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 monitoring at Arc tic Station by introducing several new ac tivities to the ongoing monitoring initiated in 1991. radiation ever y half hour. AWS 4 fit s into an altitudinal transec t where air temperature and ground sur face temperature are being logged from sea level to the top of Skar vefjeld (830 m asl). New implementations and new parameters have been included, especially within the fields of terrestrial and hydrological monitoring. The enhanced focus on the long term monitoring in the area has been par tly financed by the Danish Ministr y of Energy, Utilities and Climate since 2013 and by the Universit y of Co penhagen, who owns Arc tic Station. The program is associated with the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring program (GEM) and has the ambition of being fully incorporated in the GEM collaboration. All DiskoBasis data are public domain and validated data are available from the Depar tment of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Universit y of Copenhagen. Weather and Climate Contac t: C. Sigsgaard (cs@ign.ku.dk). A summar y of selec ted parameters collec ted by DiskoBasis in 2016 are presented in the following sec tion. For additional information about DiskoBasis, please refer to the homepage w w w.arktisk station. ku.dk / Research / Monitoring New implementations 2016 An automatic weather station (AWS 4) was installed at Skar vefjeld (24 0 meter above sea level) in August 2015 and was taken over by DiskoBasis monitoring in 2016 (Figure 1). The station is logging air temperature, air pressure, precipitation, relative humidit y, soil moisture, soil temperature, and solar incoming Local weather data from Arc tic Station are being logged in Østerlien at the automatic weather station AWS2 (Figure 2). The winter 2015/ 2016 was characterized by large amount s of snow. The main snow event in late November 2015 resulted in a thick and continuous snow cover in Østerlien (Figure 3 and 6). Similar amount s of snow have not been registered since 20 0 0. The snow cover lasted throughout the winter and the insulating ef fec t of the snow caused ver y slow and impeded frost penetration into the soil resulting in higher soil temperatures and a reduced period with frozen soil in 2016. Hardly any freezing took place at 150 cms depth. The soil temperatures were significantly warmer in 2016 than in 2015 as a response to the reduced winter freezing in the soil and the relative early snowmelt (Figure 3 and 6). The mean annual air temperature measured at Arc tic Station in 2016 was - 0.8C which was only exceeded in 20 03 and 2010 since the star t of measurements at Arc tic Station (1991-present). It was mainly the first half of 2016 that was considerably warmer than average (Figure 4). The mean monthly temperatures were all above average from Januar y to August and April was ver y warm with a monthly mean temperature close to zero (- 0.4C). The average for April is -7C for the period 1991-2016 (Figure 5). Several days with daily mean temperatures well above zero were al ready registered in April causing an early star t of the 15 10 Temperature (oC) 10 Temperature (oC) 5 0 -5 -10 5 0 -5 -10 AVG -15 -15 Summer (J, J, A) Winter/coldest months (J, F, M) -20 Mean annual air temperature 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 -20 Max -25 2016 -30 -25 1992 Min 2016 Figure 4. Annual mean air temperatures at Arctic Station from 1992 to 2016 and mean air temperatures for the warmest months (June, July and August) and the coldest months (January, February and March). Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Figure 5. Mean monthly air temperatures in 2016 compared to minimum, maximum and average for the period 1992-2016. A n n u a l R e p o r t 2016 7 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