The amount of fish in the central Arctic Ocean is very limited. Therefore, the fish stock needs to be protected when the Arctic Ocean becomes increasingly accessible due to melting sea ice. Pauline Leijonmalm, Chief Scientist during the Oden Expedition Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021, can look back on a successful expedition where the researchers could collect valuable data about the ecosystem in the Arctic.
In the oceans, there are viruses that infect bacteria. Even though they have a major impact on our ecosystems, the research in this area is limited, especially from Arctic environments. Researchers who participated in the Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021 expedition are currently studying this. They want to understand how environmental pollution and climate change affect viruses, bacteria, and ecosystems in the future.
To explain the reasons for the rapid warming in the Arctic, measurements of the atmosphere are needed. On the icebreaker Oden, researchers within the ACAS project have developed an atmospheric observatory to be able to study factors such as changes in clouds and the interactions between the surface and the atmosphere.
After more than two years of travel restrictions and limited field research activity due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Abisko Scientific Research Station is finally back to full speed. The summer of 2022 has been one of the busiest summers in the history of the research station, with the station constantly at – or beyond – full capacity, June through September.
At the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, empty shells from dead foraminifera, microscopic single-celled organisms, accumulate. The calcium carbonate shells can be compared to time capsules because the million-year-old fossils can provide valuable information about climate change. During the Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021 expedition with the icebreaker Oden, one of the projects was about documenting these organisms.
Abisko Scientific Research Station was built in 1912 after the research station in Katterjokk burned down. The following year, the meteorological measurements were started, and for several decades data has been collected on behalf of SMHI. The over one-hundred-year long series of measurements has qualified the measuring station as a Centennial Observing Station, an award given by the World Meteorological Organization WMO.
What is the abundance, diversity, growth rate and respiration of Bacteria and Archea in the Arctic Ocean ecosystem? This is the question Johan Wikner, Professor in Ecology at Umeå University, and his team studied during the Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021 expedition with the icebreaker Oden.
The COMNAP, IAATO & SCAR Fellowships
It's time to welcome an artist to a research expedition with the icebreaker Oden! The visual artist Cecilia Cissi Hultman will participate in ArcOP 2022 to the Arctic Ocean. She received the news while in Berlin.
Anna Wåhlin is a professor of Oceanography at the University of Gothenburg. In January, she will participate in an expedition on the American research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer. The goal is to continue research on what happens beneath one of the largest floating glaciers in Antarctica, the Thwaites Glacier, using the autonomous underwater vehicle Ran.
Two research projects are participating during this year's Antarctic Expedition DML 2021/22, which the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat organises. One of these projects is looking for answers to how Antarctica will develop in a future warmer climate. Part of the answer lies in bedrock and moving blocks that the ice sheet brought with it.
Ian Brown, Associate professor in Earth Observation at Stockholm University, leads one of two research groups that will conduct an expedition in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, starting in December. The goal is to better understand the uncertainty in satellite measurements of the ice sheet and what it depends on.
An extensive field course was recently held at Abisko Scientific Research Station as part of the preparations for the Antarctic expedition DML 2021/22. The five-day field course is mandatory for those participating in the expedition.
The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat has equipped the Antarctic research station Wasa with three living modules. The living modules offer fast protection against weather and wind, a warm sleeping place, the opportunity to heat food and load technical equipment.
Researchers interested in the ARTofMELT 2023 expedition with the icebreaker Oden have the opportunity to participate in a digital workshop 9–10 November 2021. The expedition is centred on atmospheric rivers (AR’s), intrusions of warm air into the Arctic, and their role for the onset of summer sea-ice melt.
Marcel du Plessis works as a postdoc in Physical Oceanography at the University of Gothenburg. In December, he and three colleagues will travel with the South African icebreaker S.A. Agulhas II to the Weddell Sea which is part of the Antarctic Ocean.