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.
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.
