in Disko Bay Jakob Abermann, A siaq, Greenland Sur vey, Greenland This project focused on assessing the potential of integrating the ecosystem monitoring at Disko Bay in a GEM perspective. We performed pilot studies that narrowed down the scope and used the uniqueness of Arctic Station (AS) both in terms of physical characteristics but also of logistical advantages in order to fill gaps that remain open under the current GEM setting. All pilot studies showed the unique potential AS has and we intend to incorporate our methods for the years to come. Acoustic studies of bowhead whales in Disko Bay Mads Peter Heide -Jørgensen, Mads Fage Christoffersen, Outi Ter vo, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR), Greenland, Susanna Blackwell, Greeneridge Science Inc., USA Two long and some short deployments of Acousonde acoustic recorders on bowhead whales provided high quality data for estimating the flow noise. The obtained recordings are of both adequate quality and duration for the software development for the Satellite Linked Acoustic Recorder. GEM GlacioBasis Disko reconnaissance Michele Cit terio, Geological Sur vey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Denmark, Jakob Abermann, A siaq, Greenland Sur vey, Greenland Glaciers and ice caps independent from the ice sheet account for a significant fraction of the sea level rise contribution from Greenland. Establishing a glacier monitoring programme on Disko Island fills a major geographic gap in existing observations. Near-surface weather observations at the glacier will make it possible to link observed glacier change with climate. The 2016 pilot and reconnaissance study will be further developed in 2017 to establish GlacioBasis Disko as an operational monitoring programme. Automatic Weather Station on the Chamberlin Glacier, 8 August 2016. Photo Michele Citterio Camp near Chamberlin Glacier, June 2016. Photo Jakob Abermann Impacts of global warming in sentinel systems: from genes to ecosystems Michelle Jackson, Imperial College London, United Kingdom The impacts of climate change on natural ecosystems remain poorly understood, and research to date has focused on individual species (e.g. range shifts of polar bears). Multispecies systems (food webs, ecosystems), however, can possess emergent properties that can only be understood using a system-level perspective. We aim to quantify the impacts of warming across multiple levels of biological organisation, from genes to food webs and whole ecosystems, using geothermally warmed freshwaters in 5 high-latitude regions (Svalbard, Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, Kamchatka), where warming is predicted to be especially rapid. Our study will be the first to characterise the impacts of climate change on multispecies systems at such an unprecedented scale. R / V Porsild. Photo Michelle Jackson ICE-ARC project, R/V Porsild August 21st 23rd 2016 Naja Mikkelsen, John Boserup, Geological Sur vey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Denmark A sediment coring program was undertaken from the research vessel R / V Porsild August 21st 23rd 2016. The research vessel belongs to the University of Copenhagen and was chartered for the ICE-ARC cruise. Twelve sediment cores were collected during the cruise in the Rodebay area of the Disko Bay region using a Rhumor Lot corer. Neither seismic profiles nor detailed depth soundings existed for the areas to be investigated. Therefore ecco sounding profiles were run prior to coring operations to locate sea bottom depressions suitable for the coring. The cores will be analyzed using a suite of different methods and techniques. Based on these data a record of past changes including past climate changes, changes in sea ice cover and productivity will be outlined with specific focus on the Whaling Period 16th 18th century. ICE-ARC Work Package 3 holds in addition to the objective of investigating past climate changes also an important component of past and present socio economic conditions in Greenland and the impact of western civilization on the Inuit communities in Greenland. In order to focus on this subject the old whaling area called Rodebay just north of Ilulissat was chosen as the focal point for the coring activities. This area was a stronghold for the European whalers in the 16th 18th century. A n n u a l R e p o r t 2016 17 university of copenhagen facu lt y of sci e nc e A RC T I C STAT I ON Annual Repor t 2016 2 A R C T I C S TAT I O N ARCTIC STATION Annual Report 2015 CONTENTS Chairmans welcome ............................................................. 5 DiskoBasis monitoring ............................................................ 7 Research projects.................................................................. 15 Edu 4 A R C T I C S TAT I O N Chairmans Welcome Professor Bo Elberling Arc tic Station is one of the oldest arc tic field stations and has been impor tant for research at Disko Island and the Disko Bay for more than 10 0 years. The station is an unique site and surrounded by a high diversit y of ecosystems; not the least remar Rød elv Figure 1. New weather station (AWS4) on Skarvefjeld, 240 meter above sea level (69.27282 N, 053.45363W). The map shows the location of places where air temperature are being logged in a transect from sea level (T4) to 830 m asl (T2). Blæsedale n Greeland Disko Island Lyngmarksfjeld 5 DiskoBasis Monitoring 2016 Charlotte Sigsgaard, Casper Tai Christiansen, Mathilde Jammet, Per Juel Hansen, Kirsten S. Christoffersen, Aart Kroon, Thomas Friborg, Birger Ulf Hansen, Bo Elberling DiskoBasis is the ecosystem monitoring program at Arc tic Station. The program has increased the monitori 1040 Wind speed (m s-1) 31 Jan 2 Mar 1 Apr 1 Maj 31 Maj 30 Jun 30 Jul 29 Aug 28 Sep 28 Oct 27 Nov 27 Dec 2016 1000 960 40 10 30 0 20 -10 -20 10 -30 0 16 12 8 4 Wind dir (o) 0 300 200 100 Snow depth (m) 0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 Ground temp (oC) Soil moisture (Vol%) 0 80 10 Figure 7. Precipitation/ rain measured just outside Arctic Station (AWS1). Stacked monthly amounts from May to September are shown Sep from 1991 to 2016. Missing years are due Aug to malfunction of the equipment. Jul 400 350 Precipitation (mm) 300 250 200 Jun 150 May 100 50 0 1991 1993 1995 1 Figure 9. Photos of multisonde location on 15 May, 22 May and 11 June 2016. Massive snow melt and high water levels create turbulence along the cliff on the eastern brink when water is forced around the rock outcrop and causes fluctuations in the water level during the peak runoff periods. Photo Cas Figure 11. The location of the multisonde in Røde Elv (69 15 13N, 53 29 53W, 3 m asl. and ca 460 m from the coast, -see Figure 2). A wire was installed across the river in order to pull the Q-liner from side to side in the crossing. The river is 12 meter wide at this time and measurements were perfo Figure 12.Sampling of lake water 19 February 2016. Photo Kirsten Christoffersen ac terized by fairly harsh conditions above the lake sur face and limited biological ac tivit y below the ice due to darkness. The conditions are much milder in the spring (May in Table 1), snow is melting, ice thicknes 7,8 8 pH 8,2 8,4 8,6 0 50 Depth (meter) 100 Figure 13. Seasonality in pH measured from near surface water to 300 meters depth at the Fast station in Disko Bay 2016 (691114, 533107). 11-May 25-Jun 150 25-Jul 30-Aug 200 01-Oct 24-Oct 250 28-Nov 300 350 decreased to ca 8.0 due to the 14 A R C T I C S TAT I O N Research Projects Effects of dispersed oil droplets and produced water components on growth, development and reproduction in Arctic pelagic copepods (PWC-Arctic) Anders Johny Olsen, Iurgi Imanol Salaverria-Zabalegui, Nor wegian Universit y of Science and Technology (NTNU), Nor way, Ida Beathe Øverjo Sampling tidal algae at Kronprinsens Ejland. Photo Carlos M. Duarte Kelp forests in Greenland functional roles and response to climate change Dor te Krause -Jensen, Aarhus Universit y, Denmark, Carlos M. Duar te, K AUST Saudi-Arabia and Aarhus Universit y af filiation We studied the role of Arcti in Disko Bay Jakob Abermann, A siaq, Greenland Sur vey, Greenland This project focused on assessing the potential of integrating the ecosystem monitoring at Disko Bay in a GEM perspective. We performed pilot studies that narrowed down the scope and used the uniqueness of Arctic Station (AS) both in A sediment filled Rumohr Lot corer is retrieved. Photo Naja Mikkelsen Small Arctic grazers Sandra Craveiro, Antonio Calado, Universit y of Aveiro, Por tugal, Øjvind Moestrup, Depar tment of Biology, Universit y of Copenhagen, Denmark, Andre as Altenburger, Amalia Keck, Nina Lundholm, Natural Histor Sampling of snow on the glacier. Photo Tobias Luthe A n n u a l R e p o r t 2016 19 Ready for field work on the ice in Disko Bay. Photo Nina Lundholm 20 A R C T I C S TAT I O N A n n u a l R e p o r t 2016 21 Photo Kent Pørksen 22 A R C T I C S TAT I O N Education Arctic Biology Field Course Michelle S. Svendsen, Klara A . Rask, Søren R. Nielsen, Cecilie K. Hedemand, Sissel L. Fredsgaard, Nanna Devantier, Frederik F. Gai (students); Kirsten S. Christof fersen, Anders Michelsen (teachers). Depar tment of Biology, Universit y of Copenhagen, Denmark. T GUX-Aasiaat Geography Fieldtrip 2016 Teachers: David N. Penney and Karen Bengtson, GUX-Aasiaat (Nor th Greenlands Senior High School). Par ticipants: Geography students from 2nd class (Natural Sciences), GUX-Aasiaat. In September, 2016, a group of eleven 2nd year Ge ography students and t wo teacher A n n u a l R e p o r t 2016 25 Visits and public outreach GEM Workshop on 9-11 August 2016 at Arctic Station A work shop was held at Arc tic Station about the ongoing monitoring and future plans for Arc tic Station to be a monitoring site under Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM). All together 16 par ticipants from Universit y o Publications Scientific papers 2016 B l o k , D., Elb e r lin g, B., M i ch e ls e n, A . (2016 ). I ni t ia l s t a g e s of Tun d ra Shr u b L i t te r d e co m p o s i t i o n may b e a cce l e rate d by d e e p e r w inte r sn o w b u t s l o w e d d o w n by summ e r wa r m ing. Eco s y s te ms 28 A R C T I C S TAT I O N Members of the board Professor Bo Elberling (Chairman) Depar tment of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management Phone: + 45 3532 2520 E-mail: be@ign.ku.dk Git te Henrik sen (Secretar y) Facult y of Science Phone: + 45 3532 4256 E-mail: gin@science.ku.dk Professor MSO Kirsten Seestern Christof fers Title Arc tic Station Annual Repor t 2015 Publisher Board of the Arc tic Station, Univer sit y of Copenhagen, Denmark Editor A ar t Kroon and Charlot te Sigsgaard L ayout and graphic s Kent Pørk sen, Depar tment of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management Internet ver sion ark tisk station.ku.dk