Education Arctic Biology Field Course Charlot te A . B. Køhnke, Thomas A . Arkwright, Camilla H. Schar f fOlsen, Mads Schultz, Cathrine Kallestrup, Lasse Brandt, David H. Blitz, Liv A . No bel, Louise C. Flensborg, Paula M. Gonzalez, Marc Allentof t Larsen, Samuel Black (students), Anders Michelsen, Kirsten S. Christof fersen (teachers) Depar tment of Biology, Universit y of Copenhagen, Denmark The overall theme for the course was to study re sponses of arc tic ecosystems to human impac t and specifically to global warming. The Arc tic Biology Field course in 2017 took place from 11 to 20 July. We were blessed with nice weather conditions during our stay which made field work enjoyable. Several common scientific excursions took place to visit Morænesø, Østerlien and Kuanit. Besides, we had a guided walk through the entire village and we joined the Sunday church ceremony. We also had a lec ture by the scientific leader (Regin R ønn) about the montoring ac tivities Arc tic Station as well has his research projec ts. Overall, we had a splendid course and highly appreciated the interac tions with other guests at the station and with the t wo station managers, the housekeep er and the crew on board Porsild. We wish to thank them all for their suppor t. The 6 subjec ts for group projec ts were: 1. Human impac ts on cetacean behaviour with focus on disturbance by boats in Greenland 2. The influence of climate change on Disko Islands macro algal communities 3. An assessment of microplastic impac t on blue mussels (My tilus edulis) from Qeqer tarsuaq harbor, Disko Bay (Greenland) 4. Grow th rates of Arc tic charr populations (Salvelinus alpinus) in the Disko area, West Greenland, in relation to climate conditions 5. Analysis of vegetation cover and physiological responses in plants along a snow bed gradient exposed to warming with open-top chambers 6. The ef fec t of warming on CO 2 flux along a natural vegetation gradient in an arc tic tundra The students defined their group projec ts, researched the literature and tested the methods that they were going to use for sampling and analyses. Working with natural populations in their environment can be challenging and sometimes modifications of plans are needed. However, the obstacles both in the field and in the laborator y were solved and all groups got excellent data for their repor ts. The findings and conclusions of the student pro jec ts are published in the repor t Arc tic Biology Field Course - Qeqer tarsuaq 2017 (ISBN: 978 - 87- 8914323-1). The repor t can be obtained as PDF from Kirsten S. Christof fersen (kchristof fersen@bio.ku.dk) or from the Arc tic Station website (http: //arktisk station. ku.dk /english / ). Field and Methods course in Geography and Geoinformatics Malene Bille, Nic Craig, Daniel L. Hauptmann, Lena Hermesdor f, Thomas D. Hessilt, Jeanet te S. Hinrup, Dora Kovacs, Henriet te H. Larsen, Laura B. Larsen, Camilla L. Madsen, Cassandra Triska (students), Bo Elberling, Per L. Ambus (teachers) Depar tment of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Universit y of Copenhagen, Denmark The course in Geography and Geoinformatics was held at Arc tic Station bet ween 26 July and 3 August. The students organised three projec ts, which were carried out by field work at Disko Island and made into scientific repor ts. The main themes of the course were produc tion and release of greenhouse gasses, interac tion bet ween soil, plant and turnover rate and climate gradients from sea level to a mountain peak. The aims were 1. To provide Initial assessment / verification of WinRHIZO Tron as a method of measuring belowground biomass of volume, when correlated to the dr y weight of biomass 2. To investigate C and N interac tions across the root - rhizosphere - bulk soil gradient, in order to Collecting water samples along the river side of Røde Elv. Photo Nya Hegelund Vilhelmsen. A n n u a l R e p o r t 2017 23 university of copenhagen facu lt y of sci e nc e A RC T I C STAT I ON Annual Repor t 2017 ,e ARCTIC STATION 2 A R C T I C S TAT I O N ARCTIC STATION Annual Report 2017 CONTENTS Chairmans welcome ............................................................ 5 Monitoring at Arctic Station .................................................. 6 Research projects ................................................................. 15 Educati 4 A R C T I C S TAT I O N Chairmans Welcome Professor Bo Elberling For Arctic Station it has been important to open the station for a wider range of scientists and to foster more collaborative research on mainly terrestrial projects. Therefore, Arctic Station is since 2017 involved in a circumpolar network INTER ACT II In Monitoring at Arctic Station Charlotte Sigsgaard, Regin Rønn, Michele Citterio, Jakob Abermann, Per Juel Hansen, Kirsty Langly, Kirsten S. Christoffersen, Sille Myreng, Casper Tai Christiansen, Aart Kroon, Thomas Friborg, Bo Elberling A new struc ture of the monitoring ac tivities at Arc tic Statio 15 10 10 Temperature (oC) Temperature (oC) 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -+- -25 1992 1996 2000 -10 AVG Winter/coldest months (J, F, M) -20 Max -25 2017 Min Mean annual air temperature 2004 2008 2012 2016 -30 Jan I May Jul Jun Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Figure 1040 31-J an 2-Mar 1-Apr 1-May 31-May 30-J un 30-J ul 29-Aug 28-S ep 28-Oct 27-Nov 27-Dec 2017 1000 960 30 0 20 Wind spe ed (m s -1) -10 -20 10 -30 0 16 12 8 4 0 Wind dir () 300 200 100 S now depth (m) 0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 Ground temp (C ) S oil moisture (vol%) 0 80 10 c 2 20 1 10 0 0 -1 -10 -2 -20 NEE -3 -30 A irT (diurnal mean) -4 Several manual discharge measurements were carried out at various water levels throughout the entire runof f season. The last three years of fresh water runof f from R øde Elv has been calculated using the relation bet ween Figure 9A: Røde Elv 2 June 2017. Photo Charlotte Sigsgaard. Figure 9B: Røde Elv, 6 July 2017. A cold period resulted in very low runoff and no suspended sediment. Photo Elisabeth Larsen Kolstad. Figure 9C: Røde Elv 30 August 2017. Peak runoff during rainy period. The color of the water indicate hi 2017 Discharge (m3s -1) R ain (mm) 20 15 15 10 10 5 5 0 0 -5 Air temp (C ) 20 25 20 10 Turbidity (NTU) 0 600 400 200 Water temp (C ) 0 12 8 4 0 8 pH 7.5 7 6.5 6 7-Jun 17-Jun 27-Jun 7-Jul 17-Jul 27-Jul 6-Aug 16-Aug 26-Aug 5-Sep 15-Sep 25-Sep Figure 10. Røde Elv river 0 0 100 100 100 200 200 200 300 300 300 0 -0- June 27 Ju ly 27 August 15 +-0October 10 Depth (m) 100 50 150 200 250 Nitrate (μgN L ) 0 10 50 Ammonium (μg N L ) -1 -1 15 20 25 Phosphate (μgP L ) -1 Figure 11. Vertical distribution of nitrate, ammonium and phosphate in Figure 13. Automatic weather station, Chamberlin Glacier 2 July 2016 (left). Chamberlin Glacier terminus 8 August 2016. Photo Michele Citterio (right) Figure 14. Installing ablation stake on Chamberlin Glacier 2 July 2016. Photo Jakob Abermann (left) and measuring ablation stake, 8 August 2016. Pho 14 A R C T I C S TAT I O N Research Projects Chasing clouds or how cloud dynamics might influence the climate in the Arctic Glacial Meltwater Sediment Transformation in Arctic River systems (GLAMSTAR) Jordi Cristóbal Rosselló, A siaq- Greenland Sur vey, Greenland Kathr yn Adamson, Manchester Metropolitan Universit y, UK, T C and N cycling and plant performance along a snowbed community gradient, and impact of warming Anders Michelsen, Cathrine Kallestrup, Elisabeth Kolstad, Per Ambus, CENPERM, Universit y of Copenhagen, Denmark w I, I .,i } t Analyzing soilgas from the frozen soil. Photo Anders Michelsen. The fl Effect of aboveground plant stress on biogenic volatile organic compound concentrations in soil Magnus Kramshøj, Riikka Rinnan, Depar tment of Biology, Universit y of Copenhagen, Denmark, Lærke Wester Larsen, Depar tment of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Universit y of Copenhagen, Denm Snow and ice thicknesses measured with radar on Lyngmarksbræen ice cap. Photo Jacob Clement Yde. West Greenland was to obtain plant material (seeds and silica dried leaf material) of Cochlearia groenlandica from its type locality, Mudderbugten in Disko. The material will be studied genetically and between 1 and 16 May and we collected 82 samples. A total of 5 days were spent at sea of which 4 was on a small fishing boat and 1 on the research vessel Porsild. Additionally, several days were used in the lab to filter water samples. Acquisition of oceanographic measurements from baleen whales Ma A second, smaller bloom occured in the end of May, accompanied by an increase in biodiversity. In addition to the monitoring, a microcosm experiment about the effect of nutrients on the biodiversity in the water was conducted. PWC-Arctic: Effects of dispersed oil droplets and produced water compone Sampling air to study Arctic air microbiology. Photo Nora Els. focused on promises of economic independency based on oil and mineral adventure. This project is designed to look after impacts of climate change to local communities and to evaluate the rights of local people in relation to multination Photo Kent Pørksen 22 A R C T I C S TAT I O N Education Arctic Biology Field Course Charlot te A . B. Køhnke, Thomas A . Arkwright, Camilla H. Schar f fOlsen, Mads Schultz, Cathrine Kallestrup, Lasse Brandt, David H. Blitz, Liv A . No bel, Louise C. Flensborg, Paula M. Gonzalez, Marc Allentof t Larsen, Samuel Black (students), Anders Michelsen, highlight the dif ferences bet ween bulk soil and rhizosphere soil and make an assessment of bulk soils representatively in relation to nutrients in a mesic low-arc tic tundra soil 3. To quantif y how CH 4 oxidation rates change in heath and bare ground with increasing elevation. These changes will Sampling Betula nana leaves from the Arctic Station herbarium. Photo Fabian Ercan A n n u a l R e p o r t 2017 25 Publications Scientific papers 2017 B e n d i xe n, M ., K ro o n, A . (2017 ). Co n ce ptua lizing d e l t a fo r ms a n d p ro ce s s e s in A rc t i c co a s t a l e nv iro n m e nt s . E a r t h Sur fa ce P ro ce s s e s a n d L a n d fo r m s 42, 1227-1237, d o i: 10.10 02 /e s p. 4 0 97. Chr i 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 2017 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