0 projects

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Ice-Free Arctic Ocean: Dead end or new opportunities for Calanus finmarchicus (DENOC), RiS ID 11850

The Arctic Ocean is changing to a warmer and ice-free state, which may lead to substantial changes in biodiversity and ecosystem structures. An Atlantification of the zooplankton community is ongoing, but at which rate is poorly known at present stage. The aim of this project is to 1) determine t...

Awarded: NOK 74,041

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Do snowshoes influence movement and route choice of Svalbard rock ptarmigan over snowy ground? (RiS ID 11821)

We are aiming to determine how changes in snow properties influence the function of a key adaptation for Arctic animals - the evolution of a snowshoe foot. Whilst increases in foot area are well known to provide extra support during movement over snow there is currently no data examining the rela...

Awarded: NOK 85,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Depositional and Paleoenvironmental Evolution of the Forlandsundet Graben, Prins Karls Forland, Svalbard RIS ID: 11671

The Fram Strait, situated between Svalbard and northeast Greenland, is the only deep oceanic gateway connecting the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. Our modern climate system in Europe, Greenland, and the Arctic is strongly influenced by the thermohaline circulation through the Fram Strait....

Awarded: NOK 91,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Resource partitioning by Arctic scavengers in Svalbard

Dead organic matter from animals represents a central ecological resource in many food webs globally and promotes biodiversity, landscape heterogeneity, and ecosystem stability. Little knowledge currently exists about the ecological significance of carcasses in terrestrial ecosystems, particularl...

Awarded: NOK 49,877

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Nordland - Nordlánnda

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Rehabilitation of cableway posts, cultural herritage in Longyearbyen as a part of PCCH-Artic, Ris ID 11866

Rehabilitation of cableway posts in Longyearbyen. Find a better and more economical solution for the rehabilitation that may be used on more than one structure. Do temperature measurement and soil investigations for design of the foundation. For further information see the project description (...

Awarded: NOK 20,995

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

STUDY OF METALS IN ARCTIC MARINE SEDIMENTS (MArS) RiS ID: 11837

The glacial fjord Kongsfjorden (Spitsbergen, Svalbard Islands) is particularly suitable for studying the effects of the global anthropogenic activity on the Arctic ecosystem. In particular, the town of Ny-Ålesund is one of the world’s northernmost human settlements.The aim of the project is to st...

Awarded: NOK 28,694

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Understanding the physiological costs of behavioural plasticity in response to climate change in Arctic Seabirds, RIS ID 11820

The extent to which individuals demonstrate flexibility in behaviour (i.e phenotypic plasticity) is likely to be a key determinant of a species ability to adapt to climate change. However, altering behaviours to match new environments comes at a cost to individuals when they divert resources away...

Awarded: NOK 81,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Glacial and Permafrost Interactions: The Origins of Ice in Svalbard (RiS ID:11836

GAPOI seeks to close the knowledge gap between glacial & permafrost interaction within Svalbard’s glacial moraine landscapes, with particular attention to the uncertainty & potential of permafrost aggradation due to anthropogenically forced warming climate in the Arctic. Glacier forefields are ho...

Awarded: NOK 53,000

Project Period: 2022-2023

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Coastal Erosion modelling in Hiorthhamn, Longyearbyen (Svalbard)

The field work activities will be located in the shoreline of Hiorthhamn, to the northeast shore of Adventfjord, 3 km far from Longyearbyen. This area retains the archaeological remains of coal-mining activities dating from 1902. One of the objects of cultural heritage in Hiorthhamn is Taubanesta...

Awarded: NOK 33,313

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Mercury Levels in Svalbard Reindeer's Tissue and Faeces in Relation to Diet and Season

Mercury (Hg) is toxic and a concern for the terrestrial Artic environment due to potential release of Hg from the thawing permafrost. For this master thesis the levels of Hg in summer and winter faeces sample form Svalbard reindeers (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) will be compared to investigat...

Awarded: NOK 15,335

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Predicting plant trait plasticity in response to warming across a changing tundra biome in the high Arctic, RiS ID: 11498

Predicting how plant communities will respond to environmental change has been described as the ‘holy grail’ of ecology. Understanding which factors determine whether a species responds positively or negatively to a particular environmental change allows us to anticipate future shifts in communit...

Awarded: NOK 72,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Subglacial mercury cycling and associated export from Jan Mayen to the North Atlantic, RiS ID 11817

The MerJM project looks to establish baseline concentration and temporal behavior of the toxic element mercury (Hg) in natural streams emerging from glaciers overlying an active volcano on Jan Mayen. The importance of natural sources of Hg in regional mercury cycling in the North Atlantic will be...

Awarded: NOK 72,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

HAPPINESS IN TIMES OF CHANGE: "FRILUFTSLIV" AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN SVALBARD

The project «Happiness in times of change: 'Friluftsliv' and climate change in Svalbard» is a collaboration between social anthropologists Tomas Salem (University of Bergen) and Alexandra Meyer (University of Vienna). Through ethnographic research we will examine how climate change in Svalbard is...

Awarded: NOK 26,000

Project Period: 2022-2024

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Climate change drives fluctuations of glacier lakes in Svalbard - Crammebreane case study, RiS ID 11620

Since the 1990's, the number and size of glacial lakes have been observed to increase as a consequence of climate warming. Most research on glacial lakes has focused on high mountain areas such as the Himalayas or along the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet. To date little is known about the deve...

Awarded: NOK 77,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Svalbard coastal zone pollution with microplastics from local and distant sources

This project is devoted to sampling microplastic in the coastal waters of Svalbard using the same technology that is used in the ongoing projects “Model-based mapping of marine litter and microplastic in the Barents Sea (MAMBA)“ funded by Klima- og miljødepartementet KLD and NFR/SSF project "Harm...

Awarded: NOK 93,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Climatic shifts derived from lacustrine sediment cores, Richardvatnet, nw Spitsbergen. RIS ID 11652

The overarching aim is to contextualise glacier activity across a transect of the Svalbard Archipelago to reconstruct and infer the past climatic and atmosphere-ocean interaction during the Late Quaternary, thus enabling the determination of temperature and precipitation gradients across the arch...

Awarded: NOK 80,000

Project Period: 2022-2023

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Spatial and temporal shifts in Arctic fjord biodiversity caused by climate changes. RiS ID 11834

This PhD thesis aims to research how the shifts in the cryosphere caused by climate change are affecting fish abundance and distribution. This project will complement the work that took place in 2021, in which we had an extensive field campaign in Billefjorden, where we used innovative and sustai...

Awarded: NOK 95,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Stress-coping strategies in a changing world: how do ground-nesting birds adapt to unpredictive predation threat?

In the Arctic, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) rely on sea ice to hunt seals. However, sea ice is decreasing due to climate warming, and bears are changing their foraging behavior, increasing egg consumption. This shift in diet can put ground-nesting bird species, such as common eiders (Somateria m...

Awarded: NOK 94,286

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

GLAcier front Mapping with automotive lidar, RiS ID 11860

The goal of the GLAM project is to provide a proof of concept that automotive lidar sensors may be used for mapping of glacier fronts, e.g. at Tunabreen, Mohnbukta, or Nordenskiöldbreen. For that purpose, our developed sensorbox including an automotive lidar sensor, a DGPS and an IMU will be moun...

Awarded: NOK 65,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Implications of terrestrial run-off on kelp ecosystems RiS-ID: 11849

Habitat forming large brown seaweeds (kelps) are dominating many Arctic rocky shore coastlines, structuring benthic and pelagic species communities. On Svalbard, global warming is occurring at a rate far beyond the global average. The increasing terrestrial run-off leads to a darkening of the wat...

Awarded: NOK 92,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Assessing the timing of paleo fluid circulation within the Longyearbyen CO2 Lab: a comparison between field, laboratory, and core data.

The main aim of this project is to constrain the spatio-temporal paleo fluid circulation within the Agardhfjellet Fm., along part of the Billefjorden fault zone, and associated to the early Cretaceous magmatic intrusions of the Diabasodden suit, assessing the long-term permeability behavior of th...

Awarded: NOK 59,000

Project Period: 2022-2023

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The effects of warming climate on parasite-reindeer dynamics in the Arctic.

An ecosystem is shaped by species that interact with each other (herbivory, predation, and parasitism), but species dynamics can be influenced by abiotic conditions as for example increasing temperature due to climate change. However, how climate change affects parasites and consequently their ho...

Awarded: NOK 40,177

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Akershus

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

PERSISTENT, BIOACCUMULATING AND TOXIC COMPOUNDS (PBTS) IN SNOW SAMPLES FROM THE SURROUNDINGS OF LONGYEARBYEN, SVALBARD. (SOL)

This master project will study the contribution of different sources for pollutants in snow in the area surrounding Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Local sources of interests to study are the coal power plant, snow mobile activity, airport, boat and car traffic. Additionally, long-range atmospheric trans...

Awarded: NOK 21,416

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Estimation of snow depth and snow water equivalent based on GNSS-IR method

Global Navigation Satellite System interferometric reflectometry (GNSS-IR) is a method that can enable the determination of many characteristics of the environment that surrounds the measuring antenna. It is based on the characteristics of the reflected radio waves, which vary depending on the ty...

Awarded: NOK 64,124

Project Period: 2022-2023

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

From Svalbard to Mars: subsurface investigation of periglacial landforms with the WISDOM/EXOMARS GPR, RiS ID 11854

On June 2023 the ESA (European Space Agency) rover of the ExoMars mission will land on Mars. The missions’ goal is to search for the existence of past life on Mars. Its payload is equipped with WISDOM (Water Ice Subsurface Deposits Observation on Mars), a shallow Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) ...

Awarded: NOK 87,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Sedimentary facies analysis and architecture of alluvial fan systems within a rift basin, Billefjorden Trough, Svalbard, RiS ID 11611

The two main targets of the fieldwork are outcrops exposing alluvial fan deposits at the slopes of the Svenbrehøgda and the Mumien mountains. The focus will be given to a detailed structural and stratigraphical description and acquisition of 3D photogrammetry. The dataset collected in the field w...

Awarded: NOK 35,524

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Shining light on the nutritional status of sea-ice algae in response to changing light in landfast ice, using IR-microspectroscopy.RiS 11869

Through investigating changes in sea ice algae nutrient content and shifts in community composition, this project studies the impacts of sea ice decline on energy transfer within the Arctic marine ecosystem. It is critical that our understanding of the potential consequences of these changes are ...

Awarded: NOK 71,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Gravity profiling across the Central Spitsbergen Basin

The aim of this project is to produce geological profiles across the Central Spitsbergen Basin in Svalbard, by collecting gravity data and integrating it with existing seismic, borehole and geological data. From the integrated data the location of basins, structural heights and the geometry of th...

Awarded: NOK 50,503

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Effect of glacial recession on N2O fluxes in high arctic lakes and catchments, RiS ID 11818

Ongoing global warming particularly effects Arctic ecosystems with increased glacial retreat and associated changes in run-off. However, how aquatic nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes will change in High Arctic lakes and catchments remains uncertain. As the third most important greenhouse gas and major o...

Awarded: NOK 68,000

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Seasonal mercury concentrations and the microbiome (de)methylation gene expression profile in the Svalbard reindeer

This project aims to study the contributions of the Svalbard reindeer to mercury concentrations in the terrestrial trophic chain. We hypothesize that the reindeer are exposed to mercury loads via their diet and that both seasonal variations in mercury intake and microbial processes in its digesti...

Awarded: NOK 13,179

Project Period: 2022-2022

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage