0 projects

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Effects of pollution on metabolic rate and blood parameters in arctic kittiwake. RiS ID: 6617

The current proposal aims to study the physiological effects (both in terms of metabolic rate, endocrine and clinical parameters) of emerging flame retardants, traditional persistent organic pollutants and toxic metals in the light of ecological character istics (diet, habitat) and environmental ...

Awarded: NOK 71,999

Project Period: 2014-2014

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Jan Mayen - A multi approach study on Holocene environmental and climatic changes

Based on field work (Quaternary geology) in Jan Mayen, the project will provide new knowledge on climate and environmental changes in a terrestrial key area in between two main ocean current systems; cold Arctic water from the East Greenland Current/Jan M ayen Current and warm Atlantic water from...

Awarded: NOK 31,474

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Detailed mapping of the active layer and top permafrost potential carbon release in central Svalbard. RiS ID:6650

The overall main objectives of the present work are to: (1) Investigate high potential SOC (soil organic carbon) areas where little data is available about permafrost and active layer carbon storage/release. Sites will be selected according to aerial pict ures study in landforms containing high a...

Awarded: NOK 30,013

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Are little auks filter-feeders? An experimental approach to test their sensitivity to ongoing climate change RIS ID: 6639

Little auks (Alle alle) are highly vulnerable to environmental modifications in the Arctic. Knowledge of their feeding behaviour and foraging profitability is crucial to predict how these energetically challenged birds will cope with anticipated environme ntal changes, leading to a reduction of t...

Awarded: NOK 39,999

Project Period: 2014-2014

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Meiofauna Composition and Distribution: A Pan-Arctic Comparison

Sea ice is a unique medium composed of a solid ice matrix permeated by an extensive brine channel system. This channel system is host to a community of ice associated (sympagic) microbes, algae and invertebrates. Given the understudied nature of sea ice o rganisms, many sympagic organisms lack ta...

Awarded: NOK 35,999

Project Period: 2014-2016

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Potential activity of microbial community in the Biological Soil Crusts in the glacial forefield of Werenskioldbreen glacier

The aim of this project is to detect photosynthetic and heterotrophic activity of BSC in High Arctic glacier forefields. The proposed project will be conducted in glacial forefield of Werenskioldbreen glacier in the SW Svalbard (June/July). It will be ba sed at the Polish Polar Station at the Ho...

Awarded: NOK 55,074

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Kongsfjorden Ecosystem-new views after more than a decade of research: Workshop in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, March 2014

Scientific data from Kongsfjorden have been sampled for more than 100 years, but it was not until the year 2000 that the first Kongsfjorden Ecosystem Workshop, with 40 participants, was held at the University Centre in Svalbard. The results of this worksh op were published in two well-recognized ...

Awarded: NOK 0.23 mill.

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Towards a coordinated Research and Monitoring Programme for Ny-Ålesund (workshop support)

The Ny-Ålesund Science Plan states that Ny-Ålesund shall be developed as a premier international Arctic research and monitoring facility. This workshop will bring together representatives of the four flagship programmes for Ny-Ålesund (marine biology, ter restrial ecology, glaciology and atmosphe...

Awarded: NOK 0.12 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2016

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

1st Science-Industry platform on expedition cruise tourism in Svalbard

Organising a Science-Industry platform workshop on expedition cruise tourism in Svalbard would contribute to fulfilling SSF strategic objectives by exploring and implementing strategies for funding and coordination of scientific research on an important e conomic sector in Svalbard, which increas...

Awarded: NOK 0.23 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2014

Location: Nordland - Nordlánnda

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Use of UAS data in plant ecological research in High Arctic environment

Use of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is a new opportunity for carry out research within plant science by minimizes the environmental footprint of research activities. Unmanned aircraft, combining both fixed wing multi rotor types will allow scientist to co llect image data for vegetation analysis ...

Awarded: NOK 0.27 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2015

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Workshop: Proterozoic and Lower Palaeozoic basement of Svalbard - state of knowledge and new perspectives of investigations

The Proterozoic and Lower Palaeozoic basement of Svalbard represents an old geotectonic complex with elements of several earlier tectonic terranes, orogeneses and other tectonothermal events. Our knowledge of the early Earth's history of the Arctic region depends on the understanding of these. A...

Awarded: NOK 0.20 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2014

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Workshop to develop and explore new approaches to analysing past, present and future climate dynamics

Observed 20th century global-mean surface temperature reflects the combined influences of natural climate variations and anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, sulfate aerosols, and land-use changes. A technique used extensively by the Intergovernme ntal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in it...

Awarded: NOK 0.17 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Hydrogeological characterization of permafrost thickness variability using a variety of geophysical tools in Adventdalen, Svalbard

This project has as the main objective to obtain a data set of permafrost thickness variability which is the main control on the permeability architecture of the sedimentary aquifer in the Adventstalen, Svalbard. To this end we will use hydrogeophysical c haracterisation techniques that have not ...

Awarded: NOK 0.28 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Improving understanding of the last deglaciation of the Barents Sea Ice Sheet and its effects on glacioisostatic rebound history in Svalbard

Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice thickness, and the resulting ice flow pattern, is inferred mainly from dated raised beaches, and more recently also from the cosmogenic nuclide dating of bedrock in various parts of the Svalbard Archipelago. Recent marine ge ological/geophysical investigations have ...

Awarded: NOK 0.25 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

ParaCharr: Adaptation of charr to a changing polar environment.

The ParaCharr project proposes to investigate the adaptation of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus), to the extreme polar environment through a multidisciplinary study of population biology, parasitology, physiology and genetics, with parasites and clock g enes selected as core study mechanisms. A...

Awarded: NOK 0.25 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2014

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Cooperation on Arctic bivalves

The Arctic has recently become a centre of attention with increasing human activities and warming of the climate affecting the marine ecosystem. As Arctic sea ice extent has decreased due to warming temperatures, shipping has increased along the Siberian shelf, and boreal species have extended t...

Awarded: NOK 0.17 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2015

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Surface velocity and calving flux of Kronebreen RiS ID 6183

Kronebreen is among the 10 largest contributors to the total calving flux of the Svalbard archipelago. To estimate the calving flux detailed knowledge on the glacier velocity is needed which can be provided by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imag es. For the validation of those velocity ...

Awarded: NOK 65,197

Project Period: 2013-2014

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Adult sex ratio variation of Svalbard reindeer in relation to animal density and climate, RIS ID: 6169.

In this study I will estimate adult sex ratio in Svalbard reindeer and examine to what degree the variation can be explained by environmental conditions, i.e. weather and food availability. To obtain this, I will analyze spatiotemporal variation in sex ra tios from long-term monitoring data of mu...

Awarded: NOK 39,999

Project Period: 2013-2015

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Shifting Climate States of the Polar Regions - coring campaign at Svalbard

This cross-disciplinary proposal will collect and produce data on glacier variability throughout the last 10 000 years, a research effort that will be carried out at Svalbard. Alpine glaciers represent natural systems that are particular sensitive to clim ate change and the sites chosen for this ...

Awarded: NOK 0.30 mill.

Project Period: 2012-2015

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Past, current and future research on kittiwakes in Kongsfjorden: The opportunity of an international integration (Workshop Feb/Mar 2013)

Observations and experiments in wild seabirds have greatly progressed our understanding on how individuals and populations cope with environmental variability and change. The annual research in Kongsfjorden that we have carried out during most of the past 20 years has been an important contribut...

Awarded: NOK 0.20 mill.

Project Period: 2012-2014

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Passive monitoring of endangered species in Svalbard: Distribution & relative abundance of Red Listed whales in a time of climate change

Sea ice in the Arctic has declined in recent decades at an unprecedented rate and continued sea ice declines are expected to produce a seasonally ice-free Arctic well before the end of this century. This would be a first for the Arctic in over 5+ M years. A summer-time ice-free Arctic Ocean will...

Awarded: NOK 0.30 mill.

Project Period: 2012-2015

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The Effects of Perfluorinated Compounds on Thyroid Hormone in Ivory gulls (Pagophila eburnea) and Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla)

This study will investigate whether perfluorinated compounds affect the thyroid hormone system in ivory gulls and black-legged kittiwakes. This will be accomplished by collecting blood samples from the two species during the breeding seasons of 2013 and 2014. The blood will be analyzed for perf...

Awarded: NOK 39,999

Project Period: 2014-2014

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Reconstructing Holocene climate variability from lake sediments of Amsterdamøya, RiS ID 6655

There are gaps in our knowledge of Holocene paleoclimate in the High Arctic due to a lack of well-resolved records and limitations of existing proxy data. Our understanding of High Arctic climate variability can be improved with the application of new bi ogeochemical methods and chronologic tool...

Awarded: NOK 32,934

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The characterization of glacier basal hydrologic systems

The objectives of this study are to deploy 4 (or more) high precision GPS instruments on 2 glaciers through the summer of 2014. Of particular importance is to determine how the basal hydrologic system reacts to perturbances caused from climatic forces, su ch as from the surface mass balance of th...

Awarded: NOK 49,070

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Abrupt Holocene cooling episodes in Svalbard. A collaborative pilot study.

The Arctic has warmed twice as rapidly as the rest of the Earth over the past century, and the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic is particularly sensitive to changes in the planetary energy balance and accompanying circulation changes. Glaciers and ice caps are now receding rapidly, and in opt...

Awarded: NOK 0.40 mill.

Project Period: 2013-2014

Location: Akershus

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Spatial variability of snow and avalanche conditions along a climatic gradient in Central Spitsbergen

This project will study the regional variability of snow conditions around Longyearbyen and how the regional conditions influence snow avalanche potentials. The fieldwork will run over one winter season (January to May, 2014) and will be the basis for an MSc thesis in Physical Geography. System...

Awarded: NOK 12,999

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Shifting Climate States of the Polar Regions - field campaign at Svalbard 2014

This cross-disciplinary proposal will collect and produce data on glacier and climate variability throughout the last 10 000 years, a research effort that will be carried out at Svalbard. Arctic lakes represent natural systems that are particular sensitiv e to climate change and the sites chosen ...

Awarded: NOK 43,999

Project Period: 2014-2014

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Effects of pollution on metabolic rate and physiological blood parameters in arctic kittiwake, RIS ID 6617

I aim to study the physiological effects (both in terms of metabolic rate, endocrine and clinical parameters) of novel brominated flame retardants (NBFRs), organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs), traditional organohalogenated compounds (OHCs) and toxic metals in the light of ecological charact...

Awarded: NOK 20,999

Project Period: 2014-2014

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

A survey of root-associated fungal communities on Svalbard

Mutualistic mycorrhizal fungi mediate nutrient acquisition for the majority of land plants. Mycorrhizal fungi release, absorb and transfer inorganic nutrients and water from the external environment into the plants and in return receive photosynthates. Ec tomycorrhizal symbiosis (ECM) is mutualis...

Awarded: NOK 51,413

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Acoustic methods in detection and analyzing of calving events at the Hans Glacier front, RiS ID: 6133

My project is based on the hypothesis that characteristics of the acoustic signals recorded in the Arctic fjord provide valuable information about the dynamics of surrounding tidewater glaciers. In the summer of 2013, during a 3-months experiment, two aut onomous, hydroacoustic buoys will be depl...

Awarded: NOK 46,874

Project Period: 2013-2014

Location: Oslo