Скачать или смотреть Arctic survey on the RV Celtic Explorer 2023

The SiTrAc (Signal Tracking to unveil Arctic Climate) survey on the RV Celtic Explorer started out in late July from Killybegs, Co Donegal heading straight North into the Nordic Seas. At each station, we measured the temperature, salinity, and oxygen of the water column. We also collected water samples to further analyse the Nutrients, Trace Elements, pH, and Alkalinity. All these parameters are essential climate variables that help us understand how the ocean records and responds to climate change at the surface and at depths. Following this, we deployed nets to capture living planktonic foraminifera, which are small organisms, not larger than a grain of sand (image). These foraminifera build a shell from the elements present in seawater such as calcium, oxygen, and carbon during their lifetime. In fact, they record the essential climate variables mentioned above in the chemistry of their shell. At the end of their lifetime, these foraminifera sink to the bottom of the ocean where they are deposited in marine archives, year after year, millennia after millennia. During the survey, we performed experiments on the biological response of these foraminifera to changes in climate to better understand how the signal of essential climate variables is recorded in their shells. For example, we tested if their respiration of oxygen changed with temperature and if so, if this impacted the proxy climate variables recorded in their shells. We also collected lots of sediments using small multicores and long gravity cores (images). These allow us to look at climate archives preserved on the ocean floor. Similar to ice core records, we will be able to analyse how essential climate variables have changed in response to climate change via foraminifera in the recent and distant past, and thereby assess how stable Arctic climate change was in the past when facing natural changes in climate.
The survey was a huge success, and due to phenomenal weather, and a great team of scientists, we exceeded our work program objectives. We felt privileged to be near the ice edge and experience the beautiful scenery, never forgetting the precariousness of the Arctic and its vulnerability to Climate Change. The material collected will now be analysed by a team of international researchers from Ireland, Norway, Germany, and the USA led by the University of Galway.

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