Climate change accelerates the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and terrestrial permafrost which leads to increased freshwater and organic carbon loading of marine waters around Greenland. This carbon may potentially be mineralized to CO₂ resulting in an increased CO₂ content in the marine waters and a decreased CO₂ uptake from the atmosphere.

The acceleration of icebergs and glaciers melt associated with large releases of iron, impacts biochemical and physical characteristics in the water column, influencing phytoplankton dynamic. As phytoplankton mitigates global warming by fixing the greenhouse gas CO2 into biomass and is the first vital link in the food chain, thus these changes will affect the carbon cycling and the entire food web in the Arctic. Therefore, the objective is to describe the biological and chemical properties in the water column, along transects from coast to shore, and near the ice tongue during summer.

The warming of the Arctic results in numerous changes including the replacement of multi-year ice (MYI) by first-year ice (FYI) and an increase of precipitations in Greenland, especially of snow. These changes of ice and snow thickness will change the light availability for microalgae, which are the only source of primary production in spring. Therefore, our objective is to compare the primary productivity and photosynthetic properties of microalgae in FYI and MYI before the entire disappearance of the latter.

The main objective of the project is to improve our understanding of the key physical and biochemical processes controlling the magnitude and distribution of the greenhouse gases (GHG) carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) uptake/release by the Arctic marine waters including fjords. This will be done through study of the GHG gas exchange over snow and ice covered and ice-free marine waters.

The main objective of the project is to improve our understanding of the key physical and biochemical processes controlling the magnitude and distribution of the greenhouse gases (GHG) carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) uptake/release by the Arctic marine waters including fjords. This will be done through study of the GHG gas exchange over snow and ice covered and ice-free marine waters.

During this campaign our team plans to:

•        Look at Hg transport across snow-sea ice-seawater interface in first-year and multi-year sea ice, with a particular emphasis on the potential production of methyl mercury in sea ice

•        Study the vertical distribution if ikaite crystal within sea ice as well as the amount of phosphate co-precipitated with ikaite

•        Examine Halogens distribution across snow-sea ice interface

•        Test a new method for estimating CO2 flux through the sea ice during sea ice growth and decay

During this campaign our team plans to:

Ikaite (CaCO₃•6H₂O) is a mineral that occurs naturally in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. However, the spatial and temporal dynamics are poorly understood. To improve our understanding of the dynamics of ikaite in sea ice, we are developing a method to quantify ikaite in sea ice using dissolved inorganic concentration (DIC). Ice cores will be collected from SERF and ikaite will be quantified using two different methods: image analysis and DIC analysis.

The major objective of this project is to collect oceanographic data and consider the physical mechanisms that potentially impact the landfast sea ice and tidewater glaciers (and vice versa) in the Station North region. Relatively warm intermediate North Atlantic waters can be found at intermediate depths off the NE Greenland continental slope. These waters might penetrate along the submarine troughs and valleys into the shallow coastal areas where vertical mixing processes could initiate heat transport to the lower surface of sea ice.

This project will study the spatial and temporal variability of the landfast ice around Station Nord. Two autonomous ice mass balance buoys will be deployed in conjunction with moorings during leg 1 and record air, ice, snow and water temperatures, air pressure, surface winds, snow depth and ice thickness for one year. This will reveal the annual cycle and temporal variability of the landfast multiyear ice pack around Nord.