Predictions on how the Barents Sea ecosystem will look like in 2050 and 2100, and their implications and consequences for the fishing industry were discussed at the Arctic Frontiers side event organised by the Nansen Legacy. The Arctic is changing and this can lead to biological but also socialeconomic changes. Based on climate models, Nansen Legacy researchers have made predictions on how the Barents Sea ecosystem will appear in 2050 and 2100 based on different CO2 emission scenarios.

Water in the Atlantic Ocean circulates from the polar regions in the north to the south. This circulation is called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The production of dense water and the formation of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean are important driving forces of the AMOC. The inflow of warm Atlantic water in the Arctic via the Fram Strait and Barents Sea regulates the production of this dense water and the formation of sea ice and can thereby affect the global climate system.

Our data manager, Luke Marsden, claims to have embarked his biggest training/outreach project to date – an entire YouTube video series teaching you how to work with NetCDF files in Python.

The sea floor and its inhabitants were in focus when the two Nansen Legacy PhD students Dr. Èric Jordà Molina (Nord University) and Dr. Ivan Cautain (Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), UK) successfully defended their PhD dissertations in mid-December.

The Barents Sea generates wealth and jobs, and contributes to food security for Norway, Europe, and the world. The marine ecosystem underpinning these socioeconomic services is changing rapidly, and planning and managing for the future require timely knowledge on how the system responds to change and what may be expected over the next decades.

Organisms with calcium carbonate shells like the small planktonic foraminifers and shelled pteropods are sensitive to ocean acidification, they are part of the oceans buffer capacity for increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and they hold a key to understand past climate.

What are the key findings from the Nansen Legacy project? If you don’t have time to read the >200 scientific publications, our new Nansen Legacy fact sheets provide a visual and condensed access to new knowledge on ten topics on the Barents Sea system.

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