Multidisciplinary perspectives on living marine resources in the Arctic

Sturla F. Kvamsdal,

Dorothy Dankel,

Nils-Arne Ekerhovd,

Alf Håkon Hoel,

Angelika Renner,

Anne Britt Sandø,

Stein Ivar Steinshamn

Published: Jan. 1, 2022

Many areas in the Arctic are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. We observe large-scale effects on physical, biological, economic and social parameters, including ice cover, species distributions, economic activity and regional governance frameworks. Arctic living marine resources are affected in various ways. A holistic understanding of these effects requires a multidisciplinary enterprise. We synthesize relevant research, from oceanography and ecology, via economics, to political science and international law. We find that multidisciplinary research can enhance our understanding and promote new questions and issues relating to impacts and outcomes of climate change in the Arctic. Such issues include recent …

The Queen of the Arctic: Louise Arner Boyd

Elisabeth Isaksson,

Anka Ryall

Published: Jan. 1, 2023

Louise Boyd (1887–1972) was a female pioneer in Arctic research whose legacy includes the exploration of north-east Greenland. In this Perspective piece, we use a broad interdisciplinary approach to investigate her career as a photographer and expedition leader. When documenting glacial retreat during the 1930s, she was at the forefront of the development of glaciology as a research discipline. Without family obligations and with seemingly inexhaustible financial resources, she used Arctic exploration to create an independent and self-defined life for herself.

Personal submersibles offer novel ecological research access to Antarctic waters: an example, with observations of the rarely encountered scyphozoan Stygiomedusa gigantea

Daniel M. Moore,

Anna Elina Flink,

Eva Prendergast,

Antony Gilbert

Published: Jan. 1, 2023

Underwater biological surveys have been conducted around the Antarctic continent for several decades, and our knowledge of the species present in the shallow waters (<50 m) is reasonably comprehensive. However, the waters below 50 m remain underexplored on the account of difficulty of access, financial barriers and relatively few operational platforms capable of deployment to such depths. Here, we demonstrate that personal submersibles, now increasingly deployed by the expedition cruise industry, can be vessels of opportunity for biological research in the polar regions. We describe direct observations of the rarely encountered scyphozoan Stygiomedusa gigantea at water depths of 80–280 …

Possible signs of recovery of the nearly extirpated Spitsbergen bowhead whales: calves observed in east Greenland

Outi M. Tervo,

Mikkel-Holger Strander Sinding,

Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen,

Rikke G. Hansen,

Marie Louis

Published: Jan. 1, 2023

The Spitsbergen population of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) was harvested to near extinction during the whaling era. Here, we show possible signs of recovery of the population by reporting observations of two calves in the Scoresby Sund polynya in East Greenland on 2 and 4 May 2022, and it is the first observation of this kind in this area since the early 1900s.

Carbon exchange and primary production in a High-Arctic peatland in Svalbard

Takayuki Nakatsubo,

Mitsuru Hirota,

Ayaka W. Kishimoto-Mo,

Noriko Oura,

Masaki Uchida

Published: Jan. 1, 2023

Moss tundra with a thick peat layer dominated by bryophytes is one of the most important ecosystems in the High Arctic of Svalbard, but little is known about the carbon dynamics of moss tundra. Here, we estimated the net primary production (NPP) and net ecosystem production (NEP) of moss tundra on Brøggerhalvøya (Brøgger Peninsula) of north-western Svalbard (79°N). The net photosynthetic and respiration rates of the two dominant moss species, Calliergon richardsonii and Tomenthypnum nitens, were measured under laboratory conditions. On the basis of the photosynthetic and respiration characteristics and climatic data, we estimated the cumulative NPP of the dominant …