Methods and Approach:


s/y Oceania vessel
       To achieve the goals of the project it is divided into five individual but closely related and inter-dependent work packages spanning from investigations of environmental factors/components (hydrology, primary production, CaCO3 saturation, CO2) through evaluation of their influence on biodiversity distribution and community composition. The project will investigate distribution of calcium carbonate secreting skeleton organisms and their biochemical composition in relation to combine effect of sea water warming, primary production and CaCO3 saturation. All these information will be integrated by system modelling and socioeconomic impact of CaCO3 change. In all phases of the project substantial synergy will be gained by communication between work packages (WP). Measurement datasets will be exchanged between work packages and used for the physical process, biological and socioeconomic studies as well as for modelling the long-term trends in the Arctic ecosystem influenced by climate change.

Van Venn grab
       The study area will include European part of the North Atlantic, Arctic Ocean with Greenland, Barents Seas and areas north of the Svalbard Archipelago. This model systems offers complex system differing in hydrology, CaCO3 saturation and productivity providing an ideal test system to address our research questions. For example west part of the Greenland Sea is influenced to much larger extent by cold Arctic Ocean water masses than the east part which is hugely influenced by warm Atlantic origin water masses. This leads to large difference in carbonate chemistry and faunal composition within this area.
       To make this project as efficient as possible for all WPs existing samples will be used whenever possible. This will include depositories of Institute of Oceanology (IO PAN), NIVA and AkvaPlan-Niva (APN) from number of large projects covering in their scopes the study area (e.g. CABANERA, ATP, ECOBAR, BANKMOD). In addition to existing samples and data we plan number of scientific cruises with R/V Oceania (ship belonging to IO PAN) and R/V Lance (NIVA has several cruises booked already). During those cruises extensive physical and biological parameters of the water masses will be measured and biological samples collected. Physical parameters measurement will include temperature, salinity, carbon dioxide system parameters (Ct, At, pCO2, pH) and nutrients. Biological samples include quantitative samples of sediment and calcifying benthic fauna. First part of the project will provide baseline observations and contemporary modelling (see work package no 1 [WP1]). It will identify, and access, hydrographic and biogeochemical datasets from ocean observations available in the public domain, available Polish and Norwegian sources, as well as new data provided by measurements performed during the duration of this project. Data quality control will be done through cross-over analysis; property-property evaluation and combine the data into an integrated dataset and will be made publically available through Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC). Hydrography, carbon and nutrient biogeochemistry (e.g. pH, CaCO3 saturation state) across depth gradient in selected areas together with determination of pH variability in selected contrasting regions will be mapped through model output and POL-NOR dataset. All compiled dataset will be validated by the grid model. Dataset will be presented as a GIS maps. Based on this dataset hind cast model fields of physical and biogeochemical variables.

Bathometr
Box corer
Epibentic sledge
Samples
CTD
photo: P.Kukliński