FJO2RD: The effect of climate change on the deep water renewal frequency of Norwegian fjords
Informations
- Funding country
Norway- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 1/1/2021
- End date
- 12/31/2025
- Budget
- 1,489,653 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRINATEK - Independent projects - math, natural sciences and technology | Grant | - | - | 1,489,653 EUR |
Abstract
The fjords of western Norway are breathtakingly beautiful – but ever so often, the media reports on the situation beneath the glittering fjord surface and the image they are sharing from the fjord depths is less pretty. Under the combined pressure of anthropogenic activity and climate change, many of our fjords are suffering from declining oxygen concentrations, with profound consequences for the local ecosystem. The deep fjord waters are isolated from the open ocean by a sill, and it is only renewed when water sufficiently dense is present above sill level outside the fjord. If the water outside the fjord for some reason becomes less dense, e.g as a consequence of climate change and altered atmospheric forcing, then the renewals will occur less frequently, and the biological activity in the fjord will use up the available oxygen. The available data suggest that the average period between two renewals is longer than it used to be. In FJO2RD, we will use a combination of observations, numerical modeling, and paleo reconstructions to explore if, how, and why the renewal frequency has changed as a result of physical climate change and anthropogenic activity and how this is linked to the current deoxygenation. The work will focus on two fjords in western Norway that have different sill depths and therefore are influenced by different coastal water masses. Analyses of sediment cores will provide the first historical oxygenation records from western Norwegian fjords for the last 400 years and provide a baseline against which the recent changes can be compared. Data from eight the hydrographical stations along the Norwegian coast goes back to the 1930s and will be combined with new, high-resolution mooring records and historical numerical simulations of the shelf circulation to learn about the large-scale oceanic and meteorological factors that control the density variability and trends on the continental shelf and hence how often the fjord water is renewed.