The research led by Prof. Bruce Forbes in cooperation with Dr. Florian Stammler from the Arctic Centre studied why some ancient ecosystems and societies are flexible in the face of external pressures, like climate change and industrial development, while others collapse or change form so as to become unrecognizable. International group of researchers determined the suite of reasons underlying the remarkable resilience of a group of indigenous reindeer herders in a remote region of the Russian Arctic. Their paper appeared in December 2009 as a feature article in the Sustainability Science section of the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

The scientific journal PNAS is published weekly over the past 110 years. The list of articles encompasses all years of PNAS, meaning tens of thousands of papers all together. Some of the most popular papers on the list go back to the 1940s and 1950s. Arctic Centre’s new research is at present  number 47 on the list on the 50 Most-Read Articles on the PNAS website (http://www.pnas.org/reports/most-read) and thus in the distinguished company of some of the very top scientific papers.

More information and contact:

More information about the research, pictures and link to the PNAS-article: www.arcticcentre.org/resilience

Bruce Forbes, Research Professor. Phone:  +358 40 8479202  +358 40 8479202 , bruce.forbes at ulapland.fi
Florian Stammler, Senior Researcher. Phone:  +358 40 0138807  +358 40 0138807 , florian.stammler at ulapland.fi