Recent “Atlantification” of the Arctic is characterized by warmer ocean temperatures and a reduced sea ice cover. The Barents Sea is a “hot spot” for these changes, something which has broad socioeconomic and environmental impacts in the region. However, there is, at present, no complete understanding of what is causing the ocean warming.

Warm Atlantic water (AW) that flows northward along the Svalbard west coast is thought to
transport enough heat to melt regional Arctic sea ice effectively. Despite this common assumption, quantitative requirements necessary for AW to directly melt sea ice fast enough under realistic winter conditions are still poorly constrained.

Last winter an almost forgotten sight presented itself to all those venturing the Barents Sea: sea ice as far south as Bjørnøya, equaling a sea-ice extent not seen since the eighties and nineties. Are you wondering how this is possible in times of global warming and a diminishing Arctic ice cap?

Polar cod is a key fish species, transferring energy from zooplankton to larger animals. Polar cod depend on sea ice for spawning and during the early parts of its life. Reduced ice cover may therefore influence the survival and growth of young polar cod directly through e.g. loss of predation refuge, and indirectly by e.g. affecting the abundance and availability of prey.

We are proud to share a glimpse of our many project activities from 2019. The report highlights of the new scientific knowledge that has started to emerge. It presents some of our research activities, our scientists and recruits.

The Arctic sea ice is on the move all year. It expands to its maximum during March and reaches its minimum in September. The variation during the year, and from year to year, depends on wind, weather and ocean currents. But the Arctic is changing.

Numerical models help us to make sense of complicated data or to test our hypotheses. For this reason, they are increasingly used in studies and analyses supporting fisheries and ecosystem

SIDE EVENTS ARCTIC FRONTIERS  Organised by Marit Reigstad and Alf Hakon Hoel, UiT – the Arctic University of Norway. What does it take to manage fisheries sustainably? Drawing on experiences

SIDE EVENTS ARCTIC FRONTIERS Organized by The Nansen Legacy How can knowledge from a science project reach users and policy makers? And how can we increase the competence among scientists

As the polar night lowers over the Arctic, RV Kronprins Haakon is leaving the quay in Longyearbyen, heading towards the Arctic Ocean. For the next two weeks, the researchers and technicians on board will retrieve old and deploy new scientific measuring equipment in the sea area around Svalbard.

Vladimir Savinov, a researcher at Akvaplan-niva (APN), is among the scientific crew on the R/V Dalnie Zelentsy, a 55 m Russian ship conducting monitoring surveys in the eastern Barents Sea.

By taking into consideration the insulating effect of snow on top of sea ice, researchers improve our weather forecasting capabilities in the Arctic.

The Arctic’s once impenetrable ice cap is melting away, with profound consequences for everything from ocean circulation patterns to fish numbers and diversity. The Nansen Legacy Project, including NTNU biologists,

In July 1873 some nets were put out by whalers in Raudfjorden in Svalbard, to obtain food. They had expected to catch Arctic char but ended up filling the nets with cod.

Norway has always been a polar nation. The search for Arctic marine natural resources gave Norwegians early experience and knowledge of Arctic waters, which were later strengthened and systematically described

While you are still enjoying the warm summer and a rich selection of fruits and berries, a large-scale preparation for winter is happening further North. In the Northern Barents Sea

Photo: Ann Kristin Balto / Norwegian Polar Institute The annual report for 2018 is ready, and can be downloaded here. The first year of the Nansen Legacy is successfully completed.

The sea ice extent in the Barents Sea was back to normal this winter. A paradox? Actually not. This text was published in Aftenposten (online and print) 23 April 2019.

September onboard the research vessel Lance north of Svalbard. Kristen, our mooring engineer, is happy. There is no sea ice to be seen anywhere – ideal conditions to find the instruments we left here two years ago attached to a rope, anchored to the seafloor, and held upright under water by several buoys.

Fridtjof Nansen set out to explore the Arctic Ocean with the research vessel Fram 126 years ago. His team of explorers and scientists returned from the ice three years later with new knowledge that changed our concepts and understanding of the Arctic Ocean, and made the Arctic part of Norwegian identity.

Central to the fieldwork of the project is the research vessel Kronprins Haakon. It has been built to operate in challenging ice conditions, which means it can go further north and south than

Two interesting PhD positions available in the Human Impact: Pollution task of the Nansen Legacy project, one at UiO and one at UNIS.

The UK-based project Changes of the Arctic Ocean Seafloor (ChAOS) joined the last Nansen Legacy research cruise with two scientists from the University of Leeds, UK. Mark Zindorf and Allyson Tessin describe their work and motivation to join the Nansen Legacy cruise.

The Arctic Frontiers Partnership Network seminar Green Solutions for a sustainable future took place in Shanghai recently, as part of the official Norwegian state visit to China.

On September 12th 2018, R/V Kronprins Haakon left Longyearbyen on the second cruise in the research project named “the Nansen Legacy”. Its goal, to study oceanographic processes north of Svalbard, in order to understand the effects of changes in the water masses due to inflow of Atlantic water masses.

In a newly published Nansen Legacy study, scientists Yurii Batrak and Malte Müller from the Norwegian Meterological Institute show how the resolution of the spatial sea ice characteristics in model simulations significantly influences the 12‐hr weather forecast in areas up to 500–1,000 km away from the sea ice edge.

The Nansen Legacy has left for its first paleo cruise to the northern Barents Sea. Onboard are 24 geologists and oceanographers on the search for understanding the Barents Sea’s past climate.

The Arctic is about to shrink, shows a new study, as an important part of the Arctic Ocean shifts over to an Atlantic climate regime. The rapid climate shift occurs in the northern Barents Sea—the Arctic warming hotspot where the surface warming and loss of winter sea ice is largest in the entire Arctic.

Hundred and twentyfive years after “Fram” left for its historic Arctic expedition, the new Norwegian research icebreaker “Kronprins Haakon” left Tromsø on August 6, for its first scientific expedition to the Barents Sea. Onboard are 32 Nansen Legacy scientists.

In a newly published article, Nansen Legacy researcher, Prof. Camille Li (UiB), and coworkers demonstrate how climate change will impact storm tracks.

“There are many bits and pieces that need to fall in place with a new vessel like “Kronprins Haakon”, as well as a large research project like the Nansen Legacy, but both the vessel as well as the project are run by many incredibly competent and hard-working persons”, says Nansen Legacy PI Marit Reigstad.

Ilker Fer heads the first cruise by the Nansen Legacy project equipped with a specially constructed glider and measuring tools.

Studying the Arctic spring requires a suit of different approaches and methods, as Nansen Legacy’s collaborating project Arctic PRIZE is showing in this video.

The Arctic Ocean is rapidly changing. This creates losers and winners, explain Nansen Legacy scientist Geir Wing Gabrielsen in a new article.

The Nansen Legacy project was presented on two events in Washington DC, as an initiative to open for potential collaboration across the Arctic Ocean.

The Nansen Legacy is not operating alone in the Arctic. Strengthening collaboration with other Arctic research projects is therefore of great importance to the Nansen Legacy.

Nansen Legacy scientists were strongly represented at the 18th Russian-Norwegian Symposium in Murmansk 5-7 June 2018. The topic of the symposium was highly relevant for the Nansen Legacy project, by addressing the influence of ecosystem changes on harvestable resources in high latitudes.

In a new British documentary, Nansen Legacy scientists Katrine Husum and Geir Wing Gabrielsen from the Norwegian Polar Institute are sharing their impressions of the vast changes in the Arctic ecosystem with Lewis Pugh, who swam one kilometer in sub-zero Arctic waters to draw the World’s attention to the fast loss of Arctic sea ice and ice-connected life.

In the eye height of children and the spirit of the Arctic water scapes, the Nansen Legacy contributed to the CO2 days at the Northern Norwegian Science Center.

Emmelie K. L. Aström defended her PhD last Friday 20th April. The day before, she learned that she has been awarded a prestigious VISTA (The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters) Post-Doctoral position connected to the Nansen Legacy.

Meet her here.

The “Siberian cold” that has been entering Europe for the past weeks is in strong contrast to what is experienced in the rest of the Arctic! This winter is the warmest ever recorded.

The Barents Sea is rich in history, resources and opportunities, but also undergoing a major change. We want a dialogue about what these areas in the north mean to us today and in the future. We welcome you to the discussion.