Tracking nutrients and carbon from land to lake to fjord (LAND2FJORD)
Research leader: Thomas Juul-Pedersen, Senior Scientist, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources.
Other participants and affiliated institutions: Ida B. Dyrholm Jacobsen, Researcher, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources; Tobias Vonnahme, Postdoc, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources; Katrine Raundrup, Researcher, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources; Efrén López-Blanco, Researcher, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources; Lorenz Meire, Senior Researcher, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources; Karoline Nordberg Nilsson, AC, Asiaq – Greenland Survey; Dorthe Petersen, AC Senior, Asiaq – Greenland Survey; Kirsty Langley, AC Senior, Asiaq – Greenland Survey.
Research area, purpose, and research questions:
The Arctic Ocean is exceptional in that it receives 10% of the global river runoff, while containing only 1% of the global ocean volume. Studies have estimated that terrestrial inputs fuel one third of the Arctic Ocean primary production, thus the water draining from the land and what it carries with it has a significant implication for Arctic marine ecosystems. This novel project will study how, where and when different nutrients, carbon and nitrogen move from the land to the ocean. The fieldwork will be based in Kobbefjord, Southwest Greenland, an area that well represents the interlinkage between rivers, lake and a fjord system. An intense field campaign will be conducted to sample water from rivers, lakes and fjord in Kobbefjord to determine when and where nutrients and carbon are present and how they move through the interlinked system of soil, rivers and lake to the ocean. This project is a collaboration between the two Greenlandic institutions Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and Asiaq – Greenland Survey combining the physical and biological aspects of natural science to investigate how nutrients and carbon are transported from land to fjord.
Methods for competence building by means of inclusion of society and dissemination to society:
This project is a collaboration between the only two natural science research institutions in Greenland, GINR and Asiaq. The project will utilize the facilities and ongoing research activities at the two institutions, while also combining the local competencies and knowledge. Four natural science bachelor and graduate students will join the sampling in Kobbefjord. Results and findings will be included in the graduate level courses “Arctic Marine Ecosystems in a Changing Climate” and “Greenhouse Gases and Climate Effects in the Arctic”, as part of the Arctic Science Study Programme (ASSP) offered in Nuuk.
Granted: 248.750 DKK.
