This project’s objective is to assess water dynamics in the Young Sound Fjord and adjoining coastal polynya region. This project is aimed to examine the role of topography and sea ice for modifying water dynamics and related vertical mixing. The tidal-driven and buoyancy-driven mixing are of primarily interest. The neap-spring cycle of vertical mixing rate depending on distance from fast-ice edge and bottom topography will be investigated.
In this project we will advance towards full carbon and energy exchange estimates over land at Zackenberg. We will supplement ongoing efforts by the GeoBasis monitoring programme in the area.
We will study the exchange of salt, heat, and oxygen between sea ice and the underlying seawater using eddy correlation. Measurement of ice-ocean oxygen exchange will allow us to non-destructively measure net ecosystem exchange, which will support other primary production estimates made by K.
Biomass production depends on the availability of light below the snowpack and sea-ice covering the ocean. This availability varies spatially and temporally depending on the depth and optical properties of each snow and ice layers. The objective of this work is to estimate the transmitted energy through the snowpack at different stages of the melt, and for different snow depths, snow grain size, and density found on sea-ice.
Ice algal production is a critical source of nutrition to higher trophic levels in Arctic marine ecosystems. The inefficiency of the microbial loop in sea ice may contribute to the high levels of primary production that occur there.
Satellite microwave observation techniques are essential for accurate, regional-scale, assessments of essential climate variables (ECVs) sea ice melting state and surface albedo during the spring-summer sea ice melting period. It follows that ECV detection will facilitate the study of coupled bio-geophysical processes. This study focuses on linking key seasonal timings and spatial distributions of ECVs to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, with current focus on C-band frequency radar descriptors as made available by polar orbiting SARs such as Radarsat-2.
In this project we will collect time series C-band scatterometer data from the snow-covered first-year sea ice in Cambridge Bay in May 2014. The instrument will be mounted at a 3 m height platform above the surface. The scatterometer time-series measurements will be accompanied with daily physical sampling of snow and ice. To have reliable scattering measurements, a series of calibration measurements will be performed to count for the environment. The scaterometer data will be compared with RADARSAT-2 satellite imagery acquired over the study area.
In this mesocosm study, we are interested in the partitioning behavior of halides (e.g., chloride, bromide, iodide) in sea ice and snow upon seawater freezing. To achieve this objective, vertical distribution profiles of halide concentrations in newly formed sea ice, overlying snow and underlying seawater will be measured as sea ice grows. These measurements will contribute to the study of the relationship between halides in snow and sea ice and Arctic springtime “bromine explosion events”, “ozone depletion events” and “mercury depletion events”.
During springtime every year, a unique set of chemical reactions occur in the Arctic troposphere, resulting in the occurrence of bromine explosion events (BEEs), ozone depletion events (ODEs) and mercury depletion events (MDEs). These events have major implications for biogeochemical processes across the OSA. For instance, MDEs are suspected to play a major role in mercury deposition in the Arctic Ocean where it bioaccumulates and biomagnifies in marine mammals. The key process in these events is the photochemical activation of seawater bromide to atomic bromine.
