The Nansen Legacy cruise Q3 (Q3: 3rd quarter of the year) initiated the seasonal investigation of the northern Barents Sea and adjacent Arctic Basin. The cruise focused on comparing the state of the physical, chemical and biological conditions along the Nansen Legacy main transect in open waters and within the sea ice, addressing objectives of the work packages ‘Physical drivers’ (Research Foci 1), ‘Human impact’ (Research Foci 2) and ‘The living Barents Sea’ (Research Foci 3).

In total, six process stations (P1, P2, P4, P5, P6 and P7) were conducted, of which three were open-water stations on the shelf, while the other three were sea ice stations situated on the shelf, slope and deep Nansen Basin. Each process station was occupied for more than a 24-hour period to allow full daily cycle process measurements (i.e. rates), in addition to extensive biodiversity and abundance sampling. Additionally, one process station in open water on the shelf was conducted with reduced sampling (P3), as well as one shorter sea ice stations over deep water (SICE4). Between process stations, CTD depth profiles were taken for higher resolution of the physical environment. The observational capacity outside the cruise period was increased through deployment of two gliders and three moorings.