Bilat - Comparative studies of ice-associated ecosystems in Arctic shelf seas - development of a pan-Arctic research program

Arctic shelf seas and the ice edge areas are some of the most biologically productive marine ecosystems in the world, but also play globally significant roles in heat exchange, ocean circulation, and geochemical cycling. Data that have emerged over the l ast 15 years reveal tight linkages between physical and biological processes within and across these ecosystems, suggesting that their structure and functioning may be particularly sensitive to even modest changes in physical drivers, most of all sea ice cover. All evidence suggests that we may soon observe changes across multiple scales of time and space, from subtle changes in the seasonality of spring algal blooms to complete regime shifts. We therefore seek to establish a pan-Arctic research project on the impacts of changing environmental conditions, especially the change, both in time and space, of the seasonal and perennial sea ice conditions, on the functioning and productivity of marine ice-associated ecosystems on Arctic marginal shelf seas. We will build this on the experience from good cooperation between national projects during the IPY, and aim at a comparative study of different key areas of interest in the Norwegian, Canadian and Russian Arctic. The project establishment grant that we app ly for shall ensure the successful writing of a concerted project proposal.