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The Nansen Legacy Winter Gaps Cruise

In the Barents Sea

A new round of hunting for instruments in the dark polar night

It is november, polar night, and almost winter – must be time for a cruise to the Arctic Ocean to collect instruments and equipment for our project!

Small pieces and large pictures in Arctic marine science

Arctic marine research is really exciting, and one could make blockbuster movies, or a tv-series based on research expeditions, such as those within the Nansen Legacy project.

On the JC2-2 cruise we are visiting the deep basins of the Arctic Ocean. The goal of my team is to conduct experiments with animals from the bottom of those basins, which means keeping deep, Arctic animals alive. If deep-sea diving is an extreme sport, then this is definitely extreme science.

Ephemeral landscapes

Have you ever watched the colors of the sunset over the sea – then suddenly the beautiful moment is gone, and darkness surrounds you. Arctic sea ice is like that - a temporary and beautiful landscape constantly presenting moments that are suddenly gone, if you dare to blink.

The Transpolar Drift current

The largest Arctic river - transports materials into the central Arctic Ocean from Siberian Shelf across the North Pole

The tiniest do the heavy lifting

– Who are they and what do microbes do in the Arctic Ocean?

The Arctic Ocean blender system

The Arctic Ocean is composed of different layers organized on the vertical, and these layers have different temperature and salinity properties. A cold and fresh surface layer caps a warm and salty layer of Atlantic Water. The heat contained at depth (about 300m) in the warm and salty Atlantic Water could melt the entire Arctic sea ice cover if it reached the surface. It does not happen because the cold surface layer caps this Atlantic layer quite well and keeps it at depth. However, in some regions, such as north of Svalbard, sea ice melts in summer even though it is -30 outside. How is that possible?

The Central Arctic Ocean: No longer the once forgotten no man’s land

Large trawlers are pulling tons of fish out of the deep Central Arctic Ocean. Our cell phones are powered with rare earth elements from the seafloor underneath the North Pole. The ice-free Arctic allows much shorter delivery time of shipped goods from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Coast guard ships dot the vast Arctic coastline and fleets of submarines survey the chilly waters. Will these scenarios soon be a reality? To some extent some of them already are.

Will the future Arctic Ocean become greener?

On land grass and other plants provide ecosystems with food and play an essential role in binding CO2 from the atmosphere. Microscopically small plants called algae fulfill this role in the world’s oceans.

Cracks in the cooking pot lid

The point of putting a lid on a cooking pot is to prevent the transfer of heat and moisture between the boiling contents and the air above. When you remove the lid from a boiling pot, heat and water vapour flow upward into the air, along with chemical compounds filling your kitchen with the (hopefully) promising smells of an upcoming meal.

Where food is delivered only once a year

Imagine living at a place where food is available for only a few short weeks each year. What sounds impossible is reality for hundreds of different animal species thousands of meters beneath the ocean surface.

From your home to the lab: Household items in the life of a marine scientist

What do a spoon, colander, garbage bag and stocking have in common?

Into the deep unknown central Arctic Basin

Our scientific crew of 35 people for the Nansen Legacy cruise JC2-2-Arctic Basin will spend five weeks onboard the Norwegian icebreaker and research vessel Kronprins Haakon, with departure on Thursday 24th August 2021. Cruise leaders are Agneta Fransson (NPI) and Bodil Bluhm (UiT).

Three good reasons to visit the Arctic Basin in 2021

125 years since the return of Nansen’s Fram expedition

Aliens in the Arctic?

The outer-worldly life that resides within sea ice

Is the summer in the Barents Sea hot this year?

A blog from the northern Barents Sea on a July day in 2021.

A handful of suitcases teach us how waves and sea ice interact, and improve weather and climate models

Waves marching through the sea ice is an amazing view. It is as if a white, snow-covered landscape suddenly starts gently undulating, the solid ground dancing rhythmically. The waves’ wildness from the open sea is tamed and dampened by the ice. Yet, the waves’ energy can break solid sea ice, greatly affecting sea ice drift, formation and melt. Hence, waves in ice are an important - yet not well understood - factor in the arctic physical environment.

Journey across the Polar Front

During the first two days in the Barents Sea, we completed our first crossing of the Polar Front, all the way from the warm, saline Atlantic waters in the south, to the cold and fresher Arctic waters in the north to map the location of the Polar Front.

Life at the seabed: studying bottom-dwelling fish and invertebrates across the polar front

It is said that we humans know more about the surface of the moon than the surface of our planet’s seafloor. If you knew how much we’re missing out! So much life and beauty can be found near the seabed.

In the footsteps of Nansen

Meet the tribe working on the RV «Kronprins Haakon».

Algae sinking into the abyss of the Arctic Ocean

Primary producers: ice algae and phytoplankton

Departure into the known unknown

We left port in Tromsø on May 14th. Finally, after 10 days in isolation and meeting other cruise participants only as small faces on a video screen, we were released onto Helmer Hanssen, our home for the next nine days.

First experience onboard the RV "Helmer Hanssen"

For the first time in my life I am going to experience Phytoplankton blooming in Arctic. The vessel is soon ready to take us on board, and we are currently sitting in isolation at beautiful Sommarøy. My thoughts now are on the journey. How will it be?

The deep blue Arctic Ocean: A scientific diver's tales of life under water

"I love the ocean, I love the Arctic, I love the knowledge of this stunningly beautiful world I have gathered over the years. This is why I wanted to become a marine biologist."

Where the Atlantic heat meets the Arctic cold

The ocean is not as endless as we often think it is. It is actually divided into different domains and regions, ranging from the freezing cold polar waters to the hot tropical regions. Within each of the domains, species have evolved to deal with the challenging conditions within their home domain.

Let’s talk dirty

The seabed and the animals living there are collectively called, the benthos and it is one of the largest and most diverse habitats on the planet.

Nansen Legacy Q2 Scientific divers sample ice algae and zooplankton below sea ice

Mixing production deep into the ocean

Imagine yourself lying on your back in a forest on a sunny spring day watching upwards to the tree tops. Warm rays of sunlight falling through the canopy warm your face and the song of birds echo in the distance. Now imagine all the tree trunks, branches and twigs are gone and just leaves floating lofty above you.

Spring, a biologically critical time window in the Arctic

During the Nansen Legacy cruises we work together with joint forces towards an improved holistic understanding of the marine systems in the Arctic and the Barents Sea.

The lonely Algae

From the last time we collected water, I took a drop to check under a microscope, to get an insight into what is hiding. But no, no universe here. Nothing that swam, floated or hovered. No signs of spring bloom. But then, suddenly, in one corner of this drop I found something. A solitary microalgae, alone in this vast drop universe.

Lost and (not always) found: The ups and downs of sediment trap deployments

Some days you win, some days you lose. Your car keys. A single sock out of your favorite pair. A 200-metre long rope worth hundreds of thousands of kroner in equipment and samples. No? Just us?

Everything has to have somewhere to live

Here on RV “Kronprins Haakon” in the northern Barents Sea we are our own tiny world, living and working together in a bubble almost completely remote from our regular world. In our microcosm we are reminded that we all have to have some place to live, and to also understand how it works, so that the system we live in functions well.

Tiny Arctic wildlife matters

Hello from another fine day from the largest research vessel in Norway - Kronprins Haakon. After having a delicious pizza lunch on board today, I came up to the 7th deck (yes that’s right, this boat has 10 decks), to write this blog in the conference room – a nice, cozy room with a great view. How is a girl from the south of India where winter is 20 degrees, surviving up here in the Arctic, you ask?

The hunt for the hidden life in water

Life on board a research vessel has its own and unique rhythm. Time operates a little differently here, both because days are a bit intense with sample collection and analysis, but also because the ship simply has its own time zone.

Excitement onboard the RV "Kronprins Haakon"

Split on a diverging ice floe

The story about 16 Nansen Legacy researchers on a cruise in the Arctic Ocean continues. This time we meet "The Captain" and a troublesome ice floe.

An unexpected journey to the seabed.

Pancakes in the waves - a field report from the wintery Barents Sea

February 13, 2021, southeast of Edgeøya

Winter darkness: Revealing the secrets of the sea

On 9 February, R/V Kronprins Haakon departs on a winter process cruise to the Barents Sea to track and measure important processes taking place in the ocean during wintertime. This cruise is led by UNIS professor Frank Nilsen and part of the Nansen Legacy project – Norway’s biggest research project to date.

Research cruising in the Barents Sea: When Murphy Wins

This post is about real scientists failing unspectacularly.

Risky business

Do you think we know whom we share this planet with? Then you are mistaken.

Do organisms find food when the sea ice retreats?

In times of climate change and retreating sea ice, important research questions are for example: How important are sea ice algae as a food source for organisms such as copepods, krill and fish? Are they affected by the sea ice retreat and if so, how will that affect the functioning of the Arctic ecosystem?

Picking frost flowers in the Polar night

A couple of days ago when we were sailing between two of our process stations, we came across a beautiful icy garden covered with frost flowers. So we decided to go picking them.

Hot topics from the cold

More than 75% of the Earth’s surface is occupied by cold environments. Cold environments are hot spots for the organisms living there.

Care for you core!

We have recently drilled 34 ice cores from the sea ice. We expected to find very little life inside the ice, but we were proven wrong.

Do the animals at the bottom of the ocean know it’s dark season?

Do the animals at the bottom of the ocean, that might never have been exposed to sunlight, notice the dark season as we do? It seems logical to assume that the polar night should go by completely unnoticed by them. But it doesn’t.

In the Arctic Ocean and on the shoulders of giants

Blowing in the Arctic wind

Imaging driving with an open cabriolet car at 90km/h inside a gigantic freezer box at -25 degrees C with all windows opens. This does not sound comfortable and most people would not be part of such a situation voluntarily. But this has been the conditions we had been facing for the first days of our Q4 expedition.

Unique Challenges at the start of an Arctic winter Expedition