0 projects

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

SVALBARDSF-SVALBARDSF

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 55,745

Project Period: 2024-2025

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

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

Pioneering ATLAS tracking to investigate seabird interactions and anthropogenic disturbance in the Arctic, RiS ID 12333

In this project, we will establish the first ATLAS Wildlife Tracking System in the Arctic, enabling us to track, in unprecedented volume and detail, two keystone Arctic seabirds: the black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla and Brunnich’s guillemot Uria lomvia. ATLAS, a cutting-edge reverse GPS sy...

Awarded: NOK 95,340

Project Period: 2024-2024

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Do landscape factors and seasonality modulate resource partitioning by the Arctic scavengers of Svalbard?

This project is part of the REINCAR project (RiS ID 11512), which has an ongoing carrion ecology study in Svalbard. One of the REINCAR objectives is to investigate to what extent reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) cadavers affect soil biogeochemistry and vegetation locally and on the land...

Awarded: NOK 55,999

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Buskerud

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Shaping the future of polar research data

Fairness and equality are the cornerstones of successful Svalbard and Arctic science and we will address these topics in a two-day workshop that will explore the intersection between diversity and data. It will bring together Svalbard early career researchers (ECRs) and ECRs from across the Arcti...

Awarded: NOK 31,249

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Workshop on Salmonids in the Svalbard Archipelago (NISh)

The team will meet in Longyearbyen in September 2023 and stay one week together to discuss best practices for capture, handling, and tagging at high latitudes where temperatures are cold and salmon physiology demands specific handling tactics. We will engage locals including Longyearbyen JFF and ...

Awarded: NOK 0.23 mill.

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Research in Svalbard: An APECS Workshop

Numerous international and interdisciplinary research projects are carried out in Svalbard every year. Furthermore, such research projects involve both senior and early career researchers (ECRs), some of whom may have never previously set foot on the archipelago. The Association of Polar Early Ca...

Awarded: NOK 0.21 mill.

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Digitizing Svalbard: Hopen's Digital Outcrop Model Data Acquisition Campaign and Virtual Field Guide Development for educational research

This project’s data collection campaign will focus on digitizing the outcropping rocks surrounding the island of Hopen. I plan to visit the island in the summer field season of 2023. The field assistant and I will embark on a coast guard vessel in Tromsø between Mid-June to Mid-July, heading to H...

Awarded: NOK 99,999

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

SVALBARD SCIENCE CONFERENCE GLACIOLOGY FLAGSHIP WORKSHOP

The workshop will develop further international and interdisciplinary cooperation on modelling and field measurements of snow and glacier mass balance in Svalbard. Research challenges and opportunities will be identified, with focus on data gaps and sources of uncertainty, identifying new techniq...

Awarded: NOK 0.18 mill.

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Glacial and river plume's role in contamination of the Isfjorden coastal waters

The project aims to enhance coordination, cooperation, and expertise exchange between the Norwegian and Korean institutions in studies of Arctic contamination. We plan to establish long-term cooperation in observations and modelling on Svalbard in the forthcoming projects. The pilot field study w...

Awarded: NOK 0.47 mill.

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Oslo

SVALBARDSF-SVALBARDSF

PHARMARINE- Transport of pharmaceuticals and impact on arctic biota. RIS: 11719

The increased use and large disposal volumes of pharmaceuticals in Europe has raised concern about their impacts in marine ecosystems. Though pharmaceuticals undergo degradation, some compounds can escape through sewage treatment and remain in the environment over time. The Arctic is particularl...

Awarded: NOK 52,999

Project Period: 2023-2025

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The effect of polyploidisation of Saxifraga oppositofolia on metabolic fluxes

One of the biggest global challenges in plant science´s is to determine how plants can increase stress tolerance (ST) without penalizing productivity. I hypothesise that exists a trade-off at leaf level between the maximal photosynthetic capacity (Amax) and ST and it can be explained by foliar st...

Awarded: NOK 52,156

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Nitrate mobilization during the melt season in Central Spitsbergen

Although Arctic soils store approximately half of the global nitrogen stock, research on nitrogen and its integration into active biochemical cycles is limited. Climate warming, which is amplified in the polar regions and particularly on Svalbard, is leading to a deepening of the active layer of ...

Awarded: NOK 20,049

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Thermal properties of Arctic fox fur and the effect of fur lice infestation

This project will collaborate and run alongside the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) annual monitoring program on arctic fox population in Svalbard. Fur lice in the arctic fox was first identified on Svalbard in 2019 (Buhler et al. submitted). The prevalence at the time was low (approx. 10% of the...

Awarded: NOK 23,390

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Laser Drill for Arctic Snowpack Stratigraphy Study, RiS ID 12098

The proposed project ‘Laser Drill for Arctic Snowpack Stratigraphy Study’ (LASER ARCS) will test a new device for measuring snowpack stratigraphy under Arctic conditions. The SnowLaserDrill (SLD), consists of two lasers. The drilling laser is used to melt a hole into the snow; the second laser is...

Awarded: NOK 59,481

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Wet Fingerprints - Constraining the Influence of (Near-)Surface Melting on Svalbard Snow Structure and Chemistry

Ice cores are unique climate archives. However, our ability to extract environmental information from structural, chemical, and isotopic proxy records is severely limited by a lack of understanding about melt-induced post-depositional alterations. Svalbard ice cores have provided invaluable infor...

Awarded: NOK 68,125

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The source and evolution of Quaternary volcanic activity in NW Spitsbergen (RiS ID 12102)

Several small volcanic centers of Pleistocene age occur in the Woodfjorden area of NW Spitsbergen and are collectively known as the mantle-sourced Bockfjorden Volcanic Complex (BVC). The main magma type identified is basanite, an alkali basaltic variety that is typically associated with active co...

Awarded: NOK 99,999

Project Period: 2023-2024

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Identifying drivers of senescence in Arctic tundra plants using field and PhenoCam observations, RiS ID: 12093

I propose a study to establish a crucial, yet missing, link between plant senescence observed using manual field methods, and using remote sensing derived vegetation indices. I further aim to identify potential climatic, biogeochemical, and plant physiological drivers of plant senescence in Arcti...

Awarded: NOK 64,831

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Effect and responses of experimental warming on Dryas octopetala-dominated vegetation in High Arctic versus alpine ecosystems, RiS ID 10030

This master thesis aims to investigate the responses of experimental warming of the shrub Dryas octopetala in terms of its abundance, plant height and NDVI at a High Arctic and alpine site. It is expected that both abundance and plant height of Dryas will increase with warming, and that plant hei...

Awarded: NOK 23,941

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Response of shallow marine prokaryote ecosystems in the Boreal Ocean to the Permo-Triassic climate crisis (RiS ID: 12064)

This project aims to reconstruct the microbial community in the shallow Boreal Ocean during the environmental crisis at the Permian/Triassic boundary that coincided with the most severe mass extinction in Earth’s history. By collecting new samples for lipid biomarker analysis at three Permian-Tri...

Awarded: NOK 92,995

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Svalbard

SVALBARDSF-SVALBARDSF

Targeting a Svalbox hiatus: Palaeozoic and Beyond (RiS 12108)

Currently-available Svalbox data mostly cover the Central Spitsbergen Basin, with clear data sparsity north of Pyramiden (“northern hiatus”) and south of Van Keulenfjorden. The "Targeting a Svalbox hiatus: Palaeozoic and Beyond (Svalbox404)" targets the northern hiatus, focusing on the acquisitio...

Awarded: NOK 77,999

Project Period: 2023-2025

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Methylmercury and Total Mercury in Arctic Permafrost (RIS-ID: 12073)

As a student in the international master program in Environmental Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry at NTNU there is a formal study direction for Arctic research. Aim of this direction in the master program is to educate the future Arctic researchers, and the topics for master projects are d...

Awarded: NOK 5,319

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Effect of Extreme Rainfall on Arthropod Abundance and Emergence across Altitudinal Gradients in Svalbard, RiS ID 11968

Arthropod communities in all ecosystems are being affected by climate change. In the Arctic, preipitation will increase and become more variable. A larger proportion of precipitation will fall as rain rather than snow and extreme summer rainfall events are expected to occur more frequently. There...

Awarded: NOK 33,413

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Traceable Abrasion of Snow Vehicle Belts in Svalbard

The project TRACES will focus on abrasive particles from snow vehicle belts in snow and soil samples collected in Ny-Ålesund and Longyearbyen. The collection will take place in high-trafficked areas and in locations where less or no snow vehicle utilization is considered. Moreover, samples will b...

Awarded: NOK 81,877

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Linking metagenomics and microscopy to investigate the formation of aggregates of glacial materials on Svalbard. RiS ID 12117

Little is known about the formation of cryoconite – aggregates of mineral particles and microbes held together by exopolymeric substances (EPS) - on glaciers. This project will investigate the different microbial communities found in different sedimental structures throughout a polar year on Foxf...

Awarded: NOK 63,999

Project Period: 2023-2023

Location: Svalbard