Exploring the Arctic sea ice

Ice camp and the working group. Photo: Matthias Wietz

By Magda Cardozo |

Arctic Ocean, our sampling site. Photo: Magda Cardozo

The Fram Strait the major gateway between the Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Marginal Ice Zone. This means that during summer, Arctic sea ice travels southwards through the Strait. This makes the Fram Strait a rather unique area. However, our understanding of the Arctic Ocean is currently restricted to the summer season because active cruise work and sampling has largely only been possible during the summer months. The physical and chemical characteristics of the Arctic sea ice have been studied extensively, yet, the knowledge of microbes in the ice and their interaction with the sea water community that surrounds them is still sparse. This year, we visited the ice in the Marginal Ice Zone, and we collected samples of ice to conduct an experiment on board to answer some of these questions.

Ice camp and the working group extracting 2-3 m ice cores. The ice cores are then cut and the lower 20 cm are used to run a on-board experiment. Photo: Matthias Wietz

Visiting the ice in the Arctic Ocean requires some preparation and depends largely on the weather conditions. On a calm weather day, we flew by helicopter and landed on an ice floe big enough to land and to set our base camp. We explored the conditions of the ice by extracting different ice cores from different areas until we decided on a suitable floe for ice sampling. We worked, and at the same time, we enjoyed every minute of it. Like any ice-covered region on earth, the sunlight that reflects off of the ice can be harmful, so we had to wear sunglasses and sunscreen lotion to protect from UV rays. We observed the beauty of the white ice and the shades of blue frozen water ponds underneath. We could hear the sound of the cracking ice far in the distance, and this reminded us how in civilization, we are constantly surrounded by all sorts of anthropogenic noises that we forget the beauty of nature. The absence of sound is something I thought I would never experience so deeply. While sampling, we were constantly visited by Arctic birds that surveyed us from above to see what we were doing in their ecosystem. We said goodbye to the ice after three hours of hard work and headed back to RV Polarstern. During the flight back, we spotted a fin whale swimming beneath us in all its majesty, as if it was waving us goodbye.

Experiment set up. The ice melting is sample every few hours. Photo: Magda Cardozo

Back on board of RV Polarstern, I performed an experiment in which I submitted the ice cores to melting in sea water at 1 -2 °C and collected samples every few hours until the ice was completely melted. These samples will be further analyzed back in Germany for bacterial DNA and other parameters that aim to address the connectivity between bacterial communities in sea ice and the surrounding water during ice melt. With every summer, we face new minimum ice records in the Arctic sea ice coverage due to climate change and ocean warming, and these samples are fundamental for us to understand what is occurring with the microbes in the Arctic sea ice, and how anthropogenic activities are affecting the Arctic ecosystem.

By Magda Cardozo, PhD student of Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen

Readers comments (8)

  1. Richard Baker

    Hi. I just found out about the expedition. Looking forward to following your adventure. I will keep you all in my prayers for safe travels and when frozen in the 🥶 ocean this winter. Godspeed

  2. AchimZ

    Really phantastic.
    Like to join …

  3. Arvid Einar Oen

    Hi. Fridtjof Nansen went there i 1893, and he wrote in his diary: in these waters, at this time of year, one would “usually” find completely ice-free sea.
    We are sailing in open seas, mile after mile, guard after guard, through unknown areas, and the sea almost more and more ice-free. How long will it last? Now they do not know, at home in Norway, that we are sailing to Pol in clear water.

  4. Tracy McDonald

    I’m really excited to keep up with your work! Thanks for creating this blog.

    What an amazing and life-changing research expedition you are on. Modern day Nansens!

    All the best! Enjoy the ice! What a gift!

  5. Robin J

    Been following you from day 1. Wish I was with you. Good luck with your research.

  6. Robert J Story

    Have a safe journey and I too will be following your progress.

  7. Jack P Nee

    Hi Magda-just wondering if you are working with Bob Campbell at all. He’s an oceanographer from URI. If you are tell him to post something so all his friends back home can keep up with this special project.

  8. Berit

    Dette er utrolig spennende å følge med på. Takk for deling av arbeid, kunnskap og erfaring

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