To support the understanding of the High Arctic marine ecosystem and assess the potential for cascade effects induced by discharges from oil exploration activities or oil spills, knowledge on the pelagic productivity and food web is essential.
Specifically there is a need for identification of areas and periods where there are zooplankton or fish larvae concentrations in the upper water column with implications for the use of oil spill dispersants. It is proposed that an interdisciplinary survey is planned and performed based on modelling potential areas of high sensitivity using the existing knowledge.
The pelagic ecosystem is fundamentally supported by planktonic organisms. Zooplankton has an important role within marine food webs since it provides the principal pathway to transfer energy from the primary producers, phytoplankton, to consumers at higher trophic levels, e.g., fish and their larvae, marine mammals and seabirds. Most of the higher trophic levels in the arctic marine ecosystem rely on the lipids that are accumulated in species of especially the copepod genus Calanus. Although copepods are typically predominant in Arctic marine systems, there is a broad assemblage of other holoplanktonic groups and their role has yet not fully been understood.
The assessment area is highly heterogeneous in terms of ice cover and thus also primary productivity may be highly patchy resulting in hot spots. Large parts of the area is dominated by heavy drift ice throughout most summers, leading to relatively low productivity, and causing logistical challenges for scientific studies. Existing studies have thus concentrated on three areas where the open-water season is longer and productivity is (expected to be) higher: (i) the North East Water Polynya (NEW), (ii) the extensive fjord systems along the East Greenland coast, where only Young Sound has been subject to detailed scientific studies, and (iii) the marginal ice zone in the Greenland Sea. To supplement the existing knowledge the major activity of this study proposal is a 3 week ship based survey around 1st September, closely integrated with synoptic aerial surveys for seabirds and marine mammals. Thus, the proposed study will be an integrated biological oceanographic ship based and airplane based survey, linking the physical oceanography with the lower trophic levels and the distribution of fish (including acoustic fish abundance survey) seabirds and marine mammals.
The project is planned for 2017 combined with aerial surveys of marine mammals and seabirds and pelagic ecology coupled with projects in Themes 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. In addition, identification of dominant species is basic for the projects in Theme 8 and 9.