The main scientific goal of the Nansen Legacy Joint Cruise 2-2 (JC2-2) was to extend the research activities from the northern Barents Sea shelf into the central Arctic Ocean. Specifically, JC2-2 addressed objectives of the work packages ‘Physical drivers’ (Research Foci 1), ‘Human impact’ (Research Foci 2) and ‘The living Barents Sea’ (Research Foci 3) by jointly collecting interdisciplinary samples and data.

The station plan covered a transect of 2330 km extending from the Nansen Basin northeast of the Svalbard slope in the south, to the northern side of the Amundsen Basin just south of the Lomonosov Ridge in the north. The geographic bounding box spanned 81.46-87.51°N and 31.34°E-21.53°W, and covered a depth range of ca. 2800-4800 m with sampling covering 2817-4290 m. Samples and data were collected in the deep Nansen Basin (P7, P8) and in the Amundsen Basin (P10, P11) as well as over the separating Gakkel Ridge (P9). To ensure connectivity with earlier Nansen Legacy cruises, the Nansen Legacy standard process station P7 was sampled as southernmost station. A special focus was laid on sampling sea ice and the upper ocean, as well as connectivity to the mid and deep water column and underlying sediments. In addition, JC2-2 explored the role of transport of elements and organisms from the Siberian shelves through the Transpolar Drift in the Amundsen Basin. Experiments were an important part of the cruise, and were designed to measure and quantify processes and their rates.