0 projects

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Investigating Spatial and Temporal Variability in Dust Deposition onto Svalbard Glaciers

Målet med dette prosjektet er å gi viktig informasjon om mineralstøvavsetning på isbreer på Svalbard, hvor konsistent støvavsetningen er over Svalbard, og hvilken rolle støv og andre lysabsorberende partikler har på snø og bresmelting. I løpet av vinter-vår 2025 vil vi samle ~10 m dype firn kjer...

Awarded: NOK 0.50 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2026

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

From winter time to summer time – what ends the "hunger gap" for Svalbard reindeer?

The term "hunger gap" (no: “vårknipa”) traditionally used in agricultural communities, refers to the period at the end of winter when winter provisions are depleting, yet the growing season has not yet started. In contemporary usage, the term also describes the food situation for wild animals, wh...

Awarded: NOK 58,999

Project Period: 2024-2025

Location: Akershus

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The role of energy budget in a changing world: Are forecasts missing an important aspect for Arctic insects?

The ongoing climatic changes will have undisputable effects on biodiversity and ecosystems. For small ectotherms (e.g. insects) the current state-of-the-art focusses on physiological performances (often measured as critical thermal limits), warming tolerance (resilience) and phenotypic and evolut...

Awarded: NOK 63,890

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Mercury dynamics in Arctic fjord marine food webs

Marine chemical pollution poses known threats to human health and to biodiversity, ecosystem and societal services. The Arctic region is a major sink of global mercury (Hg) pollution. Arctic sediments, sea and glacial ice constitute vast Hg reservoirs. Recent studies raise concerns about their ...

Awarded: NOK 0.12 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Kongsfjorden System Flagship: Working together to understand an Arctic sentinel fjord

Kongsfjorden, på den vestlige kysten av Svalbard, er en vokter av klimaendringer i Arktis, med oppvarming som skjer raskere enn de fleste steder på jorden. Forskere har studert ulike deler av økosystemet i tiår, blant annet havtemperatur, vannkjemi, sjøis, plante- og dyreplankton, sel og sjøfugl....

Awarded: NOK 0.50 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2026

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Svalbard Research Integration for Data and Environmental Modelling

Hva er det store konseptet? Vårt prosjekt stimulerer samarbeid for å forbedre vår forståelse av miljøet i Arktis, med fokus på Isfjorden-regionen. Ved å forene ekspertisene til flere organisasjoner (NIVA, UNIS og SIOS), forbereder vi felles overvåkingsdatasett - fra elvestasjoner til havbøyer og ...

Awarded: NOK 0.24 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2025

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Characterising geogenic nitrate source areas in Adventdalen

There has been great emphasis on quantifying the release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane from melting permafrost. However, research on links between melting glaciers and permafrost and nitrogen release has been limited, despite its potential as a direct or indirect greenhou...

Awarded: NOK 29,854

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Breeding phenology of Svalbard snow buntings in relation to arthropod abundance

In my master thesis, I will investigate the reproductive success of a Svalbard breeding population of the snow bunting Plectrophenax nivalis in relation to food abundance. The snow bunting is the world’s northernmost breeding passerine species. Assessing how species like the snow bunting are able...

Awarded: NOK 75,339

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Drone surveys of ice associated seals hauled out on sea-ice during the moulting period (part of ARK)

The most recent population survey of Arctic ringed seals conducted in Svalbard was in 2003. Over the past 5 years, the Norwegian Polar Institute has been developing the techniques, methodologies and field competence to survey marine mammals using UAV. In 2023 a full-scale survey of all ice-cover...

Awarded: NOK 96,999

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Shrub Growth and Permafrost Insulation in a Warmer, Rainier Arctic - RiS ID 11968, 12016 & 12331

Air temperatures are increasing, and more precipitation is falling as rain rather than snow on Svalbard. We still know little about the role of rainfall events in the thermal stability of permafrost and growth of Svalbard plant communities. Plant growth and permafrost thaw also affect each other,...

Awarded: NOK 62,999

Project Period: 2024-2025

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Response of benthic invertebrates to the Permo-Triassic climate crisis (RiS ID 12072)

The Permo-Triassic (P/T) climate crisis caused the most catastrophic extinction in Earth’s history, with a species loss of 81-95%. Intensive volcanic activity related to the emplacement of the Siberian traps caused several environmental changes, such as an increase in temperature, ocean acidifica...

Awarded: NOK 0.12 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Ice-wedges as late Pleistocene winter paleoclimatic archives on Prins Karl Forland (RIS ID: 12313)

Apart from Greenland and Canadian Arctic ice-core records, late Pleistocene and Holocene paleoclimatic reconstructions in the northern latitudes are mainly based on proxies that record summer air temperatures. This seasonal bias has resulted in model-data mismatches, highlighting the need to reco...

Awarded: NOK 0.12 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Longterm consequences of one year of draining on biodiversity in Arctic ponds

In 2019, 19 ponds in Kongsfjorden were sampled, however, due to an extremely warm summer in 2020, 8 out of 19 completely dried out. In 2021 all ponds contained water again. We expect that due the high temperatures, increased evaporation and a deeper active layer have caused the desiccation. As cl...

Awarded: NOK 61,999

Project Period: 2024-2025

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Long term monitoring of polar bears on Svalbard RIS-12380 (linked to RIS 2381)

Environmental conditions have changed dramatically in the Svalbard region; sea-ice is declining in extent and thickness; glacier fronts are reduced, and anthropogenic activities are increasing in intensity and extent. These changes impact polar bear habitat use and potentially their fitness throu...

Awarded: NOK 48,999

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Glacier Surface Topography Mapping for Satellite Radar Altimetry

Radar altimeter satellite missions such as CryoSat-2, Sentinel-3, and the upcoming CRISTAL are widely used for monitoring key parameters of land ice such as glacier mass balance change. The uncertainties of the data from these satellites produced over more complex ice caps and glaciers are poorly...

Awarded: NOK 50,085

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Field validation of spatially predictive reindeer carrion distribution models, RiS ID 11512

Carrion is a patchy resource in ecological systems, and assessing the distribution and biomass quantity in a system is a fundamentally unanswered question. Our project has gathered spectral data in previous field campaigns in an attempt to detect reindeer carcasses in open, treeless systems by th...

Awarded: NOK 56,964

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Nordland - Nordlánnda

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The geomorphic signature of ancient ice shelves in Isfjorden, Spitsbergen, RiS ID12367

This research project aims to explore the historical presence of ice shelves along Isfjorden, Svalbard, and their impact on regional and global climate systems. It plans to investigate unexplored topographies that indicate to reveal the interaction between an ice shelf with an ice-free coast duri...

Awarded: NOK 29,805

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The effect of grubbing and heavy winter rainfall on mycorrhizal mycelium production

Mycorrhizal fungi play a crucial role for both plant nitrogen uptake and ecosystem carbon dynamics and storage. Most of the stored carbon in Arctic soils could be derived from mycorrhizal mycelium rather than from plant litter. As the Arctic carbon storage is suspected to be a crucial factor for ...

Awarded: NOK 51,999

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The role of vegetation distribution on facies architectural and sequence stratigraphic development of the Palaeocene Firkanten Formation.

The study focuses on how coastal environments control or are controlled by vegetation distribution; collectively, these are particularly sensitive to climate change, with the geomorphology and position of the shoreline being closely linked with local hydrology and associated vegetation distributi...

Awarded: NOK 63,840

Project Period: 2024-2025

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Who is where? - Unravelling the biodiversity of sympagic meiofauna in and around Svalbard

Sympagic (=ice) meiofauna is an indispensable part of a very complex food web in the Arctic, playing a crucial role for many ice-associated organisms and the whole Arctic ecosystem since sympagic meiofauna comprise primarily of larval stages of seafloor and open-water living animals. But Arctic s...

Awarded: NOK 50,443

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Improving Snow Data Assimilation with Satellite Altimetry

Despite its vital role in modulating the energy and water balance budget, snow distributions in time and space remain poorly understood. The project aim is to improve the current snow data assimilation state-of-the-art methods by adding snow depth observations from the satellite altimeter ICESat-...

Awarded: NOK 0.11 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Arctic CH4 consumption responses to future vegetation regimes, RiS ID: 11990

The Arctic tundra is currently undergoing rapid changes with thawing permafrost and changing vegetation. One of the most pronounced effects among the vegetation is a shift towards taller plant communities and higher biomass, which can lead to increased evapotranspiration and drier soils. Methane ...

Awarded: NOK 79,999

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Investigation of the mercury cycle in the Arctic snowpack for model development (ris id: 12321)

The aim of this project is to investigate the processes involving mercury (Hg) at the snow-air interface in the polar regions. The dynamic exchange of Hg between the snow surface and the overlaying atmosphere in polar regions is not fully understood and not yet constrained into the one-dimensiona...

Awarded: NOK 0.11 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2025

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Hornsund’s and Storfjorden DOM Data Acquisition Campaign and Virtual Field Guide Development for Educational Research. RiS ID - 12339

This project aim to perform a systematic digitalization of eastern Spitsbergen coast, due to its excellent cretaceous sediments' exposures, and western Barentsøya-Edgeøya for their important HALIP exposures. Collecting these types of data from Hornsund’s and Storfjorden’s surroundings can provid...

Awarded: NOK 0.12 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The transition from ductile to brittle deformation in pre-Devonian basement of the Billefjorden Fault Zone, Svalbard (RiS: 12317)

The Billefjorden Fault Zone (BFZ) is a N-S striking regional-scale long-lived lineament cropping out in central Spitsbergen. This lineament exposes multi-deformational evolution that initiated with ductile deformation preserved in the metamorphic basement. Following several phases of brittle def...

Awarded: NOK 0.12 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

DyNAflow: Colonisation dynamics of Arctic endemics across glacial landscapes

Warming in the Arctic is causing glacial retreat, which exposes deglaciated terrains to biotic colonisation. Ecological studies can provide insights into the local processes (microclimate, biotic interactions) driving the development of soil communities after glacier retreat. However, community d...

Awarded: NOK 0.10 mill.

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Arctic marine mammals in a time of climate change: a Kongsfjorden Case Study. RiS ID: 11501

The fieldwork is a component of the NFR ARK (Arktisk Klima forandring Konsekvenser) project, which focuses on impacts of global warming on Arctic endemic marine mammals. The project is using a “case-study” approach based on the Kongsfjorden-Krossfjorden ecosystem, where the objective to examine h...

Awarded: NOK 89,221

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Linking past and present surge dynamics at Borebreen from drone surveys

Svalbard has a high density of surging glaciers – marine and terrestrial glaciers which undergo cyclical changes between fast (active) and slow (quiescence) flow. During the active phase, ice discharge accelerates and mass loss increases which significantly impacts glacier mass balance. However, ...

Awarded: NOK 79,999

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Akershus

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Geomorphology and process-interaction in previous and present climate as exemplified by Bjørndalen, Svalbard (RiS 12312)

This M.Sc. thesis project has a primary objective of mapping the geomorphology of Bjørndalen, Svalbard, to contribute to our understanding of this unique Arctic valley system. The research aims to characterize the long-term and short-term geomorphologic processes shaping the valley and analyze ho...

Awarded: NOK 52,672

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Chemical composition and conditions of cryoconite hole water and melting channels on glaciers with runoff to the Kongsfjorden System

Main objective of this project is a detailed analysis of snow and supraglacial meltwater, including potential alterations in the transition of supraglacial snow to water, as well as potential alterations in the transition of water in isolated to connected cryoconite holes to meltwater channels. C...

Awarded: NOK 27,355

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage