Arctic-Alpine Ecosystems and People in a Changing Environment — Introduction -- Integrated aspects of environmental change: Climate change, UV radiation and long range transport of pollutants -- An environment at risk: Arctic indigenous peoples, local livelihoods and climate change -- Climate change and ecosystem response -- Climate variation in the European sector of the Arctic: Observations and scenarios -- Impact of climate change on arctic and alpine lakes: Effects on phenology and community dynamics -- Changes in growing season in Fennoscandia 1982–1999 -- Northern climates and woody plant distribution -- Topographic complexity and terrestrial biotic response to high-latitude climate change: Variance is as important as the mean -- The flow of Atlantic water to the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean -- Climate variability and possible effects on arctic food chains: The role of Calanus -- Adjustment to reality: Social responses to climate changes in Greenland -- UV radiation and biological effects -- Factors, trends and scenarios of UV radiation in arctic-alpine environments -- Effects of enhanced UV-B radiation and epidermal UV screening in arctic and alpine plants -- Effects of UV radiation in arctic and alpine freshwater ecosystems -- Climate control of biological UV exposure in polar and alpine aquatic ecosystems -- Effects of UV radiation on seaweeds -- Climate and ozone change effects on UV-radiation and health risks -- Long range pollutants transport and ecological impacts -- Contaminants, global change and cold regions -- Modeling of long-range transport of contaminants from potential sources in the Arctic Ocean by water and sea ice -- Long-term atmospheric contaminant monitoring for the elucidation of airborne transport processes into polar regions -- Levels and effects of persistent organic pollutants in arctic animals -- Arctic health problems and environmental challenges in Greenland.

This book addresses the significant environmental changes experienced by high latitude and high altitude ecosystems at the beginning of the 21st c- tury. Increased temperatures and precipitation, reduction in sea ice and glacier ice, the increased levels of UV-radiation and the long-range tra- ported contaminants in arctic and alpine regions are stress factors that challenge terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The large natural variation in the physical parameters of these extreme environments is a key factor in structuring the biodiversity and biotic productivity, and the effect of the new stress factors can be critical for the population structures and the - teraction between species. These changes may also have socio-economic effects if the changes affect the bio-production, which form the basis for the marine and terrestrial food chains. The book is uniquely multidisciplinary and provides examples of va- ous aspects of contemporary environmental change in arctic and alpine - gions. The 21 chapters of the book are organised under the fields of •Climate change and ecosystem response, •Long range transport of poll- ants and ecological impacts, and •UV radiation and biological effects, each also including aspects of the •Socio-economic effects of environmental change. The introductory chapter presents and explains the internal c- nection and integration of all chapters. The added value of these reviews and review-like manuscripts from different disciplines hopefully yields new information about the integrated aspects of environmental change.