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Research on the evolution of dog foraging and diet has largely focused on scavenging during their initial domestication and genetic adaptations to starch-rich food environments following the advent of agriculture. The Siberian archaeological record evidences other critical shifts in dog foraging and diet that likely characterize Holocene dogs globally. By the Middle Holocene, body size reconstruction for Siberia dogs indicates that most were far smaller than Pleistocene wolves. This contributed to dogs’ tendencies to scavenge, feed on small prey, and reduce social foraging. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of Siberian dogs reveals that their diets were more diverse than those of Pleistocene wolves. This included habitual consumption of marine and freshwater foods by the Middle Holocene and reliance on C 4 foods by the Late Holocene. Feeding on such foods and anthropogenic waste increased dogs’ exposure to microbes, affected their gut microbiomes, and shaped long-term dog population history.

Over the last years, climate monitoring and operational weather forecasts have become an important topic for the renewable energy sector. An effective operation of national, and in the case of EU international, power generation aims to find the right balance between the minimization of CO2 emission and reduction of energy costs. In Germany, a considerable part of the electricity generation comes from wind. Therefore, an accurate forecast of low-level wind is essential to predict the generation of electrical power produced by wind parks. This enables timely adjustments of the conventional power plants. Currently, short-term low-level wind forecasts have considerable uncertainties. One of the cost-effective solutions to improve low-level wind forecasts is the assimilation of new observations into numerical weather prediction models. Even though in the last decade, the number of remote-sensing sites has been continuously growing, the coverage is far from being optimal to achieve significant improvement in the short-term wind forecast. However, before building new large networks of ground-based instruments it is important to estimate in advance which instruments to install, what effect to expect, and what spatial density of the distributed instruments should be.Ground-based instruments that can provide valuable information for low-level wind forecasts are Doppler lidars. In this study, we focus on the estimation of the potential impact of Doppler lidars for short-term low-level wind forecasts essential for sustainable energy applications. The potential impact is analyzed using the ensemble sensitivity analysis (ESA) [1]. ESA is based on the Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter and allows us to investigate how the assimilation of hypothetical Doppler lidars can reduce the wind forecast variance. The impact of a Doppler lidar network was analyzed with respect to surface measurements operationally assimilated by national weather services. We investigated the sensitivity of the obtained results to the number of Doppler lidars in the network, the number of altitude layers observed by Doppler lidars, and forecast lead time. Our analysis is based on a 1000-member ensemble simulation for the urban and highly populated Rhein-Ruhr area and surrounding regions [2]. The simulation uses a full-physics non-hydrostatic regional model (SCALE-RM) and covers a two-week time period in May/June 2016.This work has been conducted in the framework of the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research funded by the German Federal Ministry for Transportation and Digital Infrastructure (grant number BMVI/DWD 4818DWDP5A). This online publication is based upon work within the COST Action CA18235 supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). We acknowledge RIKEN for providing the SCALE-RM model data.References [1] Ancell, B., and G. J. Hakim, 2007: Comparing adjoint-and ensemble-sensitivity analysis with applications to observation targeting, MWR., doi.org/10.1175/2007MWR1904.1. [2] Necker, T., et al, 2020: A convective-scale 1000-member ensemble simulation and potential applications. QJRMS, doi.org/10.1002/qj.3744.

In order to conduct network design experiments for a forecast system, methods are needed to evaluate the potential benefit of hypothetical observations. Ideally these methods are flexible enough to accommodate multiple observation types and forecast lead times, while being computationally fast enough to evaluate many potential observational network layouts. For ensemble forecasts, this can be achieved by assuming a linear sensitivity between the background ensemble perturbations and a forecast quantity of choice. This assumption enables estimating how much the ensemble variance of a chosen forecast quantity would be reduced for an arbitrary combination of observation locations and types, without the need to run additional forecasts. These variance reduction estimates need to take the localization used in the data assimilation framework into account, so that the estimates are consistent with the ensemble forecast system they are derived for. This localization aspect has so far received little attention.In this presentation we compare two methods to take localization into account when estimating the benefit of hypothetical observations. One method requires inverting the background ensemble covariance matrix. The other method avoids the inversion, but needs to be provided with estimates of signal propagation over time. We use a simple linear advection toymodel to show that while both methods can function well, due to their various strengths and weaknesses they are suited to different applications.

Over the last years, climate monitoring and operational weather forecasts have become an important topic for the renewable energy sector. An effective operation of national, and in the case of EU international, power generation aims to find the right balance between the minimization of CO2 emission and reduction of energy costs. In Germany a considerable part of the electricity generation comes from wind. Therefore, an accurate forecast of low-level wind is essential to predict the generation of electrical power produced by wind parks. This enables timely adjustments of the conventional power plants. Currently, short-term low-level wind forecasts have considerable uncertainties. One of the cost-effective solutions to improve low-level wind forecasts is an assimilation of new observations into numerical weather prediction models. Even though in the last decade, the number of remote-sensing sites has been continuously growing, the coverage is far from being optimal to achieve significant improvement of the short-term wind forecast. However, before building new large networks of ground-based instruments it is important to estimate in advance which instruments to install, what effect to expect, and what spatial density of the distributed instruments should be. One of the ground-based instruments that can provide valuable information for low-level wind forecasts are Doppler lidars. In this study we focus on the estimation of the potential impact of a network of Doppler lidars for short-term low-level wind forecasts essential for sustainable energy applications. The potential impact is analyzed using the ensemble sensitivity analysis (ESA) [1, 3]. ESA is based on the Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter and allows us to investigate how the assimilation of hypothetical Doppler lidars can reduce the wind forecast variance. The impact a Doppler lidar network was analyzed with respect to surface measurements operationally assimilated by national weather services. We investigated the sensitivity of the obtained results to ESA settings such as number of Doppler lidars in the network, number of altitude layers observed by Doppler lidars, and forecast lead time. Our analysis is based on a 1000-member ensemble simulation for the urban and highly populated Rhein-Ruhr area and surrounding regions [2]. The simulation uses a full-physics non-hydrostatic regional model SCALE-RM and covers a two-week time period in May/June 2016. This work has been conducted in the framework of the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research funded by the German Federal Ministry for Transportation and Digital Infrastructure (grant number BMVI/DWD 4818DWDP5A). This online publication is based upon work within the COST Action CA18235 supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), funding agency for research and innovation networks, weblink: www.cost.eu. We acknowledge RIKEN for providing the SCALE-RM model data. References [1] Ancell, B., and G. J. Hakim, 2007: Comparing adjoint-and ensemble-sensitivity analysis with applications to observation targeting, Mon. Wea. Rev., doi.org/10.1175/2007MWR1904.1.[2] Necker., T., S. et al, 2020: A convective-scale 1000-member ensemble simulation and potential applications. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, doi.org/10.1002/qj.3744.[3] Torn, R. D., 2014: The Impact of Targeted Dropwindsonde Observations on Tropical Cyclone Intensity Forecasts of Four Weak Systems during PREDICT. Mon. Wea. Rev., doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-13-00284.1.

The history of reindeer domestication is a critical topic in the study of human-animal relationships across Northern Eurasia. The Iamal-Nenets region of Arctic Siberia, now a global centre of reindeer pastoralism, has been the subject of much recent research on reindeer domestication. However, tracking the beginnings of reindeer domestication in this region and elsewhere in Eurasia has proved challenging. Archaeological imagery is an under-utilized source of information for exploring animal domestication. In this paper we explore the abundant reindeer imagery found at the Iron Age site of Ust’-Polui in Iamal, dating from ~260 bce to ce 140. While reindeer were hunted in Siberia long before the occupation of Ust’-Polui, portable reindeer imagery appears abruptly at this time period, co-occurring at the site with equipment thought to be for training transport reindeer. Training and working with transport reindeer required long-term engagement with specific animals that became well known and precious to their human keepers. Creating, utilizing and depositing the reindeer imagery objects at Ust’-Polui was a way of acknowledging critical new working relationships with specific domestic reindeer.

The study of reindeer domestication provides a unique opportunity to examine how domestication involves more than bodily changes in animals produced through selection. Domestication requires enskilment among humans and animals, and this process of pragmatic learning is dependent on specific forms of material culture. Particularly with the domestication of working animals, the use of such material culture may predate phenotypic and genetic changes produced through selective breeding. The Iamal region of Arctic Siberia is generating an increasingly diverse set of archeological data for reindeer domestication that evidences such processes. Three early sites, Ust’-Polui, Tiutei-Sale I, and Iarte VI, contain artifacts proposed to be parts of headgear worn by transport reindeer, the earliest dating to just over 2000 years ago. Contemporary Nenets reindeer herders scrutinized replicas of these archeological objects, and comparisons with historic reindeer harness parts from Arctic Russia were also made. Nenets consistently interpreted barbed L-shaped antler pieces from Iamal as parts of headgear for training young reindeer in pulling sleds. Some types of swivels were also interpreted as transport reindeer headgear. Based on these consultations with Nenets and observations of their ongoing reindeer domestication practices, we argue that material things such as headgear, harnesses, and sleds are not merely technological means of using or controlling reindeer in transportation but instead were part of the meshwork within which some reindeer became enskilled to being domestic. Domestication of reindeer and other animals involves ongoing efforts, landscapes, and made things, all of which form the environment within which domestic relationships emerge.

The occurrence of events with increased and decreased integrated water vapor (IWV) at the Arctic site Ny-Ålesund, their relation to cloud properties, and the surface cloud radiative effect (CRE) is investigated. For this study, we used almost 2.5 years (from June 2016 to October 2018) of ground-based cloud observations processed with the Cloudnet algorithm, IWV from a microwave radiometer (MWR), long-term radiosonde observations, and backward trajectories FLEXTRA. Moist and dry anomalies were found to be associated with North Atlantic flows and air transport within the Arctic region, respectively. The amount of water vapor is often correlated to cloud occurrence, presence of cloud liquid water, and liquid water path (LWP) and ice water path (IWP). In turn, changes in the cloud properties cause differences in surface CRE. During dry anomalies, in autumn, winter, and spring, the mean net surface CRE was lower by 2–37 W m−2 with respect to normal conditions, while in summer the cloud-related surface cooling was reduced by 49 W m−2. In contrast, under moist conditions in summer the mean net surface CRE becomes more negative by 25 W m−2, while in other seasons the mean net surface CRE was increased by 5–37 W m−2. Trends in the occurrence of dry and moist anomalies were analyzed based on a 25-year radiosonde database. Dry anomalies have become less frequent, with rates for different seasons ranging from −12.8 % per decade to −4 % per decade, while the occurrence of moist events has increased at rates from 2.8 % per decade to 6.4 % per decade.

For the first time, the cloud radiative effect (CRE) has been characterized for the Arctic site Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, Norway, including more than 2 years of data (June 2016–September 2018). The cloud radiative effect, that is, the difference between the all-sky and equivalent clear-sky net radiative fluxes, has been derived based on a combination of ground-based remote sensing observations of cloud properties and the application of broadband radiative transfer simulations. The simulated fluxes have been evaluated in terms of a radiative closure study. Good agreement with observed surface net shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) fluxes has been found, with small biases for clear-sky (SW: 3.8 W m−2; LW: −4.9 W m−2) and all-sky (SW: −5.4 W m−2; LW: −0.2 W m−2) situations. For monthly averages, uncertainties in the CRE are estimated to be small (~2 W m−2). At Ny-Ålesund, the monthly net surface CRE is positive from September to April/May and negative in summer. The annual surface warming effect by clouds is 11.1 W m−2. The longwave surface CRE of liquid-containing cloud is mainly driven by liquid water path (LWP) with an asymptote value of 75 W m−2 for large LWP values. The shortwave surface CRE can largely be explained by LWP, solar zenith angle, and surface albedo. Liquid-containing clouds (LWP > 5 g m−2) clearly contribute most to the shortwave surface CRE (70%–98%) and, from late spring to autumn, also to the longwave surface CRE (up to 95%). Only in winter are ice clouds (IWP > 0 g m−2; LWP < 5 g m−2) equally important or even dominating the signal in the longwave surface CRE.

A consortium of polar scientists combined observational forces in a field campaign of unprecedented complexity to uncover the secrets of clouds and their role in Arctic amplification. Two research aircraft, an icebreaker research vessel, an ice-floe camp including an instrumented tethered balloon, and a permanent ground-based measurement station were employed in this endeavour. Clouds play an important role in Arctic amplification. This term represents the recently observed enhanced warming of the Arctic relative to the global increase of near-surface air temperature. However, there are still important knowledge gaps regarding the interplay between Arctic clouds and aerosol particles, surface properties, as well as turbulent and radiative fluxes that inhibit accurate model simulations of clouds in the Arctic climate system. In an attempt to resolve this so-called Arctic cloud puzzle, two comprehensive and closely coordinated field studies were conducted: the ”Arctic CLoud Observations Using airborne measurements during polar Day (ACLOUD)” aircraft campaign, and the ”Physical feedbacks of Arctic boundary layer, Sea ice, Cloud and AerosoL (PASCAL)” ice breaker expedition. Both observational studies were performed in the framework of the German ”ArctiC Amplification:Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)3” project. They took place in the vicinity of Svalbard (Norway) in May and June 2017. ACLOUD and PASCAL explored four pieces of the Arctic cloud puzzle: Cloud properties, aerosol impact on clouds, atmospheric radiation, and turbulent-dynamical processes. The two instrumented Polar 5 and Polar 6 aircraft, the icebreaker research vessel (RV) Polarstern, an ice-floe camp including an instrumented tethered balloon, and the permanent, ground-based measurement station at Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard) were employed to observe Arctic low and mid-level, mixed-phase clouds, and to investigate related atmospheric and surface processes. The Polar 5 aircraft served as a remote sensing observatory examining the clouds from above by downward-looking sensors; the Polar 6 aircraft operated as a flying in-situ measurement laboratory sampling inside and below the clouds. Most of the collocated Polar 5/6 flights were conducted either above RV Polarstern or over the Ny-Ålesund station, both of which monitored the clouds from below using similar but upward-looking remote sensing techniques as the Polar 5 aircraft. Several of the flights were carried out underneath collocated satellite tracks. The paper motivates the scientific objectives of the ACLOUD/PASCAL observations and describes the measured quantities, retrieved parameters, and the applied complementary instrumentation. Furthermore, it discusses selected measurement results, and poses critical research questions to be answered in future papers analyzing the data from the two field campaigns.

The French–German Arctic research base AWIPEV (the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research – AWI – and the French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor – PEV) at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, is a unique station for monitoring cloud-related processes in the Arctic. For the first time, data from a set of ground-based instruments at the AWIPEV observatory are analyzed to characterize the vertical structure of clouds. For this study, a 14-month dataset from Cloudnet combining observations from a ceilometer, a 94 GHz cloud radar, and a microwave radiometer is used. A total cloud occurrence of ∼81 %, with 44.8 % multilayer and 36 % single-layer clouds, was found. Among single-layer clouds the occurrence of liquid, ice, and mixed-phase clouds was 6.4 %, 9 %, and 20.6 %, respectively. It was found that more than 90 % of single-layer liquid and mixed-phase clouds have liquid water path (LWP) values lower than 100 and 200 g m−2, respectively. Mean values of ice water path (IWP) for ice and mixed-phase clouds were found to be 273 and 164 g m−2, respectively. The different types of single-layer clouds are also related to in-cloud temperature and the relative humidity under which they occur. Statistics based on observations are compared to ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic (ICON) model output. Distinct differences in liquid-phase occurrence in observations and the model at different environmental temperatures lead to higher occurrence of pure ice clouds. A lower occurrence of mixed-phase clouds in the model at temperatures between −20 and −5 ∘C becomes evident. The analyzed dataset is useful for satellite validation and model evaluation.

Trans-Baikal, the interior region just to the east of Siberia's Lake Baikal, has a fairly extensive but largely unstudied archaeological record of human interaction with domestic dogs. This region's archaeological dog remains are documented for the first time in this paper. New radiocarbon dates indicate that dogs first appear in this region by at least 7900 years ago during the Siberian Early Neolithic period. These dogs lived with the region's foragers, particularly in the southern portions of Trans-Baikal, and were sometimes buried, indicating their unique status in these communities. Dogs during this period were likely involved in hunting and burden carrying, but there is no evidence they were eaten. For much of the Middle Holocene, dog remains appear to be absent in Trans-Baikal, a pattern similar to that seen in the Cis-Baikal region to the west. During the Iron Age, dogs become food sources in Trans-Baikal, being abundant in some sites occupied by pastoral and agricultural groups. This same period also witnesses some dog sacrifice. Overall, dogs were clearly widespread in Trans- and Cis-Baikal by ~8000 years ago, and in all likelihood were present in much of Siberia in smaller numbers far earlier than this.

In this paper, we report the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis results of wild (n = 15) and domestic (n = 21) animal samples from the Proezzhaia I site, a fortified Medieval settlement in Trans-Baikal, Siberia. Additionally, we analyzed five modern freshwater fish samples from the Shilka River, which flows immediately north of the site. Together, these samples provide the first dietary stable isotope data for the entire Trans-Baikal region. Our results reveal a C3 plant dominated diet for all animal taxa sampled, but with a possible minor inclusion of C4 plant material in the diets of some cattle (Bos sp.) and horses (Equus sp.). We infer this C4 plant was likely a type of millet, the remains of which were identified at a contemporaneous site upriver. Additionally, these results indicate that some cattle and horses consumed plant material grown in 15N-enriched soil, which suggests several distinct animal management practices, or may indicate a trade in or movement of animals from an area with a different nitrogen isotope baseline.

Water vapor is an important component in the water and energy cycle of the Arctic. Especially in light of Arctic amplification, changes in water vapor are of high interest but are difficult to observe due to the data sparsity of the region. The ACLOUD/PASCAL campaigns performed in May/June 2017 in the Arctic North Atlantic sector offers the opportunity to investigate the quality of various satellite and reanalysis products. Compared to reference measurements at R/V Polarstern frozen into the ice (around 82∘ N, 10∘ E) and at Ny-Ålesund, the integrated water vapor (IWV) from Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) L2PPFv6 shows the best performance among all satellite products. Using all radiosonde stations within the region indicates some differences that might relate to different radiosonde types used. Atmospheric river events can cause rapid IWV changes by more than a factor of 2 in the Arctic. Despite the relatively dense sampling by polar-orbiting satellites, daily means can deviate by up to 50 % due to strong spatio-temporal IWV variability. For monthly mean values, this weather-induced variability cancels out, but systematic differences dominate, which particularly appear over different surface types, e.g., ocean and sea ice. In the data-sparse central Arctic north of 84∘ N, strong differences of 30 % in IWV monthly means between satellite products occur in the month of June, which likely result from the difficulties in considering the complex and changing surface characteristics of the melting ice within the retrieval algorithms. There is hope that the detailed surface characterization performed as part of the recently finished Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) will foster the improvement of future retrieval algorithms.

Significance The Siberian Arctic has witnessed numerous societal changes since the first known appearance of dogs in the region ∼10,000 years ago. These changes include the introduction of ironworking ∼2,000 years ago and the emergence of reindeer pastoralism ∼800 years ago. The analysis of 49 ancient dog genomes reveals that the ancestry of Arctic Siberia dogs shifted over the last 2,000 years due to an influx of dogs from the Eurasian Steppe and Europe. Combined with genomic data from humans and archaeological evidence, our results suggest that though the ancestry of human populations in Arctic Siberia did not change over this period, people there participated in trade with distant communities that involved both dogs and material culture., Dogs have been essential to life in the Siberian Arctic for over 9,500 y, and this tight link between people and dogs continues in Siberian communities. Although Arctic Siberian groups such as the Nenets received limited gene flow from neighboring groups, archaeological evidence suggests that metallurgy and new subsistence strategies emerged in Northwest Siberia around 2,000 y ago. It is unclear if the Siberian Arctic dog population was as continuous as the people of the region or if instead admixture occurred, possibly in relation to the influx of material culture from other parts of Eurasia. To address this question, we sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 20 ancient and historical Siberian and Eurasian Steppe dogs. Our analyses indicate that while Siberian dogs were genetically homogenous between 9,500 to 7,000 y ago, later introduction of dogs from the Eurasian Steppe and Europe led to substantial admixture. This is clearly the case in the Iamal-Nenets region (Northwestern Siberia) where dogs from the Iron Age period (∼2,000 y ago) possess substantially less ancestry related to European and Steppe dogs than dogs from the medieval period (∼1,000 y ago). Combined with findings of nonlocal materials recovered from these archaeological sites, including glass beads and metal items, these results indicate that Northwest Siberian communities were connected to a larger trade network through which they acquired genetically distinctive dogs from other regions. These exchanges were part of a series of major societal changes, including the rise of large-scale reindeer pastoralism ∼800 y ago.

Analysis of individual animal bodies can provide numerous useful insights in archeology, including how humans provisioned such animals, which in turn informs on a variety of other past behaviors such as human dietary patterns. In this study, we conducted stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analysis of collagen and keratin from four types of tissues from a dog burial at the Ust’-Polui site in the Iamal region of Arctic Russia. Ust’-Polui is an Iron Age site located on the Lower Ob River, a major northern fishery characterized by extreme seasonal shifts in fish presence. During a 6-month period stretching over the coldest months of the year, fish are nearly entirely absent in the Lower Ob River. Despite this, the stable isotope compositions of the dog’s bone and dentine collagen and hair and nail keratin all indicate a monotonous diet focusing on local fish. This pattern indicates the dog was provisioned year-round with fish. This was likely accomplished by mass harvesting of fish using nets or traps. Such fish were then processed and frozen for consumption during the non-fishing season. These findings suggest that people in the Ust’-Polui region also relied to some extent on fish throughout the year. Stored fish likely provided a dietary buffer for uneven returns from reindeer and bird hunting, both of which also are well-evidenced at the site. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Clouds strongly impact the available energy at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere as well as its vertical distribution within the atmosphere by modifying the shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) fluxes and heating rates. The so-called cloud radiative effect (CRE) and the cloud radiative forcing (CRF), i.e. the difference between the all-sky and clear-sky fluxes and heating rates, respectively, strongly depend on the cloud macrophysical (e.g. frequency of occurrence, cloud vertical distribution) and microphysical (e.g. phase, water content, hydrometeor size distribution) properties.In the Arctic, the cloud–radiative interactions are even more complex due to low temperatures, frequently occurring temperature inversions, the dryness of the atmosphere, large solar zenith angles and a high surface albedo. In particular (supercooled) liquid containing clouds, which frequently occur in the Arctic and often have very low amounts of liquid water, exhibit a strong impact on the radiative fluxes.Recently, Ebell et al. (2020) have analysed for the first time the radiative effect of clouds for the Arctic site Ny-Ålesund exploiting more than 2 years (06/2016 -10/2018) of continuous vertical cloud measurements at the French-German research station AWIPEV. They showed that at Ny-Ålesund, the monthly net surface CRE is positive from September to April/May and negative in summer. The annual surface warming effect by clouds is 11.1 W m-2.Based on the same data set, we will now investigate in more detail how clouds modify the LW and SW heating rates in the atmospheric profile. First results show that the net CRF is dominated by the LW CRF with warming taking place in principal below the height of the maximum frequency of occurrence of liquid around 1 km, and cooling above. The strength of this cooling and warming is closely related to the amount of liquid. We will also analyze heating rates for different cloud types similar to the study by Turner et al. (2017) who found characteristic heating rate profiles for the Arctic site Barrow. In this way, we will gain insight into the representastiveness of these heating rate profiles throughout the Arctic.We gratefully acknowledge the funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project-ID 268020496 – TRR 172, within the Transregional Collaborative Research Center “ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)³”.ReferencesEbell, K., T. Nomokonova, M. Maturilli, and C. Ritter, 2020: Radiative Effect of Clouds at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, as Inferred from Ground-Based Remote Sensing Observations. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 59, 3–22, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-19-0080.1Turner, D.D., M.D. Shupe, and A.B. Zwink, 2018: Characteristic Atmospheric Radiative Heating Rate Profiles in Arctic Clouds as Observed at Barrow, Alaska. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 57, 953–968, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-17-0252.1

Domestication has particular salience in archaeology, and numerous recent theoretical papers describe this process as a set of evolutionary, ongoing, social, and material relationships between humans and select other species. In contrast, analytical papers on the domestication of dogs nearly always involve a search for their origins as marked by changes in genes and morphologies. This article explores this contrast through the examination of dog remains from the Iron Age Ust’-Polui site in the western Siberian Arctic. Many of the numerous dogs represented at this site were killed and probably consumed when young, likely as part of sacrifices. Others at the site were intentionally buried. Ust’-Polui also contains abundant evidence of advanced dog sledding, including probable harness parts and portions of several complex sleds. Sacrificing and otherwise killing dogs is a domestication practice, as these activities are a form of selective breeding. Domestication of dogs at Ust’-Polui and elsewhere is more than selective breeding, as it is enabled and dependent upon specific landscapes, built things, and other species. At Ust’-Polui these at a minimum included a rich local environment, sleds and harness swivels, and freshwater fish, all of which intertwined in making the particular domestic relationships at the site possible.

Domestic dogs have been central to life in the North American Arctic for millennia. The ancestors of the Inuit were the first to introduce the widespread usage of dog sledge transportation technology to the Americas, but whether the Inuit adopted local Palaeo-Inuit dogs or introduced a new dog population to the region remains unknown. To test these hypotheses, we generated mitochondrial DNA and geometric morphometric data of skull and dental elements from a total of 922 North American Arctic dogs and wolves spanning over 4500 years. Our analyses revealed that dogs from Inuit sites dating from 2000 BP possess morphological and genetic signatures that distinguish them from earlier Palaeo-Inuit dogs, and identified a novel mitochondrial clade in eastern Siberia and Alaska. The genetic legacy of these Inuit dogs survives today in modern Arctic sledge dogs despite phenotypic differences between archaeological and modern Arctic dogs. Together, our data reveal that Inuit dogs derive from a secondary pre-contact migration of dogs distinct from Palaeo-Inuit dogs, and probably aided the Inuit expansion across the North American Arctic beginning around 1000 BP. Domestic dogs have been central to life in the North American Arctic for millennia. The ancestors of the Inuit were the first to introduce the widespread usage of dog sledge transportation technology to the Americas, but whether the Inuit adopted local Palaeo-Inuit dogs or introduced a new dog population to the region remains unknown. To test these hypotheses, we generated mitochondrial DNA and geometric morphometric data of skull and dental elements from a total of 922 North American Arctic dogs and wolves spanning over 4500 years. Our analyses revealed that dogs from Inuit sites dating from 2000 BP possess morphological and genetic signatures that distinguish them from earlier Palaeo-Inuit dogs, and identified a novel mitochondrial clade in eastern Siberia and Alaska. The genetic legacy of these Inuit dogs survives today in modern Arctic sledge dogs despite phenotypic differences between archaeological and modern Arctic dogs. Together, our data reveal that Inuit dogs derive from a secondary pre-contact migration of dogs distinct from Palaeo-Inuit dogs, and probably aided the Inuit expansion across the North American Arctic beginning around 1000 BP.

This study analyses occurrence of events with increased and decreased integrated water vapor (IWV) and atmospheric temperature (T) at the Arctic site Ny-Ålesund and their relation to cloud properties and the surface cloud radiative effect (CRE). For this study, we used almost 2.5 years (from June 2016 to October 2018) of ground-based cloud observations processed with the Cloudnet algorithm, IWV and T from microwave radiometer (MWR), long-term radiosonde observations, and backward trajectories FLEXTRA. Moist and dry anomalies were found to be associated with North Atlantic flows and air circulations in the Arctic region, respectively. The amount of water vapor is often correlated with cloud occurrence, presence of cloud liquid water, liquid and ice water path (LWP and IWP). In turn, changes in the cloud properties cause differences in surface CRE. During dry anomalies, in autumn, winter, and spring, the mean net surface CRE was lower by 2–37 W m−2 with respect to normal conditions, while in summer the cloud related surface cooling was reduced by 49 W m−2. In contrast, under moist conditions in summer the mean net surface CRE becomes more negative by 25 W m−2, while in other seasons the mean net surface CRE was increased by 5–37 W m−2. Trends in occurrence of dry and moist anomalies were analyzed based on 25-year-radiosonde database. Dry anomalies become less frequent with rates for different seasons from −12.8 to −4 % per decade, while the occurrence of moist event increases at rates from 2.8 to 6.4 % per decade. Taking into account the relations between the anomaly types and cloud properties the trends might be related to an increase in cloud occurrence, LWP, and IWP. The change in cloud properties could, in turn, modulate the surface CRE and lead to stronger surface cooling and warming related to clouds in summer and other seasons, respectively.

Elk are common in forager archaeological artwork of northern Eurasia. During the Middle Holocene, the peoples of Cis-Baikal produced numerous elk depictions in rock art and mobiliary items. Most of the rock art has now been destroyed. However, Cis-Baikal’s cemeteries and habitation sites are increasingly well documented, with the former generating numerous elk images. To better understand this imagery, we first discuss elk biology and behavior. We then contextualize the imagery within other forms of archaeological data, including cemetery location, dietary patterns, and human population changes and dispersals. We integrate these findings with a model of northern Eurasian forager cosmologies and ideologies. Elk were not a dietary stable in Cis-Baikal. Instead, diets often had a substantial aquatic component, and red deer and roe deer were the most commonly used ungulates. All of Cis-Baikal’s Middle Holocene cemeteries were located near bodies of water. Elk’s ability to cross a fundamental boundary, that between the terrestrial and aquatic worlds, resulted in these animals being considered liminal beings. The elk depicted perhaps were cosmological forces, transporting the souls of the dead to the underworld. They also may have been constituted a generative life force and assisted souls in returning to the living world.

This paper examines Holocene tends in subsistence practices through the examination of archaeological faunal remains from the Bugul'deika II habitation site on the west shore of Lake Baikal, Russian Federation. This data indicates that the primary focus of subsistence activities at the site in almost all periods was the hunting of Baikal seals ( Phoca sibirica ). While some deer and other fauna are represented in most cultural layers, they appear to be supplementary resources throughout the Early and Middle Holocene period of site use. By ∼2900 cal. BP, domesticated ungulates appear at the site, and become increasingly more relatively abundant through time. Humans using the site during these periods also continued to use wild fauna, particularly Baikal seals. Yearlings and other juveniles were the most commonly taken seals at the site, and most were killed in the late winter or early spring when the lake was ice covered. The overall pattern of fauna use at the site is very similar to that at other sites located on the open shoreline of Lake Baikal, but contrasts sharply with fauna use at sites located along the Little Sea shoreline of the lake, which focuses of littoral fish. Finally, while Middle Holocene human cemeteries in the study area have abundant remains of deer, and stable isotope data on human remains from them indicate some dietary reliance on such herbivores, remains of deer are not found in abundance in any local habitation site.

Body size is correlated with many critical behavioral and developmental patterns in carnivores, including domestic dogs. The body masses and bite forces of archaeological dog remains from Siberia and the Russian Far East were estimated to make inferences regarding their behaviors and capacitis. The dogs date from ∼10,000–100 cal. BP and derive from archaeological sites spanning from steppe environments in the south to tundra regions of the northern Arctic. The dogs exhibit a four-fold difference in body mass, ranging from 7.6 to 32.5 kg, but have a mean body mass of only 16.4 kg. Bite forces are around only half those of modern wolves, indicating that the dogs had greatly reduced abilities to grasp and masticate prey and food items. The dogs exhibit a slight decrease in body size through time, perhaps due to human selection or greater survival rates for smaller individuals in human-dominated food environments. Dog body size variance within individual archaeological sites was as high as in a sample of modern wolves from throughout the study area, suggesting little strict human control over body size. No correlation was found between body size and site latitude, suggesting that Bergmann’s rule does not hold for these canids. Human shelters may provide a buffer against low temperatures that might favour larger body sizes at high latitudes. About 90% of the analyzed dogs have estimated body masses less than 21.5 kg, suggesting most were best adapted for procuring prey smaller than themselves—the dogs were not capable of taking down larger prey without the assistance of humans. Estimated dog body masses cannot eliminate the possibility that many of the animals were used for pulling sleds, and nearly all were capable of packing modest loads on their backs. Livestock guarding dogs are not well-evidenced by the body mass data, but herding dogs are a possibility in all of the pastoral or agricultural settings analyzed.

Reindeer scapulae are widely incorporated into Indigenous lifeways across the Circumpolar North, especially as hide working tools, fish knives, and divination devices. This article addresses the histories of this particular skeletal element at the Iron Age settlement site of Iarte VI on the Iamal Peninsula, Arctic Siberia. Scapula tools are the most abundant group of implements recovered from the site. These implements, which were only used in Iamal from the 11th to 14th centuries CE, have so far been documented only at Iarte VI and one other site on the peninsula. Their particular forms are not currently known outside the region. We examine how this one element was separated from other parts of the body, which scapulae were chosen for tool production, and how they were transformed into implements. These tools appear to have been used for softening and straightening reindeer skin straps for ropes and lassos, a task now undertaken on the peninsula entirely by men. Drawing upon published accounts and our own ethnographic research with Nenets, we discuss how reindeer scapulae are embedded into perceptions of wild and domestic reindeer, used as hide-working tools, and involved in a variety of social and material practices in this region.

The spread of pastoralism in Asia is poorly understood, including how such processes affected northern forager populations. Lake Baikal’s western shore has a rich Holocene archaeological record that tracks these processes. The Early Bronze Age here is evidenced by numerous forager burials. The Early Iron Age (EIA) is thought to mark the arrival of pastoralists, but archaeological remains from this period have received little analysis. New radiocarbon dates for EIA human remains from 23 cemeteries indicate that no burials were created along this shore for ~900 years. This period, from ~3670 to 2760 cal. BP, spans from the end of the Early Bronze Age to the advent of the EIA. The burial gap may mark disruption of local foraging populations through incursions by non-local pastoralists. Radiocarbon dates on faunal remains indicate that domestic herd animals first appear around 3275 cal. BP, just prior to the first EIA human burials. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human remains and zooarchaeological data indicate that domestic fauna were minor dietary components for EIA people. Like preceding foragers, the EIA groups relied extensively on Baikal’s aquatic food sources, indicating that the scale of pastoralism during this period was relatively limited.

Previously developed regression formulae for estimating body mass in dogs and wolves based on cranial and mandibular dimensions are evaluated using modern canid specimens of known weight at death. Some of these equations proved reliable, but others have large standard errors of estimate and likely produce unreliable mass estimates. New sets of equations for estimating body mass in dogs and wolves are produced using our datasets, including a set of equations developed from combining the dog and wolf biometric data into a single population. The resulting regression equations allow body mass to be estimated from a series of cranial and mandibular dimensions with relatively low errors. Further, our datasets include larger numbers of specimens of larger ranges of body mass than in these previous studies. When the equations are applied to a suite of dogs and one wolf from Eastern Siberia, several patterns emerge. First, hunter–gatherers' dogs in this region vary widely in terms of body size, even within a limited geographic area and time period. Some were quite large, similar in size to modern Siberian huskies. Second, pastoralists' dogs are less variable in terms of body mass, but this may reflect the nature of our samples. In particular, pastoralists' dogs nearly all were sacrificed juvenile dogs, some of which appear to have been eaten. These dogs seem to have been approached adult body size when they were selected for sacrifice. Finally, our findings help to highlight the need for further refinement in methods used to study ancient canid remains. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The seals inhabiting Eastern Siberia's Lake Baikal are involved in a suite of meaningful relationships with local people both in the present and in the distant past. Most people rarely see the seals in their natural habitat, but these animals nonetheless are considered icons of the region, particularly among tourists and the broader general public. Our recent interviews with Baikal seal hunters, most of whom are Buriat, revealed relationships of great depth and intimacy with these animals that involved, in part, knowing the animals based on their sounds, smells, taste, fur quality, appearance, and behavior. The hunters and their families maintain relationships with the animals by acting so as to stay in good standing with local spirits and through proper treatment of the animals' bodies after death. Further, Baikal seals have prominent roles in local cosmologies and legends, including the origin stories of some local groups. The region's archaeological record reveals that meaningful relationships...

Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia is one of the largest and deepest freshwater lakes in the world, and its diverse fauna were extensively utilized by local human populations over many millennia. The regional culture history models primarily are based on radiocarbon dates on human skeletal remains, and in some cases, also on dates on sediments from habitation sites. Analyses of a set of 113 radiocarbon dates from the Sagan-Zaba Holocene hunter-gatherer and pastoralist habitation site (52.6825° N, 106.4760° E) on the western coast of Lake Baikal demonstrates two critical problems in the dating of these sets of materials. First, comparison of AMS radiocarbon dates on terrestrial mammal and Baikal seal bones from Sagan-Zaba reveals the existence of a freshwater radiocarbon offset in the seal remains of at least 700 radiocarbon years. Radiocarbon dates on skeletal remains from humans who consumed the aquatic fauna also should be expected to carry an old carbon offset. Second, comparison of radiocarbon dates made on sediment samples with those made on terrestrial mammal bones demonstrates major inconsistencies. The primary problem with these samples is that the carbon being dated in them is of unclear relationship to human activities of interest at the site. Therefore, the still common practice in this region of radiocarbon dating sediments to establish archaeological chronologies should be abandoned. The AMS radiocarbon dating of bone from species which clearly fed outside of Lake Baikal's aquatic environments should provide more reliable age estimates for human activities at archaeological sites.

Eastern Siberia's Lake Baikal and its tributaries are productive fisheries, and the region's Holocene archaeological sites confirm that this is a long-standing phenomenon. Recent zooarchaeological investigations of sites here allow Holocene fishing practices to be examined in more detail than was previously possible. Along much of the lake's coast, bathymetry is very steep and the water very cold; here fishing appears to have been supplemental to other subsistence practices such as sealing and ungulate hunting. In shallower areas, waters were warmer and supported very productive fisheries for littoral species, perhaps through the use of nets or traps. The region's rivers offered their own resident species but also were used as spawning grounds by some lake fishes. The lake's littoral fisheries, while productive, likely produced fish throughout the year and did not require complex labor organization to be effectively used. Some sections of the region's rivers, particularly those that were spawning...

This chapter shows how a combination of zooarchaeological and stable isotope evidence documents substantial but variable use of aquatic resources by Middle Holocene foragers inhabiting the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia. We first outline potential food items—including terrestrial mammals, riverine and lacustrine fish, the Baikal freshwater seal, and some plant foods. Faunal remains exist from both habitation sites and cemeteries. Habitation site assemblages show subsistence practices at seasonally occupied locations, with composition varying within the region. Some cemetery assemblages are taxonomically richer, indicating that small mammals and waterfowl were also important. Stable nitrogen and carbon isotope studies of human skeletal collections document substantial use of aquatic foods. Regional variability in the use of aquatic foods is evident, but there is little clear evidence for Middle Holocene dietary shifts. Instead, there appears to have been long-term stability with some regional variation related to resource availability.

The article presents the results of studies of faunal remains from the Ulan-Khada multilayered settlement – one of key habitation sites in the Cis-Baikal region providing information for reconstructing environmental and cultural changes during the Holocene. A complete analysis of the fauna assemblage obtained over the course of long-term excavations is given. For the fi rst time, the site's ichthyofauna is described. The mammalian species composition is revised. Species diversity is evaluated across the time span from the Final Mesolithic to the Late Iron Age. These studies have demonstrated that the main activities at the site during the Neolithic and Bronze Age included seal and ungulate (roe and red deer) hunting. Fishing was also important, especially 4.2–3.8 thousand years ago (Bronze Age).

Roughly 3000 years ago, nomadic pastoralists began to arrive in the Cis-Baikal region of eastern Siberia. While the archaeological record of these groups is quite extensive, most research on pastoralists here has focused on mortuary traditions while questions about subsistence practices have been left largely unaddressed. Few habitation sites from the late Holocene here contain stratified deposits, and virtually none have been subject to modern excavation methods or zooarchaeological analyses. We present new faunal data from the recently excavated Sagan-Zaba II site located on the west coast of Lake Baikal. This site offers a unique opportunity to examine diachronic patterns in diet and subsistence practices of local pastoralists. It contains stratified deposits associated with different periods of pastoralist occupation spanning much of the late Holocene. Significantly, it is the first site of this period in the region to be screened with fine-meshed sieves and to be systematically studied by zooarchaeologists. The results of our research reveal a series of new insights on pastoralist subsistence practices. First, the primary domesticates in all periods were sheep, goats, cattle, and horses. Cattle appear to increase through time at the site while horses remained relatively rare. Second, pastoralists at Sagan-Zaba regularly hunted Lake Baikal's freshwater seals, long after the introduction of domesticated livestock. Third, hunting of terrestrial mammals, particularly roe deer and red deer, was also common at the site. Finally, our data demonstrate that pastoralists here also regularly fished. This subsistence practice was previously unrecognized in the region, likely due to lack of sieving of sites. Furthermore, these data suggest that historically documented fishing by modern local pastoralists and increases in sedentism were not completely the result of Russian-period settlement of the region but instead were occurring in Cis-Baikal long prior to the modern era.