The Circumpolar North has been changing rapidly within the last decades, and the socioeconomic systems of the Eurasian Arctic and Siberia in particular have displayed the most dramatic changes. Here, anthropogenic drivers of environmental change such as migration and industrialization are added to climate-induced changes in the natural environment such as permafrost thawing and increased frequency of extreme events. Understanding and adapting to both types of changes are important to local and indigenous peoples in the Arctic and for the wider global community due to transboundary connectivity. As local and indigenous peoples, decision-makers and scientists perceive changes and impacts differently and often fail to communicate efficiently to respond to changes adequately, we convened a meeting of the three groups in Salekhard in 2017. The outcomes of the meeting include perceptions of how the three groups each perceive the main issues affecting health and well-being and recommendations for working together better.

Arctic climate change has already resulted in amplified and accelerated regional warming, or the Arctic amplification. Satellite observations have captured this climate phenomenon in its development and in sufficient spatial details. As such, these observations have been—and still are—indispensable for monitoring of the amplification in this remote and inhospitable region, which is sparsely covered with ground observations. This study synthesizes the key contributions of satellite observations into an understanding and characterization of the amplification. The study reveals that the satellites were able to capture a number of important environmental transitions in the region that both precede and follow the emergence of the apparent amplification. Among those transitions, we find a rapid decline in the multiyear sea ice and subsequent changes in the surface radiation balance. Satellites have witnessed the impact of the amplification on phytoplankton and vegetation productivity as well as on human activity and infrastructure. Satellite missions of the European Space Agency (ESA) are increasingly contributing to amplification monitoring and assessment. The ESA Climate Change Initiative has become an essential provider of long-term climatic-quality remote-sensing data products for essential climate variables. Still, such synthesis has found that additional efforts are needed to improve cross-sensor calibrations and retrieval algorithms and to reduce uncertainties. As the amplification is set to continue into the 21st century, a new generation of satellite instruments with improved revisiting time and spectral and spatial resolutions are in high demand in both research and stakeholders’ communities.

The chemical and particle size composition of road dust in Surgut, which is a rapidly developing city in Western Siberia, was studied for the first time. Contents of major and trace elements were determined using ICP-MS and ICP-AES, respectively. It was found that the road dust had an alkaline pH (from 7.54 to 9.38) and that the particle size composition was dominated by the 100–250-μm fraction. The contamination assessment based on calculations of the enrichment factor (EF) showed that the road dust was significantly enriched in Sb and Cu and moderately enriched in Zn, Pb, Mo, Ni and W. The sources of these elements are probably associated with the abrasion of car tires and brake pads. Based on calculations of global pollution index (PIr) and total enrichment factor (Ze), the road dust of Surgut was characterized by a generally low level of potential ecological risk, except for stretches of road subject to regular traffic jams, where a moderate ecological risk level was identified. In comparison to the other Russian cities (Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, etc.) where studies of road dust composition have been carried out, Surgut had similar contents of Cr and Cu and relatively lower contents of Sb, Cd, As and Pb.

The rapidly warming Arctic undergoes transitions that can influence global carbon balance. One of the key processes is the shift towards vegetation types with higher biomass underlining a stronger carbon sink. The shift is predicted by bioclimatic models based on abiotic climatic factors, but it is not always confirmed with observations. Recent studies highlight the role of disturbances in the shift. Here we use high-resolution remote sensing to study the process of transition from tundra to forest and its connection to wildfires in the 20 000 km² area in northwest Siberia. Overall, 40 % of the study area was burned during a 60-year period. Three-quarters of the burned areas were dry tundra. About 10 % of the study area experienced two–three fires with an interval of 15–60 years suggesting a shorter fire return interval than that reported earlier for the northern areas of central Siberia (130–350 years). Based on our results, the shift in vegetation (within the 60-year period) occurred in 40 %–85 % of the burned territories. All fire-affected territories were flat; therefore no effect of topography was detected. Oppositely, in the undisturbed areas, a transition of vegetation was observed only in 6 %–15 % of the territories, characterized by steeper topographic slopes. Our results suggest a strong role of disturbances in the tree advance in northwest Siberia.