Cross-cutting flagship activities

Nutrient cycles in the Arctic

A new project – Nutrient cycle – linking the Atmosphere, Terrestrial, Marine and Glaciological flagship programmes in Ny-Ålesund – aims to strengthen this collaboration between researchers and research groups even further. The projects has received funding from the Research Council of Norway through the Svalbard Strategic Grant programme.

The aim of the project is to increase our understanding of perturbations in nutrient cycles in the Arctic linked to ongoing environmental change. With nutrient cycling being a component in all parts of the ecosystem, a cross-disciplinary and cross-flagship approach is needed to build a comprehensive understanding of the different mechanisms involved.

The project will present an overview of current knowledge, identify gaps and develop hypotheses and research questions to be addressed through a joint effort from all four flagship programmes.

Field measurements, remote sensing data and modelling from researchers from a wide range of fields, from multiple institutions and from several locations on Svalbard, will provide key input to these processes.

A series of activities within the framework of the project, such as keynote seminars, a workshop in Italy, and a series of writing workshops, will lead up to a series of scientific publications.

Project description (pdf)

Project activities

Keynote seminar

In October 2020 a series of keynote seminars were arranged online as an appetizer for the coming project activities. The lectures were recorded and are available for download:

• Dust in polar regions and its importance for nutrient cycles, Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserova, Agricultural University of Iceland, Iceland (Vimeo)
• Nutrient dynamics and their control of the biological production in the Kongsfjorden coastal system, Fran Gordillo, University of Malaga, Spain (Vimeo)
• Dynamics of glacial nutrient delivery to Kongsfjorden, Andy Hodson, UNIS, Norway (Vimeo)
• Transport, deposition and fate of atmospheric nutrients in the Ny-Ålesund region, Mats Björkman, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (Vimeo)
• The effect of trophic interactions on terrestrial nutrient cycles, Maarten Loonen, University of Groningen, The Netherland (Vimeo)
• Nutrient inputs by marine vertebrates are a major driver of polar terrestrial biodiversity hotspots, Peter Convey, BAS-NERC, UK (Vimeo)
• Abiotic and biotic driven nutrient exchanges in a high-latitude fjord – towards the quantification of Net Ecosystem Metabolism, Pedro Duarte, Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway (Vimeo)

Oslo-workshop October 2021

To bridge the keynote seminars from October 2020 to the planned three day workshop in Orvieto in fall 2022, we took advantage of the Svalbard Science Conference 2021 to arrange a one-day workshop. Agenda and details on the meeting. The workshop focused on the following two topics:

1. Kongsfjorden net ecosystem metabolism (nitrogen budget)
2. Nutrients, carbon and nitrogen in atmosphere, biosphere and soil continuum

The follow up from topic 1 is that Pedro Duarte, NPI, will summarize the input received from the various groups, and circulate it among those participating in the workshop to receive input. The expected outcome is a per-review publication about net balance. Pedro will lead the work. The follow up from topic 2 will be a short specific paper on what is known so far regarding the stable isotope in the nutrient cycle. Angela Augusti, CNR, will lead this work, and will initiate a process to involve the relevant and interested scientists.

Workshop in Orvieto September 2022

A three-days workshop on Nutrient Cycle in the Arctic was arranged 20-22 September 2022 in Orvieto, Italy, and hosted by Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems of the National Research Council.

Several items were on the agenda during the three-days of workshop. One of the most important outputs from the workshop was the concrete plans for two publications: 1) on nitrogen budget and 2) on using stable isotope approach to study the Nutrient cycle in the Arctic. More details on the workshop can be found in the news article: Cross disiplinary work on Nutrient Cycle in the Arctic focusing on Ny-Ålesund.