Arctic Ocean ecosystems - Applied technology, Biological interactions and Consequences in an era of abrupt climate change

Arctic ABC is based on recent discoveries regarding ecological processes during the polar night, and has as one of its main goals to assist in the development of new autonomous research platforms to be frozen into the Arctic Ocean pack ice. The instrumentation include acoustic and optical sensors, in addition to standard oceanographical sensors, and is being developed in close collaboration woth the infrastructure project Arctic ABC Development. The research in the project covers a broad range of subjects, from basic biology, ecosystem perspectives, modelling and geopolitics. The last topic is relevant in two important ways, both through the potential detection of commercially harvestable resources through the bioacoustics sensors and not the least in relation to the platforms itself that will be deployed in international high seas but that may drift into national waters. During 2017 we had a semi-automated platform out in the arctic Ocean in connection woth a research cruise with RV Polarstern, and in 2018 we operated a station in the Baffin Bay. In July 2019 a set of platforms was deployed in the central Arctic Ocean. These data are currently being analysed. In addition, the project have during the last year been focusing on light, detection of light and not the least how organisms use natural light during the polar night. This includes the effects of light pollution, which have proven to be a significant issue regarding observations of biological activities in the dark.

Resultatene av prosjektet har vært mange og konkrete. Allikevel er det flerfaglige samarbeidet som er etablert kanskje det viktigste resultatet med lengst og mest langvarige virkninger. Gjennom prosjektet har biologer, oceanografer, fysikere, ingeniører og teknologer, supplert fra fagfelt som juss, geopolitikk og sosiologi jobbet tett sammen. Utgangspunktet for hele prosjektet var en god og nyskapende, men teknologisk uferdig ide om utvikling av autonome observatorier for bruk i islagte farvann. Til tross for utfordringer med design og tekniske løsninger, har dette store og flerfaglige nettverket klart å skape fullverdige plattformer som i dag driver rundt i polhavet og sender data i sann tid. Teknologiske nyskapende løsninger for spesielt dataoverføring fra plattformer til droner og i mikrosatelitter er også i ferd med å testes, noe som inbefatter løsninger som vil kunne få store ringvirkninger for fremtidige operasjoner i Arktis.

We propose an innovative and challenging research project, spearheaded by the development of new autonomous underwater technology, with the primary goal of determining the ecosystem consequences of the ongoing reduction in the Arctic sea ice. The project is based on three tightly-linked core modules: The Applied technology module focuses on data acquisition and autonomous observations in areas and habitats yet to be systematically and scientifically explored. Specifically, we will develop an under-ice-tethered observatory with real-time data transmission to be deployed for a full year in the Central Arctic Ocean. The Biological interactions module focuses on coupling processes between the sea-ice and the ocean, aimed at answering the fundamental question of whether species composition and production regimes in Arctic marine ecosystems will be permanently altered following a continued reduction of the Arctic ice cover. The Consequences module will explore and forecast possible consequences of reduced ice cover at increasing levels of complexity, ranging from individuals to populations up to the entire ecosystem and society at large and geopolitics. The project is highly relevant for the ecosystem NFR call, focusing on method development, technology adaption to an extreme operating environment, consequences for the deep central Arctic Ocean ecosystem of climate change, and on building a cross-disciplinary nationally and internationally coordinated consortium bridging technology and life sciences. Importantly, we propose to conduct genuine scientific exploration of unknown elements of a changing system that will be directly supported by innovative data acquisition in arguably the least known realm on the planet - the Arctic Ocean during the polar night and winter