Greenland: projects/activities

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Directory entires that have specified Greenland as one of the geographic regions for the project/activity and are included in the AMAP, ENVINET, SAON and SEARCH directories. Note that the list of regions is not hierarchical, and there is no relation between regions (e.g. a record tagged with Nunavut may not be tagged with Canada). To see the full list of regions, see the regions list. To browse the catalog based on the originating country (leady party), see the list of countries.

It is also possible to browse and query the full list of projects.

Displaying: 1 - 9 of 9
1. BioBasis - Zackenberg

The purpose of the BioBasis programme is to monitor basic qualitative and quantitative elements of biodiversity in the terrestrial ecosystems at Zackenberg in Northeast Greenland. The programme provides data on typical High Arctic species and processes that can be expected to react on year to year variation in climate as well as long-term climate change. It includes 30 variables of terrestrial and limnic plant, arthropod, bird and mammal dynamics in the Zackenberg valley.

Biological effects Biology Fish Terrestrial mammals Modelling Ice Biodiversity Arctic Food webs Ecosystems
2. Nuuk Basic, Climate Basis

Monitoring climatological and hydrological parameters in a low arctic environment.

Catchment studies UV radiation Climate variability Climate Spatial trends Climate change Modelling Arctic Temporal trends Ecosystems
3. Monitoring of contaminants in Greenland biota

The aim of the present project is to continue the monitoring of contaminants Greenland biota in order to detect temporal and geographical changes including screening and retrospective analyses of "new" contaminants of increasing concern. Furthermore, temporal trend monitoring of selected biomarkers (e.g. bone mineral density and histopathological changes) in polar bear are included in the monitoring as these have shown to be sensitive to stressors such as contaminants. The project will provide the fundamental basic knowledge of temporal trends and feed into international geographical trend studies of mainly long range transport of contaminants in the atmosphere and biota to Greenland. The project will provide an important input to international convention works such as the Stockholm Convention and the Long-range Trans-boundary Air Pollution.

Heavy metals Long-range transport Marine mammals Modelling Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) Pesticides Polar bear Seabirds Temporal trends
4. INTERACTIONS

Important progress has been made in recent decades to describe and understand how arctic terrestrial vertebrate interact, especially concerning predator-prey interactions. Indirect interactions between different prey species modulated by shared predators (e.g. Arctic fox) are believed to have important impacts on the structure and/or dynamics of some communities. Yet, our understanding of these types of interactions is still fragmentary. To fill that gap, we will build on ongoing projects exploring related questions in Canada (Marie-Andrée Giroux, Nicolas Lecomte, Joël Bêty) and Greenland (Olivier Gilg, Niels M. Schmidt), while taking advantage of existing networks (ADSN in North America and “Interactions” program in Greenland and Eurasia). The aim of the project is to promote the implementation of several common protocols that will (1) improve each collaborator’s knowledge at the site level and, more importantly, that will (2) be merged across sites and years to improve our understanding of the functioning and the influence of indirect interactions on arctic vertebrate communities in general.

Five types of data have been identified (by the 5 initiators of the project already mentioned above) as being mandatories to answer questions related to this topic. These data sets will be collected using 5 specific protocols described in the following chapters:

  1. Monitor predation pressure using artificial nests
  2. Monitor real predation pressure on Calidris nests using Tiny Tags
  3. Observations of predators and lemmings (3b: fox scats DNA barcoding)
  4. Assessing lemming (or “rodent”) relative abundance using different methods
  5. Assessing “herbivores” (excl. rodents) relative abundance using “faeces transects”
Arctic Biodiversity Biological effects Biology Climate change Diet Ecosystems Environmental management Food webs Modelling Populations Reproduction Spatial trends Temporal trends Terrestrial mammals
5. Sun-Earth Interaction: Auroral Observations from Svalbard Islands with “ITACA”, ITalian All-sky-Camera for Auroral observations

Observation of the high latitude auroral activity, during the winter season, by means of automatic all-sky camera(s). Study of the high-latitude auroral activity, focusing on the so-called “dayside auroras”: a particular phenomenon concerning the direct precipitation of the thermalised solar wind plasma through the geomagnetic cusps, favourably observable from the Svalbard. The analysis of the data, mainly devoted to the “dayside auroras”, will concern the comparison of the optical images obtained from both the station of Ny-Alesund and the new one of Daneborg (Greenland) with the data collected by Wind, ACE, DSMP, Polar, and Cluster satellites. Starting from the 2002 season, the joint auroral observations from Ny-Alesund and Daneborg allows the monitoring of a relevant area involved in the “dayside aurora” phenomena.

Atmospheric processes "dayside auroras" high-latitude auroral observation Geophysics Modelling Arctic magnetic substorm Data management Atmosphere auroral oval ITACA²
6. EuroClim

Mapping and monitoring of the snow cover with use of satellitte born optical instruments for (1) direct use of observations of climate change and (2) use of observations in climate modelling. Measurements of the snows spectral reflectance and other physical properties.

Mapping Climate variability Climate Environmental management Climate change Modelling
7. Long distance pollen transport in the Arctic: 1. Greenland

The submitted proposal aims to perform the monitoring of the pollen rain in the Greenland atmosphere by distinguishing the local pollen production, relatively low, from pollen grains originating from other Arctic areas. A regular monitoring of the atmospheric pollen content must be performed in order to evaluate the amount emitted and characterise the seasonality of the emission. A comparison with air mass trajectories must allow the modelling of long distance transport

Biology Climate variability Spatial trends Modelling Biodiversity Data management pollen Atmosphere Ecosystems
8. Greenland Arctic Shelf Ice and Climate Experiment

-Quantify changes in ice dynamics and characteristics resulting from the switch in AO phase -Establish a climate record for the region north of Greenland through the retrieval and analysis of sediment cores -Improve an existing dynamic-thermodynamic sea ice model, focusing on the heavily deformed ice common in the region -Relate the region-specific changes which have occurred to the larger-scale Arctic variablity pattern -Place the recent ice and climate variability for this critical region into the context of long term climate record, as reconstructed from sediment cores

Climate variability Climate Sea ice Environmental management Climate change Modelling Ice Arctic Ice cores Temporal trends
9. Monitoring and Modelling of Atmospheric Pollution in Greenland

In 2000 it is proposed to operate an atmospheric programme consisting of a monitoring and a modelling part and composed of 3 programme modules. The monitoring programme consists of two parts. I. It is proposed to continue the weekly measurements of acidifying components and heavy metals at Station Nord in north-east Greenland for assessment of atmospheric levels and trends. The measuring programme includes also highly time resolved measurements of Ozone and of total gaseous Mercury (TGM). The results will also be used for continued development and verification of the transport model calculations. Receptor modelling of the pollution composition will be used for identification and quantification of the source types that influence the atmospheric pollution in north-east Greenland. Comparison of the two sets of modelling results is expected to give better models. II. The purpose of the project is the operation of a permanent air monitoring programme in the populated West Greenland at a location which is representative for transboundary air pollution. The most promising sites are located in the Disko Bay area and in the vicinity of Nuuk. The objectives are to obtain data on the concentration levels of air pollutants that can be used for assessing seasonal variations and trends and for studying long range transport of pollutants mainly from North America to West Greenland. The purpose is further to provide data for development and improvement of long range transport models that can be used to identify the origin of the pollution and its transport pathways. The results from measurements and model calculations will be used to assess the magnitude of deposition to sea and land in this populated region of Greenland. III. In the proposed modelling programme the operation, application and maintenance of the current basic hemispheric model will be continued. Results on origin, transport, and deposition of contaminants on land and sea surfaces in the Arctic are essential for interpretation and understanding the Arctic air pollution. The model will be developed to improve the spatial and temporal resolutions, as well as the accuracy by including physically and mathematically better descriptions of the key processes treated in the model. The work to expand the model to include also non-volatile heavy metals, such as Cadmium and Lead on an hemispheric scale will be continued. Since the atmospheric chemistry of Ozone and Mercury seem to be strongly connected in the Arctic it is planned to continue the development and testing of a model module for hemispheric transport and chemistry for ozone and mercury to assess the origin and fate of this highly toxic metal in the Arctic.

Atmospheric processes Atmospheric Pathways Ozone Arctic haze Long-range transport Acidification Pollution sources Modelling Emissions Arctic Atmospheric Deposition Atmosphere