Engaging tomorrow's scientists
The aim of this project is to understand the formation of cryoconite in a year long perspective. Several times per year sediment samples of glacier debris and cryoconite are collected for further analysis. Read More …
Main research questions for this UNISprout project
Do species of the Pseudocalanus genus complete a one-year life cycle with only one generation?
Questions we will investigate
Are male individuals of Pseudocalanus present in June to August?
Are P. moultoni present at all during December, February, April, and August to October? Read More …
Can the local inhabitants get excited about science in one day? Read More …
Can we systematically acquire digital outcrop models by SfM to make a base line of Svalbard in times of changing climate? Read More …
Can the famous Storegga Tsunami, that occured around 8.1 cal ka BP, be identified for the first time in Svalbard in the raised marine sediments and geomorphology of Isfjorden?
If so, how extensive was the tsunami here, what role did sea ice play and what marine and climate conditions persisted at the time?
What implications does this have for the future submarine landslide tsunami risk in Svalbard? Read More …
The goal of this project is to characterize the benthic communities at glacier fronts and compare them to other fjordic benthic communities in order to understand how seafloor communities are affected by the conditions at glacier fronts. Animal collections have been made at a number of glacier impacted sites in various fjords around Svalbard (Tempelfjorden, Billefjorden, Hornsund) as well as at sites not impacted by glaciers. River mouths have some, but not all the same features of glacier fronts, therefore another comparison that will be made is with sites impacted by river runoff. Read More …
How is warming affecting the vegetation on Svalbard? Svalbard in the High Arctic is one of the fastest warming places on earth, with air temperatures increasing by 3 to 5° C over the last 40 to 50 years, with even more dramatic warming in winter, affecting snow depth and timing of snow melt. Climate change also has implications for reindeer, and the increase in herbivores is expected to lead to a shift in plant communities. Read More …
Since 2011 UNIS has been sampling a marine time series station close to Longyearbyen at weekly to monthly intervals year-round, to find out how the water-masses, nutrients, biological communities and production changes between seasons, between years and long term. As far as we know IsA is the northernmost year-round time series in the world. At the Department of Arctic Biology we focus on plankton and microbes, organisms that have short generation times and therefore respond quickly to environmental changes, making them excellent tracers of climate change effects.
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Predicting ecosystems responses to changing environmental conditions is one of the most pressing challenges in ecology today. In the past few decades, mean annual temperatures in the Arctic have risen by 2-4 ºC while rain-on-snow events are becoming more frequent. Other environmental changes can be seen in a drastic increase in the goose population. All of these changes may have repercussions on C and N cycling as well as microbial functional diversity and activity in the soil. Read More …
The tundra ecosystem in Svalbard is characterized by some of the fastest environmental shifts resulting from climate change. In recent years, increases in biomass of vegetation available for Svalbard reindeer has been correlated with increased temperatures in summer, which may mean more food for Svalbard reindeer. Although increases in early-season production of vegetation with increasing temperatures is well documented, the effects of late-season warming on senescence of key forage for Svalbard reindeer (i.e., the duration of availability of nutritious food) is still unknown. We aim to evaluate how key forage for Svalbard reindeer respond to gradients of heating in the late summer and throughout the growing season. Read More …