Abstract
The retreat of sea ice into the Arctic Ocean Basin opens for changes in ecosystem production and composition along the shelves. While there is increased interest in exploiting the area north of Svalbard with respect to harvest, petroleum and ship traffic, we lack sufficient knowledge for appropriate risk assessments and resource management of this area. CARBON BRIDGE addresses productivity and pathways of carbon flow in the marine ecosystem lower trophic levels in regions projected to be new productive ho t spots in the Arctic Ocean resulting from the sea ice retreat. We quantify the advective supply via the Atlantic Water (AW) inflow (WP1) and the local production and export processes (WP2) being the basis for the ecosystem production in the new ice-free shelf and basin regions north of Spitsbergen. We address the limiting factors and regulation mechanisms (WP3) to provide an understanding of how the organisms and processes are controlled from the physical and biological environmental conditions. These pa tterns along with existing data sets and modelling tools provide the basis for up-scaling to address larger scale patterns and future maps of productivity as basis for higher trophic levels and harvestable production (WP4). The patterns of future physical conditions and drivers and resulting productivity and food web transfer to deeper waters, to the microbial community or to higher trophic levels, will be evaluated in light of the increasing interest for activities in northern marine regions, and the pot ential for conflicts of interest (WP5). Results from all WPs will be communicated to reach relevant communities and users at many levels (WP6). Ecosystem-services provided by this region will be sensitive to the productivity regime. With a strong team of pan-Arctic researchers, we identify characteristics and quantify the regime north of Svalbard in terms of basic ecosystem production, carbon sequestration and its role in the Arctic carbon chemistry cycle.
Norway