Icebreaker: Voyage to the top of the world
Nature reporter Quirin Schiermeier is spending June 5-12 aboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen, as part of a project to study climate change in the high Canadian Arctic. 
The Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study, led by David Barber of the University of Manitoba, is one of the largest projects in the International Polar Year research programme. During the field season, from October 2007 to August 2008, more than 200 scientists from 15 countries will be studying the impact of climate change on sea ice, Arctic peoples, and marine ecosystems in some of the biologically most productive areas of the Arctic.
Quirin will board the Amundsen in Inuvik, in Canada's Northwest Territories, as the crew changes over for Leg 9 of the expedition. You can read his trip diary on the Nature newsblog here; more about the Amundsen icebreaker here; and more about the Circumpolar Flaw Lead study here.
Image: Arctic Ocean Sciences Board
