Promoting international, multidisciplinary efforts in detecting and understanding high-latitude changes, and searching for their global impacts

Rapid and dramatic climate changes in the Arctic and the projection of their impacts on lower-latitude regions require careful evaluation, understanding, and use of multidisciplinary, internationally coordinated efforts. The Third International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR-3), devoted to these objectives, was held on January 14–17, 2013 in Tokyo, and was an essential step in this direction. The pool of papers that make up this Special Issue provides an insight into the discussions conducted during the ISAR-3 meeting.