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.
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.
Adam Ulfsbo is a researcher at the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Gothenburg and was one of the participants in the research expedition Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021 with the icebreaker Oden. There he investigated processes and factors behind changes in carbon storage and ocean acidification.
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.