The Joint Cruise 2-1 addressed objectives of the work packages ‘Physical drivers’ (Research Foci 1), ‘Human impact’ (Research Foci 2) and ‘The living Barents Sea’ (Research Foci 3) along the Nansen Legacy transect in open water and within the sea ice. The cruise focussed on comparing the state of the physical, chemical and biological conditions in the southern and northern parts of the study area.

All seven process stations (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P7) and NLEG CTD stations were carried out along the full Nansen Legacy transect from the Polar Front, across the shelf, continental slope and into the deep Nansen Basin. A full pelagic program of seawater, and phytoplankton and zooplankton biodiversity and abundance sampling was completed at each process station, in addition to pelagic and demersal trawls. Three sea ice stations were completed (P5, P6, P7) covering the shelf, slope and deep waters with a physical, chemical and biological coring program and sampling for under-ice water and melt ponds. In addition, ice and snow thickness surveys were taken at each ice station. Complementing the NLEG CTD stations, a higher resolution of CTD deployments for physical measurements was taken across the banks in the central part of the transect. Given that this Joint Cruise (JC2-1) formed the shelf component to the Arctic Basin Joint Cruise (JC2-2) that followed, time was also used for testing a new, modified pelagic trawl for use in ice-covered waters. This cruise was the third late-summer cruise (following JC1-2 in August 2018 and Q3 in August 2019) and provided further opportunities for investigating inter-annual variability along the Nansen Legacy transect.