What’s New

Announcing ESSAS 2026 in Reykjavik, Iceland

2026 Annual Science Meeting Borealization: Subarctic and Arctic Marine Systems in Transition Dates: 23-25 June, 2026 Location: Reykjavík, Iceland. Expect a call for abstracts and open registration in early December, with abstracts due January 15, 2026. Because June is a busy month in Reykjavík, we encourage booking accommodations early.Tentative session titles include the following. Each session is focused around a theme and is designed to span the natural and social sciences and to cover systems from the coast to the deep sea:Marine Heatwaves: Impacts on High Latitude Ecosystems from Physics to Biology and Human CommunitiesTracking Borealization: Physical Change, Biological Responses, Community Impacts Gadids under Borealization: Ecology, Fisheries, and ManagementConnections across the Subarctic Atlantic: Physics to Fish, …

2025 Ecosystem Studies of the Subarctic and Arctic Seas (ESSAS) Open Science Meeting

2025 ESSAS Open Science Meeting: Past, Present and Future of Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystems

For session descriptions, see below!

Date: June 24-26, 2025

Venue & Location: National Institute of Polar Research, Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan

Registration: https://essas.confit.atlas.jp/login

Conference Program:

(1) Conference Program without Abstract for Printing

(2) Conference Program with Abstract for Online View (Registration information required to view the abstracts)

Accommodations:

No block accommodation is booked, so please find and reserve a hotel by yourself. We suggest that hotels near JR Tachikawa Station would be convenient to commute to the meeting venue, the National Institute of Polar Research (access information).

There are many hotels near Tachikawa Station, but please make your reservation early. Please check the prices offered by the hotels carefully because Japanese hotel costs are often charged per person, not per room. Below is the example list of the hotels near Tachikawa Station (generally ranked by the prices):

– JR-East Hotel Mets

– Hotel Emisia

– Tachikawa Washington Hotel

– Hotel Plaisir Tachikawa

– Toyoko-Inn Tachikawa-eki Kita-guchi

– My Stays Tachikawa

Banquet: The meeting banquet will be held at Hotel Emisia, Tokyo, Tachikawa on the evening of June 25th

2024 ESSAS Annual Science Meeting in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada (Abstract submissions are due: April 8, 2024)

2024 ESSAS Annual Science Meeting: “Exploring the dynamic interface of human and marine life in high-latitude coastal zones”

Dates: June 18-21, 2024

First Announcement 

2023 ESSAS Annual Science Meeting in Bergen, Norway (Conference Program uploaded)

2023 ESSAS Annual Science Meeting: “Ecological, social and economic dynamics of high-latitude coastal systems”

Dates: June 20-22, 2023

Book of Abstracts 

Conference Schedule 

PESAS Special Issue in Quaternary Research

ESSAS is pleased to announce the publication of a special issue of the journal Quaternary Research (v. 108)  dedicated to research of the ESSAS working group “Paleoecology of Subarctic and Arctic Seas” (PESAS).

2022 ESSAS Annual Science Meeting in Seattle, Washington (Final updates)

2022 Ecosystem Studies of the Subarctic and Arctic Seas (ESSAS) Annual Science Meeting: “Bridging the past and present to manage the future of northern fisheries and ecosystems”

Final Conference Program 

All registered participants will receive a Zoom link no later than Friday, June 17

Opportunity for Early Career Scientists to join ESSAS steering committee

If you are interested in the impacts of climate change on high-latitude marine ecosystems, this is your opportunity to help shape the future of the Ecosystem Studies of the Subarctic and Arctic Seas (ESSAS) program.

ESSAS is a regional program under the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) project and is inviting nominations for an Early Career Scientist (within 6 years of PhD completion, excluding any periods of leave) to join its Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) for a three-year renewable term. The SSC is responsible for the development, planning and implementation of science with the goal to “compare, quantify and predict the impact of climate variability on the productivity and sustainability of Subarctic and Arctic marine ecosystems.

2021 ESSAS Webinar Annual Science Meeting in Sapporo, Japan 30 May–4 June, 2021 (Abstract submission extended)

“Linking past and present marine ecosystems to inform future fisheries and aquaculture”
Webinar at http://xxxxxxx (to be announced)
Host of webinar, Arctic Research Center, Hokkaido University
Date: 30 May – 4 June, 2021

ESSAS 2020 cancelled due to COVID-19

Dear all submitters of abstract and participants of ESSAS ASM 2020,

We regret to inform all of you that the ESSAS Annual Science Meeting (ASM) 2020, scheduled on 31 May-5 June 2020 in Sapporo, Japan, is canceled as a proactive measure against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in Japan and foreign countries.

ESSAS session and workshop on high-latitude ecosystems

The Ecosystem Studies of Subarctic and Arctic Seas (ESSAS) program will be organizing a session on ‘’Arctic marine ecosystems in a changing climate’’ and a workshop on the ‘’ Bioenergetics and survival trajectories of Arctic fish in response to environmental stressors’’ as part of the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research project (IMBeR) Open Science Conference Future Oceans2: ocean sustainability for the benefit of society: understanding, challenges, and solutions to be held at Le Quartz Congress Centre in Brest, France, June 17-21, 2019.