Norwegian Polar Institute

POLAR RESEARCH IN TROMSØ EDITORIAL RESEARCH NOTES PROFILE MEETINGS AND EVENTS RETROSPECTIVE RECENT DOCTORATES USEFUL CONTACTS 2003 EDITORIAL Day-time darkness and as one of the world’s last pristine wil- and around Svalbard will contribute a dernesses, an environment that has great deal more to the understanding night-time daylight seemingly been little impacted by of complex global marine systems in Situated at almost 70 degrees nor- human activities. However, pollutants the years to come. thern latitude, Tromsø is well within transported with air and sea currents the Arctic Circle and subject to the to the Arctic are in fact severe threats natural phenomena of the polar to this unique environment: levels of Students are welcome to areas. The sun remains tucked below several ecotoxins are alarmingly high, the Arctic! the horizon for two months from late as measured in Arctic wildlife. This The University of Tromsø (www.uit.no) November in this part of the world. is why environmental research has welcomes students who are genu- Today, at the end of December 2003, amplified in Norway during recent inely interested in Arctic studies the air is cool (–8 °C) and the light years. The issue of brominated flame – as does the University Centre in which seeps up from the southern retardants and organochlorines are Svalbard (www.unis.no). In Tromsø, horizon for a couple of hours around addressed in two research notes in subjects such as Arctic biology, Arctic midday is a heavy blue. This is the this year’s Polar Research in Tromsø. geology, geophysics and fishery period when the northern lights often science are available to foreign stu- illuminate the sky with their magical Climate change dents. Certain courses on cultural motions and silvery, green and pink The polar areas have their intrinsic and social science are also taught in light. value, as well as being early-warning English. At the institutions of the Polar areas for climate change. Knowledge Environmental Centre, a number of A pristine environment about the evolution of the past can scientists with polar experience are The Arctic is full of contrasts, not only provide valuable information for mo- happy to supervise students. when it comes to natural regimes like delling future trends. The sea ice, the the long polar night in winter and the ocean and the fjords are important summer’s equally lengthy period of the factors that need far more looking midnight sun. The Arctic is regarded into. It is our belief that research in Polar Research in Tromsø Editor For the Norwegian Polar Institute: Helle Goldman, e-mail: [email protected] Polar Research in Tromsø is published Gunn Sissel Jaklin telephone: +47 77 75 06 18 once a year by the Roald Amundsen Norwegian Polar Institute, web: http://www.npolar.no Centre for Arctic Research at the Uni- Polar Environmental Centre, versity of Tromsø, the Norwegian Polar N-9296 Tromsø Print run: 3000 copies Institute and the Polar Environmental e-mail: [email protected] Centre, Tromsø, Norway. Its aim is to telephone: +47 77 75 06 40 Layout: Bjørn Hatteng describe all manner of education web: http://www.npolar.no and research in polar (chiefly Arctic) Front page photographs: Norwegian studies at these centres and at those Polar Institute Photo Library research institutes and companies Sub-editors in the Tromsø area with which these Erratum: Front page photograph by have close ties. For the Roald Amunsen Centre: Erling Nordøy in Polar Research in Geir Gotaas Tromsø 2002 showed a Ross seal. It is sent on request and free of charge e-mail: [email protected] to all persons who are interested in telephone: +47 77 64 40 00 polar studies. web: http://www.arctic.uit.no For the Polar Environmental Centre: Are Johnsen e-mail: [email protected] telephone: +47 77 75 0 202 web: http:// www.polarenvironment.no 2 POLAR RESEARCH IN TROMSØ POLAR RESEARCH IN TROMSØ 3 RESEARCH NOTES Former Ice Streams in the Barents Sea – New Information from 3D Seismic Data Karin Andreassen ([email protected]) Lena Charlotte Nilssen ([email protected]), Department of Geology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tromsø Streams of fast-flowing ice, bordered by ice that flows at least an order of magnitude slower, are the most dy- namic components of modern and past ice sheets. They have the ability to rapidly drain huge ice sheets, and play a critical role in driving abrupt changes in high-latitude climate and oceanography. Inferred from different types of data, a major ice stream in Bjørnøyrenna (Bear Island Trough) drained ice and sediments from the ice sheets centred over Svalbard, over the central Barents Sea and over the Scandinavian mainland during Figure 1. Map showing inferred ice extent of the Last Glacial Maximum (from Svendsen the Last Glacial Maximum (Figure et al. in press) and areas with 3D seismic data. BIT: Bjørnøyrenna (Bear Island Trough). 1; BIT). At the University of Tromsø’s Department of Geology, our pilot logical environment since the start of that was centred over Svalbard or the project uses industry 3D seismic data the glaciation (Figure 2A). On many of central Barents Sea. (Figure 1; red boxes) to investigate the the buried surfaces in the 3D data we We have also been testing 3D archives of former ice streams in the observe km-long lineations (Figure seismic state-of-the-art mapping Barents Sea. 2B), indicating the orientation of techniques that have never before It has been an ongoing debate flow lines of former ice streams. This been used on data from glacial en- over the last decades when glaciers documents that grounded glaciers vironments, and have thereby found first reached the shelf edge at the reached the shelf edge in this area a tool to investigate the several hund- western Barents Sea. The 3D seismic as early as 1 million years ago, when red metres thick sediments between data from this margin show an over 2 surface R5 was the sea floor (Figure the glacially eroded surfaces. These km-long archive of glacial sediments, 2). Our results suggest that these first results show that the ice streams have providing information about the geo- ice streams drained from an ice sheet picked up over 1 km-wide sediment blocks, transported them to the shelf edge where they have been dumped, Figure 2 A. Seismic profile and at the same time leaving behind through the 3D area long chains of sediment blocks. These (marked 2A in Figure results document the potential of 1) and interpreted geological ice streams for so-called large-scale environment. The glaciotectonic erosion, providing new buried surfaces R1, information about their dynamics. R2, R5, R6 and R7 and age estimates are from Faleide et References al. (1996). B. Shaded Faleide, J. I., Solheim, A., Fiedler, A., relief map of surface Hjelstuen, B. O., Andersen, E. S. & R1showing glacial lineations (left), and Vanneste, K. 1996: Late Cenozoic RMS Amplitude map evolution of the western Barents Sea- showing large chains Svalbard continental margin. Global of sediment blocks and Planetary Change 12, 53-74. just above surface Svendsen, J. I et al. in press: Late R5, both indicating flowlines of former Quaternary ice sheet history of the ice streams (flow northern Eurasia. Quaternary Science directions indicated Reviews. with red arrows). 2 POLAR RESEARCH IN TROMSØ POLAR RESEARCH IN TROMSØ 3 RESEARCH NOTES Mapping Local Climate Variation in East Greenland Arve Elvebakk �� ([email protected]), �� Dept. of Biology, University of Tromsø �� Stein Rune Karlsen � �� ([email protected]), � � � � � � � � � � �� NORUT Information Technology, Tromsø � �� East Greenland is an extremely sparse- �� ly populated area and experiences a �� very cold climate due to its exposure �� to the northern sea current. However, �� there is a very strong gradient from �� the cold coast to warmer sites further �� inland. This gradient was studied near �� Ittoqqortoormiit/Scoresbysund, as �� a part of the development of a bio- �� climatic method. �� Arctic vascular parts are strongly � �� dependent on climate and can be � �� considered to represent different �� classes of temperature indicators �� in an Arctic context. Recording all �� such species within a 1 by 1 km grid � �� pattern results in index values for � �� all grids where high values indicate � �� high numbers and high abundance of � �� plants requiring relatively high temp- �� eratures within an Arctic context. To verify if these index values really reflect temperature conditions, temperature sums during the growth Map of local climate variation within three subareas studied near Ittoqqortoormiit in period were measured at different East Greenland. Colours ranging from blue to brown indicate increasing temperature sites during a cold and a relatively sums, and the abbreviations on the left indicate names of four of the five bioclimatic subzones recognized from the Arctic: northern, middle and southern Arctic tundra warm year, in addition to using data zones, and the Arctic shrub–tundra zone. Biotemperature

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