0 projects

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Seasonal variability of air-sea CO2 fluxes at the ISA station in Isfjorden, Svalbard

The research questions to be addressed in this project are; -What is the annual cycle of CO2 uptake in Isfjorden? What is the magnitude of physical (freshwater input, temperature, air-sea exchange) versus biological (net community production) processes on the seasonal uptake of CO2? The seasonal ...

Awarded: NOK 39,349

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Snow Accumulation, Variation and Evolution around Ny-Ålesund

Snow is one the main interfaces between Earth surface and the atmosphere and covers 95% of Svalbard surface area during boreal winter. It has a very high albedo and a low thermal conductivity and both properties considerably affect the mass balance of glaciers and the dynamic of Svalbard vertebra...

Awarded: NOK 44,999

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Spring snowmelt timing and plant growth: recording plant growth at community and landscape scales using remote sensing

This study aims to determine the timing of spring snowmelt and key measures of plant growth at a community level and to upscale this information to the landscape scale. In-situ plant phenology measures will be combined with remotely sensed NDVI data from a digital camera and satellite imagery to...

Awarded: NOK 43,999

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The microbial methane filter in the Arctic: resilience and response to climate change

The overall goal of the project is to investigate the impact of climate change on the methane oxidation potential in High- and in the Sub-Arctic terrestrial ecosystems. We want to identify the key players in the microbial methane cycle and their adaption to their habitat. We will address the infl...

Awarded: NOK 73,999

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Spatiotemporal patterns in vegetation and reindeer dynamics: the importance of long-term and large scale climate fluctuations.

My Phd aims to understand how large-scale climatic patterns control long-term dynamics of vegetation and reindeer in Svalbard. The terrestrial climate, which shapes plant and animal fluctuations, is linked to sea-ice cover and regional climate proxies. Understanding the underlying role of such la...

Awarded: NOK 76,981

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Snow Drift and Avalanche Hazard in the high-arctic maritime snow climate of Svalbard, Norway; RiS ID 10057

This project aims to understand and characterize the redistribution and movement of snow drift in the unique high-arctic maritime snow climate of Svalbard, Norway and its associated effects on avalanche activity on the island while also developing a plan for passive snow mitigation strategies for...

Awarded: NOK 23,016

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Levels of POPs and Hg and potential effects on progesterone levels in breeding glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreus) at Kongsfjorden, Svalbard

Breeding glaucous gulls, between 20-30 individuals, will be captured during a four week period of field work (May-June, 2015) in Kongsfjorden on the west coast of Spitsbergen, with a base in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. The birds will be captured using an automatic trigger nest trap that will capture th...

Awarded: NOK 29,173

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Holocene history of Svalbard ice caps and glaciers: geomorphological mapping of the forefield of Nordenskiöldbreen, RiS ID 10122

A better understanding of the Svalbard glaciers advance and retreat during the Holocene can be used as an analogue for a warming climate. A holistic approach will be taken focusing on Nordenskiöldbreen, Billefjorden, where surveys of high-resolution swath bathymetry and terrestrial archives will ...

Awarded: NOK 18,635

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Disentangling weathering processes and rates and their response to climate change in the Arctic (RiS 10010)

Rock weathering is one of the main drivers of landscape development. It is highly susceptible to environmental changes such as temperature fluctuations, moisture availability (e.g. through precipitation and groundwater) and land cover changes such as glacial retreat. In addition, it is responsibl...

Awarded: NOK 48,265

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Glacial dynamics of the fjords on the east coast of Spitsbergen inferred from submarine morphology and marine sediment cores

The environmental conditions of west and east Svalbard are very different in terms of weather, sea ice, climate and most likely also in terms of glacial/deglacial history. The glacial history of the fjords on western Svalbard has been relatively well studied, but the glacial history of the fjords...

Awarded: NOK 24,853

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

FACIES DEVELOPMENT IN THE DE GEERDALEN FORMATION AND THE TRANSITION TO THE WILHELMØYA SUBGROUP, EASTERN SPITSBERGEN (RiS ID:10115)

The aim of this project is to conduct sedimentological and stratigraphical field studies of the Late-Triassic strata of eastern Spitsbergen in the region of NW Storfjorden. This will be done in order to gain a better understanding of facies devolopment in the upper parts of the De Geerdalen Forma...

Awarded: NOK 40,999

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Mercury speciation and aerosol properties at Svalbard (RIS-ID nr.10073)

Mercury is a major pollutant in the Arctic, and due to atmospheric mercury depletion events(AMDEs), unreactive elemental mercury will be oxidized to reactive species which may be more dangerous to the environment. The removal of mercury from the atmosphere is intimately related to the size and ch...

Awarded: NOK 25,999

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Response of arctic bivalves to climate-induced changes in Kongsfjorden, RIS ID:10118

Individuals of the bivalve Astarte borealis (Schumacher, 1817) were marked and released in an enclosed area in 2012 and will be re-collected in September 2015. After thats, morphological analyses, as well as high-resolution samplings of shell carbonate by means of a MicroMill sampler for subseque...

Awarded: NOK 2,199

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Arctic climate change and Pollination, RiS number 6577

Insects and plants may respond to climate change factors in different ways, causing the close associations between them to become disrupted, or even decoupled, subsequently affecting ecological communities, processes and functions. However, interactions between plants and pollinators are rarely c...

Awarded: NOK 76,619

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Salix polaris radial growth responses to 11-years of warming experiment in Adventdalen (central Spitsbergen)

Dwarf shrubs are the northernmost woody plants living under extremely harsh conditions and thus their growth is expected to be extremely sensitive and responsive to even slight changes in climate. The study of how shrubs annual growth respond to changes in the climatic conditions can supply relev...

Awarded: NOK 42,547

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Geochemical exploration of submarine seeps in Grønfjorden, Svalbard. RiS ID 10080

Submarine pockmarks are widespread features on continental margins and represent potential pathways for large quantities of a strong greenhouse gas, methane, escaping from subsurface sediments. Pockmarks in southern and northern Grønfjorden, Svalbard have been described previously by Forwick et a...

Awarded: NOK 24,660

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Melatonin and polar lighting effects on an arctic living fossil (Lepidurus arcticus) RIS-ID 10011

The overall aim of this project is to characterise circadian organisation in a polar invertebrate Lepidurus arcticus. Although the existience of circadian clocks is accepted as ubiquitous feature of life, and their physiological mechanisms are becoming well understood, the role of circadian clock...

Awarded: NOK 63,849

Project Period: 2015-2015

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Quaternary mapping of Blomstrandhalvøya, elcudiating glacial geomorphology and chronology, RIS ID 10081

Cosmogenic nuclide dating of glacial erratics on Blomstrandhalvøya, North west Spitsbergen. The project also involves detailed Quaternary mapping of the island, in order to give context to the interpretation of Cosmogenic ages, and the overall rate and magnitude of deglaciation in Kongsfjorden fo...

Awarded: NOK 48,999

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Vestland

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Probing the Atmospheric Surface Layer during the Arctic Night: The role of Turbulent Structures

My master thesis investigates the role of turbulent fluxes in the surface energy balance over land during the Arctic night. The project combines results from a previous measurement campaign in the Bayelva catchment near Ny-Ålesund with state of the art turbulence modelling. The goal is to investi...

Awarded: NOK 39,723

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

DNA damage in arctic avian predators: baseline, sensitivity to damage and association to contaminant exposure. RiS ID: 10093

This master project is an associated part of the AVITOX research project (RiS ID: 6818) investigating persistent pollutants in avian top predators in the Arctic. AVITOX aims to "generate new knowledge about anthropogenic impacts on marine ecosystems", Individuals of common eider, black-legged kit...

Awarded: NOK 59,468

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Oslo

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Physiological responses in Papaver dahlianum after a short-term heat shock in situ, RiS ID: 10077

Increasing the ambient air temperature around an individual Papaver dahlianum plant for 30 minutes in the field at Svalbard and measuring the gas-exchange, photosynthetic efficiency and heat stress related metabolites during and after the temperature treatment, can give us insight to how arctic p...

Awarded: NOK 9,228

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Comparative analysis of human impact on the environment in Arctic settlements Longyearbyen and Barentsburg (Svalbard)

Longyearbyen and Barentsburg are exclusive examples of settlements with industrial development in the Arctic. Above all it is two existing coal mining centers. The research is devoted to evaluating of environmental impact from coal mining industry on the Arctic landscapes in Longyearbyen and Bare...

Awarded: NOK 33,999

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Study of mercury and natural organic matter in Arctic soil, RIS ID 10120

The goal for this project is to collect soil and water samples in the catchment area of Adventselva close to Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Samples is planned to be collected during summer / autumn 2015. Intention is to make available quantitative information on mercury in the soil samples as well as qu...

Awarded: NOK 28,999

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

RiS#3689 Monitoring seabirds in Kongsfjorden.

Genotoxic effects of persistent organic pollutants and oil components in egg from common eider (Somateria mollissima) and glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus). 14 days field work in Kongsfjorden collecting common eider eggs. The eggs will be used for chemical analysis of parent and metabolites of p...

Awarded: NOK 19,389

Project Period: 2015-2016

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Outcrop-scale faults and micro-structures affecting the LYB C02 Reservoir

Extensive water injection tests in the Longyearbyen C02 reservoir show the presence of flow barriers. The most likely cause is the presence of impermeable faults too small to be imaged by seismics. This proposed study will take a closer look at these faul ts and investigate their influences on fl...

Awarded: NOK 7,403

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Svalbard

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Present and future tourism development of Russian settlements on Svalbard: Exploring practices, perspectives and possibilities

Russia's vast Arctic territories are playing a vital role in the process of country's overall socio-economic development and not least when it comes to tourist development. Svalbard's two Russian settlements (Barentsburg and Pyramiden) are targets to Russ ia's renewed interests when it comes to t...

Awarded: NOK 17,999

Project Period: 2014-2015

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

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

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

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

Paleomagnetic Synchronization: A transect of sedimentological archives from N-Svalbard towards Arctic-Norway

Continental ice sheets and sea level in the Svalbard - Barents Sea - Arctic-Norway region were near their modern configurations at least by 8000 years ago, and the pre-industrial climate system was essentially established, including its feedbacks. The maj or difference was the large summer insola...

Awarded: NOK 34,999

Project Period: 2014-2014

Location: Vestland