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.

The European Arctic and Alpine regions are experiencing large environmental changes. Increased temperatures and precipitation, reduction in sea ice and glacier ice, the increased level of UV-radiation and the long-range transported contaminants are challenging new stress factors for both terrestrial and aquatic organisms. The large annual variation in the physical parameters of these extreme environments is also a key factor in structuring the biodiversity and biotic productivity, and the effect of the stress factors can be critical for the population structures and the interaction between species. These changes may also have socio-economic effects if the changes affect the bioproduction, which form the basis for the marine and terrestrial food chains. This book gives an integrated overview of the contemporary environmental changes in Arctic, Alpine Regions; Climate Change and Ecosystem Response, Long Range Transport of Pollutants and Ecotoxicology, UV-radiation and Biological Effects, Socio-economic Effects of Environmental Change.