When the icebreaker Oden arrived in Longyearbyen on Svalbard on June 14, it also marked the end of this year's Arctic expedition ARTofMELT 2023. In connection with this, H.R.H. the Crown Princess and the Minister for Climate and the Environment, Romina Pourmokhtari, visited Svalbard to meet researchers who participated in the expedition.
Station visits, new staff, pollen monitoring and the start of this year's field season. A lot is happening at the Abisko Scientific Research Station!
We welcome Alisa Heuchel, who started as the new laboratory manager at Abisko Scientific Research Station on May 15th! In September, Alisa Heichel will defend her doctoral thesis in forest genetics, and even though her work at the station will involve different things, she brings experiences from her research studies.
On April 28th, the icebreaker Oden will depart from a Swedish port for the research expedition called ARTofMELT 2023 in the Arctic Ocean. The researchers will study the arrival of spring in the Arctic and the beginning of the melting season.
Martin Jansson is a new IT technician at the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat's department for ship-based research support on the icebreaker Oden.
In March, it is still low season at Abisko Scientific Research Station. About ten researchers have been on-site during the winter, but the number gradually increases during the spring.
During this year's Arctic expedition with the icebreaker Oden, the researchers want to document the transition between winter and summer. This goal requires flexible planning and, based on weather forecasts, being able to move Oden to places where warm air enters the Arctic.
The artist Ida Rödén will participate in this year's research expedition with the icebreaker Oden. Along for the ride is Jonas Falck, a fictional scientist who considered himself one of Carl von Linné's apostles ‒ but was never accepted by Linné. Ida Rödén has explored the world with Jonas Falck since 2014. She has sometimes thought that the work with the scientist is over. But every time she has set a point and shifted focus, something new has begun to loom. The exploration continues, and this time, the two companions will visit the Arctic Ocean.
Every summer, part of the Arctic sea ice melts away, and the melting season is becoming longer. Since the end of the last century, the area covered by ice at the end of summer has gradually decreased, and today, the area is less than half of what it was at the end of the 1970s. To study the arrival of spring in the Arctic – when it comes and how it happens – this year's research expedition with the icebreaker Oden is being carried out earlier than usual.
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.
