Big Impact

Updated on: Monday, July 04, 2011

The Arctic is one of the regions that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believes will be most affected by climate change. Some of the documented changes include thinning of the ice sheet, less multi-year ice (thick ice, accumulated over two melting seasons), increased river discharge into the Arctic Basin, speedy melting of glaciers, warmer surface temperatures and greater inflow of Atlantic water masses.

According to Geir Wing Gabrielsen from the Norwegian Polar Institute, these changes may potentially alter species distributions, food web structures, and carbon cycling. Also, it may have an impact on the tropho-dynamics (an organism's position in a food chain) and transport and uptake of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) into and within the Arctic.

Gabrielsen has been pursuing biological studies for the last 30 years. One of the recent projects he is leading is Contaminants in Polar Regions (COPOL). This project aims to study how climate change will influence the contaminant load of Arctic marine food webs.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Elaborating on the project, Gabrielsen says that the objective was to understand the dynamic range of man-made contaminants in marine ecosystems of the polar region and assess the extent of climate-induced alterations of the marine food webs. He explains, "The COPOL project was an initiative of the Fram Centre in Tromsø and the Oslo Centre for Interdisciplinary Environmental and Social Research (CIENS). Research activities (2007-10) encompassed expeditions and extensive field campaigns during the spring and summer months in two Arctic fjords (which are long, narrow, deep inlets of the sea between high cliffs created in a valley usually carved by glacial activity), namely Kongsfjorden and Liefdefjorden, of the Svalbard archipelago." It is not yet clear how climate change will affect accumulation of POPs in marine food webs. Modelling and data analysis have identified sea ice cover, temperature, precipitation rates and altered primary production as having the largest impact on POP transport and accumulation in the Arctic environment.

However, much uncertainty remains regarding future changes in relevant input parametres for the models. Increased empirical knowledge is needed to see how alterations to variables that act both regionally and globally (i.e. climate) may influence the nature of contaminants in ecosystems.

SAMPLE ANALYSIS

A total of 3,000 samples have been collected during the COPOL project and a total of 1,500 samples have been analysed in the project so far.

In the follow-up plans of the project, Gabrielsen says, the institute hopes to develop good co-operation with other nations with an interest in marine research in Kongsfjorden. The co-operation with Indian researchers will be part of the Marine Flagship Programme established under Ny-Å lesund Science Managers Committee (NySMAC) of which India is a member. The National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) in Goa is one of the main collaborators. "The COPOL project will provide new data on the impact of climate change on pollution levels in marine ecosystems in the Arctic," he concludes.

Times of India

Big Impact

More Education news