AMAP Project Directory

Projektet har til formål at forlænge og forbedre monitering af to strømsystemer gennem færøsk territorialfarvand, som udveksler vand, varme og salt mellem Arktis og resten af Verdenshavet. Den ene af disse er strømmen af koldt vand fra Arktis gennem dybet af Færøbanke kanalen, som transporterer varme og kuldioxid fra atmosfæren ned i Verdenshavets dybe vandmasser. Den anden er Færøstrømmen, som er den stærkeste transportør af ocean varme mod Arktis med indvirkning på klima, fiskebestande og isudbredelse. Endvidere vil projektet studere opsplitningen af Færøstrømmen i to separate strømgrene med forskellig indflydelse på forskellige områder og processer i Arktis. Projektet vil omfatte feltaktivitet fra sommer 2017 til sommer 2018 med udlagte måleinstrumenter og tilsammen fire hydrografiske togter med forskningsskib. Indsamlede måledata vil blive analyseret sammen med satellit­data og historiske observationer med henblik på at forlænge de ca. 20 år lange tidsserier for de to strømsystemers transporter samt at rationalisere det eksisterende moniteringssystem, således at det i fremtiden vil være mindre afhængigt af kostbare in situ målinger.

Multidisciplinary investigations at the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) observatory HAUSGARTEN are carried out at a total of 21 permanent sampling sites in water depths ranging between 250 and 5,500 m. From the outset, repeated sampling in the water column and at the deep seafloor during regular expeditions in summer months was complemented by continuous year-round sampling and sensing using autonomous instruments in anchored devices (i.e., moorings and free-falling systems). The central HAUSGARTEN station at 2,500 m water depth in the eastern Fram Strait serves as an experimental area for unique biological in situ experiments at the seafloor, simulating various scenarios in changing environmental settings. Time-series studies at the HAUSGARTEN observatory, covering almost all compartments of the marine ecosystem, provide insights into processes and dynamics within an arctic marine ecosystem and act as a baseline for further investigations of ongoing changes in the Fram Strait. Long-term observations at HAUSGARTEN will significantly contribute to the global community’s efforts to understand variations in ecosystem structure and functioning on seasonal to decadal time-scales in an overall warming Arctic and will allow for improved future predictions under different climate scenarios.

Radioactivity in the Arctic environment is a central topic within environmental pollution issues. Increased discharges of technetium-99 (99Tc) from the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant Sellafield to the Irish Sea has caused public concerns in Norway. This project (acronym “RADNOR”) includes model and monitoring assessments and improvements, assessment of current and novel abiotic and biotic dose parameters and dose calculations and use of realistic climatic background scenarios in order to assess corresponding consequences for transport of radioactive pollutants. RADNOR consists of three main components: part 1, the determination of levels and time series of 99Tc in benthic and pelagic food webs; part 2, containing working packages on improvements to the understanding of site-specific and time-dependent sediment-water interactions (KD), kinetics of accumulation (CF) and body distribution in marine organisms, including contaminated products for the alginate industry and part 3, dealing with model hindcasts and observations for spreading of 99Tc from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant during the 1990s and improvement of the NRPA dose assessment box model. From the model outputs, doses to man and environment will be calculated resulting in a valuable database for use within environmental management and for decision makers.

The Submarine Operational And Research Environmental Database (SOARED)is comprised of a fixed relational environmental database using unclassified data collected during the Science Ice Exercises (SCICEX) during the past several years. It also includes publicly accessible gridded historical sound velocity, temperature and salinity data from 1900 from the US National Oceanographic Data Center. This project is a demonstration system to show ways to retrieve and analyze sound velocity, temperature and salinity profiles, bathymetry and ice thickness data using a mouse-driven GIS-based query.

The Collaborative Interdisciplinary Cryospheric Experiment (C-ICE) is a multi-year field experiment that incorporates many individual projects, each with autonomous goals and objectives. The science conducted has directly evolved from research relating to one of four general themes: i. sea ice energy balance; ii. numerical modeling of atmospheric processes; iii. remote sensing of snow covered sea ice; and iv. ecosystem studies.

Elaboration of DUTCH-WARP [Deep and Upper Transport, Circulation and Hydrography-WOCE Atlantic Research Programme] in the frame of WOCE: deep circulation of thermal structure of surface water in the Iceland Basin; continuation of the application of ARGOS buoys; implementation of satellite altimetry of the North Atlantic Ocean; eastern boundary current of the North Atlantic Ocean in the Bay of Biscay as contribution to WOCE (1992-1998)

The global thermohaline circulation is driven by sinking of cold, dense surface waters in the Greenland and Norwegian Seas and its replacement by warmer surface water from lower latitudes. This global circulation system, the conveyor belt, is the main regulator of global climate. Even slight disturbances of this delicate system will cause significant climate changes, especially for NW Europe. While the current hydrographical situation and associated overflow pathways are well-documented, paleoceanographic studies of the Greenland and Faroe/Shetland (F/S) overflow pathways are still scarce. The F/S pathway is presently the subject of study of the MAST program (ENAM project). This project focusses on the late Quaternary overflow history of the important East Greenland pathway. High resolution multichannel sleevegun seismic data recently collected by the Geological Survey of Greenland and Denmark (GEUS) allowed identification of suitable box- and piston-coring sites. Results from the high-resolution cores, allowing direct correlation with regional atmospheric changes documented in the Greenland ice-cores will provide new information on causes and mechanisms of climate change. The continental slope and rise off SE-Greenland can be considered as a potential key area for paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic studies, since: 1) The area is located in the immediate vicinity of the Denmark Strait arctic gateway for water mass exchange between the Arctic and Atlantic ocean. Recent hydrographic measurements (Dickson 1994) demonstrate the important role of the area with regard to hydrographic processes contributing to the formation of NADW. 2) The seafloor morphology and information from multichannel seismic recording shows the presence of numerous large detached sediment drifts and other drift-related features, which will provide important paleoceanographic information as outlined before. 3) The distribution and architecture of the sediment drifts is also affected by down-slope processes transporting upperslope/shelf sediments of mainly glacial origin. Thus the area offers an unique opportunity to study the sediment drifts both with regard to the (paleo)oceanic flow regime and the climatically-inherited signal from the down-slope sediment input. Research activities: All research is directed towards documentation of high resolution natural climate variability during the late Quaternary. Separate topics include: 1. Seismic/sidescan sonar studies 2. High resolution quantitative micropaleontology (planktonic/benthic foraminifera, diatoms, calcareous nannoplankton, dinoflagellates) 3. High resolution stable oxygen/carbon isotope studies 4. DNA studies on planktonic foraminifera (with University of Edinburgh)

The expedition by vessel 'Nikolai Kolomeets'included sampling of marine water, bottom sediments, benthos and plankton for studies of accumulation and transformation of OCs and estimation of related toxic effects on aqueous biocenoses. The marine studies took place during the period July-October 2000 in areas of the Pechora, Kara, Laptev, East-Siberian and Chukchi Seas.

The expedition 'Arctic-2000' included climatic, hydrometeorological and hydrochemical studies in the eastern part of the Central Arctic Basin, during the period July-August 2000.

Monitor the abundances of zooplankton at two transects along the coast 4-8 times a year, and in the Norwegian Sea in May and July-August

1) To perform simulation scenarios for the 21st century, including global warming scenarios, of potential radioactive spreading from sources in the Russian Arctic coastal zone and its impact on Barents, Greenland and Norwegian Seas and the Arctic Ocean; 2) To update the environmental and pollution data base of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP); 3) To assess, select and define the most probable simulation scenarios for accidental releases of radionuclides; 4) To implement a Generic Model System (GMS) consisting of several nested models designed to simulate radionuclides transport through rivers, in the Kara sea and in the Arctic ocean / North Atlantic; 5) To carry out simulation studies for the selected "release" scenarios of radionuclides, using various atmospheric forcing scenarios; 6) Assess the impact on potential radioactive spreading from sources as input to risk management.

To assess potential levels of radionuclides input into the Kara sea from existing and potential sources of technogenic radioactivity, located on the land in the Ob- and Yenisey rivers watersheds. Specific Objectives * To reveal and estimate a) most hazardous technogenic sources of radioactive contamination in the Ob- and Yenisey watersheds and b) the most possible and dangerous natural and technogenic (antrophogenic) situations (in the regions of these sources) that may result in release of radionuclides into the environment and may lead to significant changes in the radioactive contamination of the Kara sea * To estimate parameters of radionuclides (potential amount, composition, types etc.) under release to the environment from chosen sources as a result of accidents as well as during migration from the sources to the Kara sea through river systems * To set up a dedicated Database and a Geographic Information System (GIS) for modelling transport of radionuclides from the land-based sources to the Kara sea * To develop and create a dedicated model tool for simulation of radionuclides transport from land-based sources through Ob- and Yenisey river systems to the Kara sea

This is an ongoing activity for monitoring variability in temperature and salinity in Barents Sea

The overall objective of MAIA is to develop an inexpensive, reliable system based on coastal sea-level data for monitoring the inflows of Atlantic Water to the northern seas. Available observation systems, including stan-dard tidal stations, will be used to obtain transport estimates with a time resolution of less than a week and show that the method is generic and can be applied to a similar monitoring of other regions.

The project aims to describe the environmental status of marine sediments in van Mijenfjorden. This to provide baseline data of contaminants and biodiversity, as well as for monitoring of eventual contamination from industrial activities (coal mining).

Our broad area of enquiry is the role of polar regions in the global energy and water cycles, and the atmospheric, oceanic and sea ice processes that determine that role. The primary importance of our investigation is to show how these polar processes relate to global climate.

Our central geophysical objective is to determine how sea ice and the polar oceans respond to and influence the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere. Our primary technical objective is to determine how best to incorporate satellite measurements in an ice/ocean model.

To observe the temperature/salinity structure of the Arctic Ocean along cross-Arctic transects aboard U.S. nuclear submarines in the SCICEX program.