Arctic, Circumpolar: projects/activities

This project is now part of the project: Acidifying and Eutrophifying Substances in Air and Precipitation

National Environmental Monitoring Programme. National Environmental Monitoring Programme. The PMK Network is part of the national network for deposition measurements. The aim is (i) a long-term monitoring of concentration and deposition of selected air transported compounds caused acidification and eutrophication in different parts of Sweden; (ii) to generate knowledge about long-term variation in the field deposition, (iii) to give the background data from low polluted areas for calculation of pollutants deposition in more polluted areas the monitoring of pollutants in air and precipitations are proceed. Ozon and air samples for analysis of sulphur and nitrogen compounds, HCl as well as basic metal ions (Na, K, Ca, Mg, are taken on a monthly basis in air and precipitation. Ozone, as well as sulphur and the nitrogen compound particles are measured in air, and sulphur and nitrogen compounds, base cations, pH and electro-conductivity in precipitation.

This project is now part of the project : Acidifying and Eutrophifying Substances in Air and Precipitation

National Environmental Monitoring in Sweden. The project is included in a European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme network (EMEP). The subprogram main task is to check if international agreements as UN Convention on Long range Trans-boundary Air Pollution (CLTRAP) is followed. The measurements follow up the Swedish national generational goals "Natural Acidification Only", "A Non-Toxic Environment" and "Clean Air". The network comprises 10 stations, out of which three are in north Sweden, the two one are in AMAP area. Air chemistry is monitored by diffusion samplers. The following compounds are measured: SO2, SO4, tot-NH4, tot-NO3, soot, NO2. Precipitation quality is monitored following measured compounds: SO4-S, NO-N, Cl, NH4-N, Ca, Mg, Na, K, pH, EC. Metals in air and precipitation are analysed only at one north station (Bredkälen), and include: As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, V, Hg, methyl-Hg.

National Environmental Monitoring Programme in Sweden, in the "Air" programme area. Eleven chemical parameters are measured in precipitation every month, and in the air Hg (TGM and TPM) is measured weekly. Measurements are carried out at 4 stations in Sweden and one in Finland.  The project is part of an international network that follows the variations in the levels and deposition of heavy metals, particularly mercury, in the Arctic region.

National Environmental Monitoring in Sweden in the "Air" programme. The objective of the project is to follow climate-changing gases and particles and which effects they could have on the climate of earth. To understand and assess the human effect on the climate, regionally and globally, the atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases are monitored. The project aims follow: (i) detecting long-term trends in the carbon dioxide level, as well as trends in the amount or composition of aerosols in the background atmosphere; (ii) provide a basis to study the processes that control the aerosol life cycle from their formation through aging and transformation, until being removed from the atmosphere; (iii) provide a basis to study the processes (sources, sinks, and transport pathways) that control the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; (iv) contribute to the global network of stations that perform continous measurements of atmospheric particles and trace gases to determine their effect on the earths radiation balance and interaction with clouds and climate.

National Environmental Monitoring in Sweden. Monitoring of heavy metals in fish is performed in 110 trend lakes in Sweden. Annual sampling is carried out in 32 lakes, of which seven are in AMAP area. Three fish species have been selected: Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), Northern pike (Esox lucius), and Perch (Perca fluviatilis). A selection of metals is analysed in prepared samples of muscle and liver tissue. Analysed metals in liver are : Al, Ag, As, Bi, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sn and Zn. In muscle samples Hg and stabile isotopes δ 15N, δ 13C are analysed.

National Environmental Monitoring in Sweden in "Air" programme and sub-programme "the thickness of the ozon layer". The project follows changes in the thickness of the ozone layer in the atmosphere over Sweden.

This project has been divided into two new projects: The Swedish Forest Soil Inventory and the Swedish National Forest Inventory.

The Swedish National Forest Inventory has the task of describing the state and changes in Sweden's forests. The inventory gathers basic information on forests, soils and vegetation. It includes most aspects concerning soils, for example: soil types, soil chemistry including organic matter, water conditions and content of stones and boulders. Acidification, nitrogen deposition and the contribution by soils to climate change are some of the current issues dealt with. Regularly reported variables are: forest state, injuries, and growth, logging operations, new forest stand, and environmental assessment. Invented variables on permanent sampling plots include: position in the landscape, field vegetation, site conditions, soil sampling, assesment of soil characteristics, chemical analysis of soil in O-, B-, BC- and C-horizons.

Annual measurements of physical, chemical, and biological variables are taken in small to medium sized, mostly minimally disturbed lakes, situated across the country. Of the 108 lakes that are part of the Trend Station Lake monitoring programme, 20 are situated in AMAP area. The main aim of the monitoring programme is to document long-term changes related to global or regional change and human-generated stressors. To complement the Trend Station Lake monitoring programme, national lake surveys provide spatial data needed to determine regional patterns, and coupled with time-series data, changes in surface water quality. The National Lake Survey (the Surveillance Stations, re-sampled stations) programme for lake water quality, started in 2007 and results in data of all Swedish lake conditions. Each year some 800 new lakes are sampled to determine chemical and physical conditions; lakes are resampled at 6 year intevals. 4824 lakes are sampled in the country during a six-year sampling cycle, with 1270 situated in AMAP area. The variables included in the Trend Station Lake monitoring programme include water chemistry, fish, phytoplankton, macrophytes, zooplankton, and benthic invertebrates, whilst the National Lake Survey is focused solely on chemical and physical parameters.

National Environmental Monitoring Programme in Sweden. Measurements of persistant organic pollutants in air and precipitation are carried out at Råö, Hallahus, Aspvreten, and in Pallas (Northern Finland). The monitoring programme includes measurements of: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), some pesticides (HCH, DDT) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDE).

The main objective of the facility is to enhance the international scientific co-operation at the seven Finnish research stations and to offer a very attractive and unique place for multidisciplinary environmental and atmospheric research in the most arctic region of the European Union. Factors such as, arctic-subarctic and alpine-subalpine environment, northern populations, arctic winters with snow, changes in the Earth's electromagnetic environment due to external disturbances and exceptionally long series of observations of many ecological and atmospheric variables should interest new users.

The central objectives of the proposed ATMAS project are:  to quantify the photo-chemically triggered NOx and HONO re-emission fluxes from permanently and seasonally snow-covered surfaces in the Arctic near Ny-Ålesund,  to quantify the sources of NO3 in these snow-covered surfaces. In detail, the following scientific objectives of ATMAS can be distinguished: 1. to quantify atmospheric gradient fluxes of HNO3, HONO, particulate nitrogen compounds, and nitrogen in precipitation (snow and rain) above snow surfaces; 2. to quantify the emission of NOx and HONO from the snow pack as atmospheric gradient fluxes 3. to formulate an influx-outflow relationship that can be used in dependence on the snow type for (photo-)chemical atmospheric process models. The results of this research may be expanded to a regional (European) or global scale, to suggest how the NOx and HONO re-emission process and its consequences can be included into regional emission, dispersion and deposition models used in Europe.

One of the major benefits of performing measurements at Ny-Ålesund is the availability of a monitoring station on Mount Zeppelin, 474m asl. Given the typical height of the Arctic inversion layer during the envisaged measurement period, it will be possible to continuously monitor mercury and particulate in the free troposphere at the same time as performing ground level monitoring. The simultaneous measurements above and below the boundary layer should provide evidence for the mode of elemental Hg replenishment, whether it is from due to exchange with the free troposphere, or transport occurring at sea level. The proposed collaboration, by collecting data from two strategically placed Arctic stations, in the paths of different air masses and data from above the Arctic inversion layer would provide the most comprehensive set of Arctic mercury measurements performed to date.

Study of secondary metabolites and peptides produced by arctic plants. The aim of the project is the chemical and biochemical analysis of arctic plants such as Saxifraga spp., Artemisia borealis and Pedicularis dasyantha and others, for the search of compounds (secondary metabolites and peptides) to be employed as potential new drugs The basic working program in the arctic base will focus on the collection and preliminary work up (extraction, initial fractionation) of vegetal tissues from arctic plant species and their storage for the subsequent finer analyses

SAGE III was successfully launched on 10. Dec. 2001 on a Russian M3 rocket. It provides accurate data of aerosols, water vapour, ozone, and other key parameters of the earth's atmosphere. The science team of the SAGE III experiment at NASA has nominated the Koldewey-Station as an anchor site to contribute within the Data Validation Plan as part of the Operational Surface Networks. Data directly relevant to the SAGE III validation are aerosol measurements by photometers and lidar, as well as temperature measurements and ozone profiling by balloon borne sondes, lidar and microwave radiometer. Data will be provided quasi online for immediate validation tasks.

The Submarine Operational And Research Environmental Database (SOARED)is comprised of a fixed relational environmental database using unclassified data collected during the Science Ice Exercises (SCICEX) during the past several years. It also includes publicly accessible gridded historical sound velocity, temperature and salinity data from 1900 from the US National Oceanographic Data Center. This project is a demonstration system to show ways to retrieve and analyze sound velocity, temperature and salinity profiles, bathymetry and ice thickness data using a mouse-driven GIS-based query.

A proposal has been submitted to the National Science Foundation titled: For Support of the Arctic Social Science Data Center at NSIDC, OPP-0119836.