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 reviews focused on the physical environment of Kongsfjorden-Krossfjorden (Svendsen et al. 2002) and the ecosystem of Kongsfjorden itself (Hop et al. 2002). Within the last decade, a lot of new and important data ha ve been obtained from the growing research community in Ny-Ålesund, now comprising 18 research stations from 11 nations. Clearly, these enormous research efforts should be summarized in a compact manner so that they will become easily accessible as a base line for future research. Thus, we propose a second Kongsfjorden Ecosystem Workshop to be held in Ny-Ålesund, 10-17 March 2014. This workshop will involve national and international participants conducting research in different fields related to the speci fic location of Kongsfjorden-Krossfjorden. The results of the workshop will be published in the form of several review papers. The Editor of Polar Biology, Prof. Dr. Dieter Piepenburg, has invited Christian Wiencke and Haakon Hop to act as guest editors o f a Special Issue on the "Kongsfjorden Ecosystem - new views after more than a decade of research". This issue will also contain an Editorial summary of new research findings based on the contributed papers. The Special Issue, which will include many mult i-disciplinary papers, will motivate scientists to collaborate and thereby contribute to the Svalbard Science Forum (SSF) strategic objective to improve international cooperation. This workshop will be important for future research directions in Ny-Ålesun d, and with 50 participating scientists it will also become a forum for establishing new collaborative research projects in the Kongsfjorden area, with better utilization of the infrastructure in Ny-Ålesund