the Arctic system.
•Prediction capability has room for improvements, and continuous improvements of numericalmodels are necessary, as well as the full use of computational engineering. After the YOPP ends
in 2022, a post-YOPP program would be needed to make further advances.
3. Assessing Vulnerability and Building Resilience of Arctic Environments and Societies•
The dataset on fish/food resources, contaminants/pollutants in the Arctic ecosystem, andIndigenous Knowledge are important for the evaluation of vulnerability and resiliency.
Successful approaches to interact with the indigenous knowledge are the inclusion ofIndigenous communities in observation and outreaches.
•An accurate understanding of the pros and cons of ongoing changes is important in responding
to changes. Wildfire, permafrost thawing, glacial river flood, loss of sea ice, and landslide were
examples of serious impacts of changing climate and environments on human society, whilst
the sustainable exploitation of the abundant natural resources within the Arctic, and shorter
global trade routes (e.g. Northern Sea Routes), are examples of positive influence.
•We need to improve decision-making by cross-weaving knowledge systems, co-management,
and community-driven environmental monitoring to increase the number of Arctic resource
managers and scientists who can facilitate, implement and operationalize participatory

approaches to natural resource management and monitoring in practice.
4. Capacity Building in the Arctic. Contribution of Science and Engineering, Private Sector and theLocal Communities•The importance of education for younger generations living in the Arctic should be stressed.
There were also good lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, which showed the potential ofonline education.
•Useful Arctic Knowledge (UAK) is an example of projects to advance capacity building aiming
to contribute to building cross-disciplinary competence and use of modern data collection anddissemination methods. It expects to have a positive impact on cooperation among the science,business, and public sectors.
•It is essential to develop human resources in the Arctic through the co-production ofknowledge with Indigenous communities. It can positively impact the future capacity ofobservations and research, and the mitigation and adaptation to the changes.
•Language is one of the obstacles, especially for collaboration with indigenous people. Their
original languages should be respected, but communication is more difficult without aninternational language.
Conclusion
As shown in the discussion throughout the symposium, interdisciplinary gathering connects
researchers, knowledge, data, and projects, which is a key to study the Arctic on large spatial andlong temporal scales. It is expected to enhance the communication with the Arctic local communities
and policymakers so that the collaboration and co-production of the knowledge will be accelerated,and scientific findings can be conveyed more smoothly.

26 April 2021
S20 Session Conveners
Main convener: Volker RacholdCo-conveners: Nicole Biebow, Hiroyuki Enomoto,Thorsteinn Gunnarsson, Jeremy Wilkinson
ISAR-6 Symposium Organizing Committee
Chair: Teruo Aoki