The SWERUS- C3 expedition

This is an electronic translation of an article in Swedish from the publication of Gothenburg University.

I hope it will get wide circulation.

Less ice in the Arctic than expected

Mindre is i Arktis än förväntat

Gotesborg Univesity,

8 December, 2014

They met an arctic seas with less ice than ever before experienced. 

- Reality has caught up to us, they say marine scientists Mr Anderson and Steve Bjork. For three months they took part in an international research expedition with the icebreaker Oden in the Arctic Ocean.

Together with eighty scientists from several countries have participated in the research expedition SWERUS-C3, which is a Swedish-Russian-American cooperation. They are both experienced expedition participants; marine chemist and professor Leif Andersson, a total of been in the Arctic for two years, Göran Björk, Professor of Oceanography, has been on eight research trip.

- The first time I was there was in 1996. Then it was ice in the Arctic so thick that it was hard to get through it.This time we saw most of the time not even a complete ice cover, says Göran Björk.

Climate change in the Arctic is clearly visible

The purpose of the trip was to study climate change and how the Arctic was formed.The overarching research questions have touched on the relationship between climate, cryosphere and coal.C3 of the name SWERUS-C3 stands for the right climate, cryosphere and carbon.

The climate change that is taking place is clearly evident in the Arctic. Nowadays seen the perennial ice essentially just north of Greenland. It is a sign that climate change exists. During the trip the researchers also consequences of permafrost thaws more in the summer.

"Coastal erosion makes organic matter from land, which was previously bound in the permafrost, ends up in rivers and oceans. Where it is broken down by microorganisms, increasing the levels of carbon dioxide and the greenhouse effect",  says Mr Anderson.

A research project in two phases

SWERUS-C3 were divided into two research phases and the expedition lasted nearly 100 days in July, August and October of 2014.

The first stage went from Tromsø in Norway and continued along the Russian Arctic coast to Barrow in Alaska. In Barrow, it was after eight weeks change of crew and scientists. Odin then went back to Scandinavia over the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain range in the vicinity of the North Pole. Mr Anderson and Steve Birch was on both.

" The ice cover has become smaller and thinner is one of the clearest signals of climate have on the planet and something that is also linked to other climate processes", says Mr Anderson.

Total was taken during the two research phases nearly 1400 samples of water and sediment samples will now be analyzed.

"When I started, there was not much data from the Arctic. Our samples will take years analyzing and will bring much new knowledge", says Göran Björk.

Read more in the Science Faculty Magazine

Participants in the project

In addition to researchers from Gothenburg and Stockholm University took part in the expedition came from other participants: Pacific Oceanological Institute, Febras Vladivostok (RUS), Far Eastern Federal University, The Shirsov Institute of Oceanology (RUS), Ust-Lensky State Nature Reserve Tiksi (RUS ), the University of Colorado (USA), Utrecht University (NED), University of Leeds (UK), Laboratoire de Glaciologie / Universtié Libre Bruxelles (BEL) and the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS NOR, USGS USA).

 Göran Björk - Photo: Leif Anderson

Mr Anderson - Photo: Leif Anderson

Contact:

Mr Anderson, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology
Tel: 031-786 9005 E-mail: leif.anderson@gu.se

Goran Birch, Professor, Department of Earth Sciences
Tel: 031-786 2858 E-mail: gobj@gvc.gu.se