Project proposal, version 13th July 2001.
Contributions from
Stig Falk-Petersen (NP), Vladimir Pavlov (NP), Else Nøst-Hegseth (UiTø), Mike
Kendall (PML), Kjetil Lygre (NERSC)and others.
1. Title:
Bioproduction and biodiversity of the seasonal ice-covered seas of the
European Arctic: implications of climate change
2. Acronym: BIOCLIM (suggestion)
B.3. Objectives
Bio-economic factors
The Barents Sea and the Greenland Sea are true polar seas with ice cover that
seasonally fluctuates across their surfaces. The prosperity of the west Nordic countries
and the people linked to the fishing industry in Europe depend on the high
bioproduction in the Northern Seas. (Needs a few sentences from the macroeconomies with facts and figures). The high bioproduction of phytoplankton and
energy (lipid)-rich zooplankton form the basis for the large stocks of fish, seals and
whales. Climate change could alter the basis for the key herbivorous zooplankton
species, which form the link between the phytoplankton and the fish stocks. A change
in the composition or reduction in the fish stocks would have large implications on the
economy. This is also an area with high abundance of sea birds, seals, whales and
polar bears associated with the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ). The MIZ is clearly an area
of special concern for the commercial fishing industry as well as for managing and
conserving Arctic biodiversity, not least in relation to climate change.
Bioproduction and biodiversity
The high bioproduction and biodiversity of the Barents and Greenland Seas is due to
several factors such as:
1) seasonally high primary production in close association with the receding ice edge
and stratified water column;
2) high annual production of the herbivorous zooplankters C. glacialis on the shelf of
east Greenland and the northern Barents Sea and of C. hyperboreus in the
Greenland Sea;
3) advection of the red-fee, Calanus finmarchicus from the Norwegian Sea into the
Barents Sea and from the area south of Iceland into the Iceland Sea;
4) transport of ice fauna and Calanus hyperboreus by the Transpolar Drift from the
Arctic Ocean into the Barents Sea and Greenland Sea.
The seasonal pulse in primary production is transferred as energy through the marine
food web (Hagen 1988). Ice algae and phytoplankton produce lipids from
photosynthetic energy, and these are rapidly biosynthesised into lipid stores by the
herbivores. These high energy lipid compounds are rapidly transferred through the
arctic food chains (Falk-Petersen et al. 1990). Lipid levels increase from 10-20% in
phytoplankton to 50-70% in herbivorous zooplankton and ice fauna. This increase in
lipid levels, combined with high assimilation efficiency in key components of the
arctic marine food chain, is probably one of the most fundamental and key
specialisations in arctic bioproduction.
Climate and bioproduction
The Barents Sea is the most productive marine ecosystem, with very complex
thermohaline and ice conditions. This sea is a peculiar zone of interaction of the
Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Formation and variability of natural environments and
marine climate of the Barents Sea depends mainly on water and ice import from the
adjacent oceanic basins (Helland-Nansen and Nansen 1909, Tantisiura 1959,
Novitskiy 1961, Midttun 1969, Bochkov 1976, 1982, Blindheim and Loeng 1981,
Dickson and Blindheim 1984, Loeng and Midttun 1984, Saetersdal and Loeng 1987,
Dickson et al. 1988). Changes of intensity of the North-Atlantic current, observed last
years (Zhang et al. 1998, Dickson et al. 2000, Pavlov and O’Dwyer 2000), and ice
conditions at the Arctic Ocean and Nordic seas (Vinje and Kvambekk 1991, Vinje et
al. 1998, Kwok et al. 1998, Kwok 2000) will lead to reorganization of the
thermohaline structure and dynamics of the Barents sea water. Modifications of the
spatial-temporal structure of biological systems are the inevitable consequence of
such reorganization.
Sea ice plays a special role in this process. The ice conditions of the Barents Sea
exercise a strong influence over the three-dimensional structure of water circulation.
Position of ice edge and spring melting of ice in many respects determine summer
biological productivity. Large-scale oscillations in abiotic environmental factors in the
marginal ice-covered seas are critical in structuring its marine biota and the
biodiversity of its indigenous populations and communities. Thus, the ice regime in
the Barents Sea, Greenland Sea and part of the Norwegian Sea changes drastically on
time scales ranging from days to months, years, decades and even longer, and these
changes directly influence the light available for primary production. Large variations
in ice cover can be seen in the Nordic Seas. The Barents Sea, the Greenland Sea, and
parts of the Norwegian Sea and the Iceland Sea were totally ice covered in the spring
of 1966 while in 1995 most of the same areas were ice free. This had great effects on
the productivity of these areas. Oscillations in ice conditions on an inter-annual and
decadal scale are related to environmental phenomena such as:
1) the changes of the cyclonic and anticyclonic regimes over the Arctic Ocean,
which occur in periods of 10 to 15 years (Shpaher and Fedorova 1974,
Proshutinsky and Jonson 1997) and
2) the North Atlantic Oscillation Index, which fluctuates in periods of 7 to 10 years
(Vinje 2000).
In the Barents Sea ice cover has decreased over the last 135 years and large
fluctuations in ice conditions in the Barents Sea have been recorded over the last 400
years. Furthermore, the sea ice cover, as well as ice thickness, in the Greenland Sea
have decreased during the last century.
The ice cover is a prerequisite for ice algal production, taking place on the under-side
of the ice. This part of the high Arctic primary production becomes relatively more
important the further north you get and the more ice there is in an area. Both ice
thickness and extent of ice cover determines the magnitude of the ice-related
production, which consequently is a subject to change on both short and long-term
scales along with a changing ice cover.
However, the primary production of the seasonally ice-covered Nordic Seas is
partitioned between ice-related and pelagic production, and both are strongly linked to
the ice. Melting produces a stable upper layer, which provides good conditions for
phytoplankton blooms, given that the physical factors otherwise are suitable. They
include, among others, a sufficiently long ice-free period and moderate winds. Both
these factors are subject to rapid changes, particularly in pack-ice areas. Hence iceedge blooms are variable, and still unpredictable, events in Arctic seas.
Pelagic zooplankton of the high latitude marine ecosystem, characterized by a rapid
reproduction and growth rate are, therefore, adapted to an environment changing
markedly on different time scales. This accounts for the biodiversity in the high
latitude zooplankton species complex in terms of the:

species’ different life strategies,

different ecological niches and

different centres of distribution.
The composition and size of the fish, seals and whale stock are directely linked to
these key zooplankton species and will change accordingly.
According to our present understanding there are two possible scenarios of the climate
change in the region:
a) The first scenario is based on a hypothesis of a continuation of the present trend,
resulting in a permanent warming of the Arctic climate (IPPC 2000) and a decrease of
the ice extent of the Barents Sea and the Southern Arctic Ocean.
b) The second is based on the hypotheses that the Arctic climate varies in cycles
(Proshutinsky et al. 1999), and that we now are at the beginning of a cold period,
leading to heavy ice conditions in the Barents, Greenland and parts of the Norwegian
Seas (Vinje 2001, in press).
We hypothesise that these two scenarios will have fundamentally different impacts on
the biopoduction and the biodiversity of the arctic ecosystems (Fig. XX):
I) In a warm mode, the Barents Sea and the southern part of the Arctic Ocean will be
ice-free during spring and summer. The Polar Front will change its position (?) The
phytoplankton bloom will take place in the spring and there may be a good match
between primary and secondary production. This will favour the Norwegian Sea type
zooplankton, Calanus finmarchicus, and may form a herring based food chain as we
see partly in the Barents Sea today and which dominates in the Norwegian sea
(Dalpadado?, Falk-Petersen in press). Or we will get more capelin?
II) In the cold mode, most of the same area will be ice covered as in the 60’s (Vinje
1999). The phytoplankton bloom will take place during the whole spring and summer
along the ice edge and in leads and semi-permanent polynyas in the MIZ, but there
will be less open water. (What will this do to the zooplankton?) More of the primary
production will be relocated to ice algae. This will lead to higher sedimentation and
enrichments of the benthos because grazing from ice fauna and zooplankton on ice
flora seems to be limited during the ice algal bloom period (before ice melt)
(Ambrose Mike at APN and ELSE at UoT input here), a high inflow of ice-fauna
associated with the transpolar drift and favourable conditions for the arctic-Little Auk
(only this species?), and an increased benthic production, including shrimp.
We will conduct two field experiments targeting these hypotheses: one experiment
studying an Arctic ocean influenced, ice-covered ecosystem and the other a warmer
Atlantic influenced system. Both these systems will be located in the Barents Sea.
Main Objectives:
Main aim: To identify and explore the sensitivity of the bioproduction and
biodiversity of the Barents and Greenland Sea in relation to the physical forces in
warm and cold climate modes.
Sub-goals:
To conceptualise how the warm and cold climate modes change the biodiversity and
the bioproduction of the benthic and the pelagic ecosystem
To develop models that can predict alterations in ecosystem composition and
productivity.
To develop bio-economic models that can study the effect of warm and cold climate
modes on macro-economy levels.
BIOCLIM
B.4 Contribution to Programme/Key actions
Description….
(Using wording from call text for Key Action)
…
Given the need for sustainable use of the environment and resources, as well as
implementation and development of Community water legislation, BIOCLIM will
provide in the development of the predictive capability for variations in ecosystem
functioning and structure (on large, medium, small scales??)
BIOCLIM mainly address the links between the physical forcing (sea-ice, air
temperature, winds water-masses) including their anthropogenic alterations
(greenhouse scenarios) and the functioning of the lower trophic ice, pelagic and
benthic ecosystems.
New modelling concepts will be developed and run [will they?] for the last 50 years from which high quality forcing data exist - and be validated against available
ecosystem indicators, as well as with greenhouse scenario input, with a focus towards
global change effects on Arctic ecosystems.
The analysis of the long-time scale fields and the model output, subject to improved
process understanding and parameterizations, indentification of threshholds beyond
which the ecosystems undergo fundamental changes, will provide low-dimensional
indicators of ecosystem functioning and biomass production which will be fed into
existing ressource economic models. From these models various socio-economic
scenarios will be provided and may be utilized in decision processes. (Too much blabla?)
BIOCLIM does not substantially address issues concerning Fishery Policy, but will
provide key input to such efforts. Similarly the project does not address large scale
CO2 exchange processes, but will utilize input from such projects (e.g. AICSEX)
BIOCLIM will therefore contribute to
Key Action 3: Sustainable Marine Ecosystems
3.1 Improved knowledge of marine processes, ecosystems and interactions.
3.1.1 Better assessment of naturally occurring mechanisms of ecosystem functioning
B.5 Innovation
(to be completed)
B.6 Work plan
Outline/motivation of organization
The work is organised in … tasks … and …. work packages.
Tasks:
(1) Long periodic (interannual and beyond) physical forcing
Ice extent, thickness, drift. Hydrogaphy, currents, tides. Meteorology: pressure
systems, air temperature, insolation, cloudiness
Tentative WPs:
WP1.1 Large scale, long term spatial and temporal environmental data (and statistical
ice model) (NP)
WP 1.2 Characterization of the MIZ dynamics in the two… (NERSC + NP)
(oceanographic cruise, mesoscale resolution; meteorology in the MIZ)
WP1.3 Characterization of the ecoystem of the two regimes
[The MIZ in the Barents and other seas are some of the most dynamic areas in the
World ocean with large seasonal and inter-annual fluctuations in ice-cover and
ice-transport. The location of the ice edge during summer can vary by hundreds of
kilometres from year to year (Gloersen et al., 1992), and there is also variability on
longer time scales, up to century scale, correlated with North Atlantic Oscillation
(NAO; Vinje, 1997). These variations reflect the inter-annual dynamics of inflowing
Atlantic water and atmospheric forcing.
The ice fauna transported into the Barents Sea is closely associated with
the general ice-drift in the Arctic, acting as a source region. (Gordienko
and Laktionov, 1969; Romanov, 1995). Annually, in the order of 7 .105 tons of
sympagic fauna are transported through the Fram Strait and then lost as the ice-pack
melts (Lønne, 1992). How much, in addition that is transported into the Barents
Sea is unknown and will vary between years, but it is presumed to be considerable
(Lønne, 1992). Despite the small biomass, 0-2 g*m-2 in the seasonally ice covered
Barents Sea (Lønne and Gulliksen, 1991), the total becomes considerable because of
the large extent of the MIZ (Werner et al., 1999).
Large-scale oscillations in abiotic environmental factors in the Nordic Seas re critical
in structuring its marine biota and the biodiversity of its indigenous populations and
communities. Pelagic zooplankton of the high latitude marine ecosystem,
characterized by a rapid reproduction and growth rate are, therefore, adapted to an
environment changing markedly on different time scales. This accounts for the
biodiversity in the high latitude zooplankton species complex]
(2) Ecosystem functioning
Phyto-convection, MIZ-dynamics, ice-fauna/Calanus, benthic processes,
sedimentation rates, biomarkers
(2.1) Description (field work) and modelling of the two modes
NERSC
IFM/ UiT
(2.2) Pelagic and ice-related response
IO-PAS (zoo plankton)
IPOE (ice fauna)
NP (biomarkers)
UoPF (statistics)
[The Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) of the Barents Sea:
The primary production associated with the MIZ consists of three components; a)
actively growing phytoplankton at the outer edge of the ice margin and in larger leads;
b) a layer of specialised sub-ice algal assemblages in pack ice; and
c) a sub-ice algal assemblage associated with multi-year ice (Syvertsen, 1991;
Melnikov, 1997; Falk-Petersen et al., 1998; Hegseth, 1998).
The onset of pelagic primary production is directly related to the seasonal availability
of incident light and melting of the ice (Sakshaug and Slagstad, 1991). The high
annual primary production is coupled to the spatial variation in ice cover, inflow of
warm Atlantic water and the stratification of the water column because of ice melt.
The understanding of the onset of the spring bloom has recently been improved by
Backhaus et al. (1999), by emphasizing the requirement of ocean convection in
providing a sufficiently large start population for phytoplankton. Thus, the need for
further examination of the small scales involved is obvious, both in empirical and
modelling studies.
On the oceanic mesoscale (1-10 km) there is a complex interplay between wind
forcing, ice state and ocean dynamics, strongly affecting biological growth and
implying patchiness (Lygre et al, 2001, Engelsen et al. 2001). Surface gravity waves
combined with melting processes produce small ice floes from 10-50 m in the outer
part of the ice margin. This has a potential positive influence on the ice-related
production by letting more light become available to the algae before they detach
from the ice during the melting period. The ice-related primary production is in
general controlled by light, and as such sensitive to changes in ice thickness and snow
cover.
The structural under-ice topography to a large extent determines the actual
distribution and density of ice-fauna (Gulliksen and Lønne, 1991 a,b; Lønne and
Gulliksen, 1991; Horner et al., 1992; Hop et al., 2000).]
(2.3) Benthic response
APN (?)
BIOC
PML
AWI
UoPF
[Benthos:
Organic matter derived from the breakdown of phytoplankton and ice algae in the
surface waters of the Barents Sea, which are not being grazed in the water column,
falls to the ocean floor where it enters the benthic food web. Observations carried out
a range of stations in the NW Barents sea during the summer of 1991 (Pipenburg et
al) suggested that around 60 mg carbon /m2/day reaches the sea floor. Much of this
was respired but around 25% was fixed in the tissue of benthic organisms of a range
of body sizes from microbes to megafaunal crustaceans. Such measurements
represent a generallity. It is clear from the discussion above that as planktonic
production is spatially and temporally patchy, organic flux to the benthos will be
equally variable. If the Barents Sea is to be sustainably managed then it is vital to
have information on the effects of variability in the flux of organic carbon to the sea
floor.
Variation in organic flux to be benthos can be envisaged as having two clear
consequences. Firstly, increasing the quantity of organic flux will influence the
standing crop of benthic animals either by increasing the number of individuals or by
increasing the mean size of animals already present. On a crude scale, the distribution
of benthic biomass the Barents Sea has been known for some time on the basis of
historical Russian data (Zenkevitch 1963). It is not known if the pattern Zenkevitch
described remains nor do we have any knowledge of its variability at meso- or local
scales. To understand the effects of spatial and temporal fluctuations in food supply
on the benthos we need to examine growth, reproduction, energy storage and
metabolic processes within a broad range of characteristic species. This information
on energy metabolism would come from a combination of experimentation and field
observation.
The second consequence of fluctuating organic flux is to influence the species
composition of benthic biotic asemblages. Different animal species have different
responses to a fluctuating food supply. Changes in the availability of food may affect
survival, reproductive output and competitive ability of animals with limited mobility.
More mobile species might move some distance to obtain nutrition. The combination
of differential mortality and mobility will influence the biodiversity in an assemblage
as well as the identity of the individual taxa represented. Given the strong seasonal
signal that comes from phytoplankton production and the annual variability in
production associated with the position of the ice edge, it is possible to envisage
significant variability in the biota at a range of spatial and temporal scales.. To
understand the link between production and diversity will require strongly structured
and fully integrated sampling all size fractions of the biota from micro to megafauna.]
(3) Synthesis and bioeconomics
Taking account of improved process understanding from (1 and 2),
Tentative WPs:
WP 3.1 Conceptual ecosystem model for the different modes.
WP 3.2 Bioeconomical modelling
WP 3.3 Synthesis
Deliverables: what exactly will you produce from the work? who will use this?
what will they call it? (this is usually the title)
Phases:
phase 1: / phase 2: / phase 3: etc
Workpackages 1 page each (or less)!
C.3 Community added value and Contribution to EU policies
The European Environment Agency recognised three long term goals for the
European Arctic in General and the Barents Sea in particular
1) to maintain and protect biological diversity
2) to maintain and protect the biological productivity needed for sustainable
development
3) to maintain a long-term future for local and indigenous people.
…
C.4 Contribution to Community Social Objectives
…
C.5 Project Management
(Figure)
Top level:
Project Management (Manager + Task Leaders)
Second Level:
Quality controller and Industrial/Governmental Reference
Group
Third Level:
WPs and Data Management Group
C.6 Description of the Consortium
…
C.7 Description of the Partners
Partners:
Partner 1: organisation, name, country and role in the Project
Partners:
Institute of Oceanology, Poland, Jan Marcin Weslawski (weslaw@iopan.gda.pl),
Slawek Kwasnievski
Institute of Marine Biology of Crete, Greece, Yannis Karakassis (jkarak@imbc.gr),
Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre, Norway, Kjetil Lygre,
kjetil@nrsc.no
Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway Stig Falk-Petersen / Vladimir Pavlov /
Haakon Hop, stig@npolar.no (Subcontractor John Sargent, Scotland, UK)
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, England UK, Mike Kendall, mak@pml.ac.uk>
University of Kiel, Germany, Michael Spindler mspindler@ipoe.uni-kiel.de
University of Hamburg, Germany, Jan Backhaus, backhaus@dkrz.de
Else Nøst Hegseth, University of Tromsø, elseh@nfh.uit.no
Klages' team, AWI?
Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona Spain, Michael Greenacre
Institute of Fisheries Management, Hirthals Denmark, Jesper Raaskjær
Stig Falk-Petersen will discuss with scientist in bio-economics at the University of
Tromsø with the purpose of putting together a group of scientists in this field.
Industrial/Governmental Reference Group Member Institutions/ Companies
(to be completed)
Budget:
Total cost / EU contribution
Duration:
(in months)