Expedition Search

The Svalbard Archipelago has an arctic climate and is home to several large bodies of ice - alpine glaciers in the mountains, and tidewater glaciers that descend into the sea. Svalbard is currently undergoing rapid climate change with the dramatic retreat of its tidewater glaciers.

A view in front of Kronebreen Glacier. Ny Ålesund, Svalbard, Norway. Photo by Mark Goldner (PolarTREC 2011), Courtesy of ARCUS.

The goal of the research is to gain a deeper understanding of ice-ocean interactions and processes at the faces of tidewater glaciers. This important research will increase our knowledge of climate change and tell the visual story - in particular, this research will further our understanding of ice retreat rates and the impact on sea level rise in the future.

Tidewater glaciers are among the fastest-changing systems in the Arctic, and the dynamic Kronebreen glacier is situated a short distance from the scientific research base of Ny Ålesund at 79°N latitude. In particular, the team will investigate how climate change affects sediment transport and deposition associated with the tidewater glaciers, icebergs, meltwater streams, and marine currents.

The summer ice mélange at the ice face in these smaller systems is flushed out rapidly making it possible to work safely from small boats at a distance (between 200m to 2 km) from the calving ice face. Our proposed work follows on our earlier observations that warm North Atlantic Water is impacting the ice face more today than seen in 2005, 2009, 2011, and 2014, increasing retreat rates. Over these years, we have observed different meltwater plumes turning on and off on a daily to weekly basis. Funded by National Geographic, we have planned the science to add observations to other aspects of the glacial system being monitored by Norsk Polar scientists (Jack Kohler, Katerine Husmin, et al).

The team will be mapping bathymetry of the ice margin area to compare with earlier surveys, and recording oceanographic data (including temperature, salinity, and turbidity of the water column) to track the inflow of North Atlantic water at the ice face. They are particularly interested in monitoring the position and velocities of subglacial jets as they exit the glacier and enter the fjord. The team will also record and monitor iceberg calving at the glacier face.

Beyond the science, public outreach using science and imagery will be used to communicate to the public critical climate change issues, exposing them to the challenges and rewards of conducting high latitude research. Public outreach will showcase arctic processes and how what happens in the Arctic high latitudes impacts coastal resiliency.

Steve Oberbauer and Jeremy May set up the Mobile Instrumented Sensor Platform (MISP) tram. Utqiaġvik, Alaska. Photo by Alejandra Martinez.

The goal of this expedition is to understand arctic terrestrial change by monitoring vegetation communities in northern Alaska associated with the International Tundra Experiment Arctic Observatory Network (ITEX-AON). The team will study environmental variability and increased temperature on tundra plant phenology, growth, species composition and ecosystem function.

The ITEX network works collaboratively to study changes in tundra plant and ecosystem responses to experimental warming. The network monitoring sites are located across many major ecosystems of the Arctic. This project will provide urgently needed data critical to understanding the impact of multi-scale vegetation change on ecosystem function, namely land-atmosphere carbon and water fluxes and energy balance.

A view of a storm in the Bering Sea on August 2nd, 2019, as seen from Nome, Alaska. Photo by Piper Bartlett-Browne.

Coastal flooding events are becoming more common, as reductions in seasonal sea ice create large fetches for autumn storms. The proposed work concerns the oceanographic factors associated with coastal erosion and flooding, which are distinct from the geologic controls. Key among these oceanographic factors is the previously demonstrated increasing trend in surface wave activity throughout the western Arctic.

The results will determine: 1) The significance of coastal protection via scattering and dissipation of waves by sea ice 2) The thermodynamic and mechanical effects of increasing wave energy 3) The changes in coastal flooding and circulation associated with increasing wave momentum.

A sloped blue iceberg. Aboard the icebreaker Oden between the Amundsen and Ross seas. Photo by Lollie Garay.

Satellite observations show that Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, has been thinning rapidly and its flow speed has been increasing. At the same time, its grounding line, the point at which the glacier starts to float over the sea, has retreated. Oceanographic studies show that the main driver of these changes is incursion of warm water in the deep ocean beneath the floating ice shelf that extends seaward from the glacier. An important factor affecting the flow of warm water towards the glacier and the stability of the ice shelf is the topography of the seafloor in the area, which is poorly known. The seafloor offshore from Thwaites Glacier and the records of glacial and ocean change contained in the sediments on it are the focus of the THOR project.

Group photo of all neutrino hunters currently at the ceremonial South Pole. Photo by Rishabh Khandelwal.

IceCube is located at the South Pole and records the interactions of a nearly massless sub-atomic messenger particle called the neutrino. IceCube searches for neutrinos from the most violent astrophysical sources: events like exploding stars, gamma ray bursts, and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a powerful tool to search for dark matter, and could reveal the new physical processes associated with the enigmatic origin of the highest energy particles in nature. In addition, IceCube studies the neutrinos themselves using the 100,000 neutrinos detected per year produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere. Their energies far exceed those from accelerator beams. IceCube encompasses a cubic kilometer of instrumented ice, and is the largest detector by volume ever built.

The fully built ARA project, also located at the South Pole, will have an effective volume 100 times bigger than IceCube. The trade off is that it is only capable of observing radio waves from extremely high energy neutrinos, a million times more energetic than the neutrinos produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere. This neutrinos are extremely rare, which is why such a large detector is needed to increase the chance of seeing one.

Adult Emerald Rockcod (Trematomus bernacchii) surrounded by seastars (Odontaster validus) at Cape Evans, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Photo Credit: Rob Robbins, ASC SCUBA Diver

In the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica there is an extraordinary diversity of marine life. Much of our understanding of the biology of these animals comes from studies of the adaptations of these animals to sub-zero ocean conditions. Research to date on Antarctic fishes has focused on adult life stages with much less research on early life stages that likely prioritize growth and development and not physiological mechanisms of stress tolerance. This project addresses the mechanisms that early life stages (embryos, larvae and juveniles) of Antarctic fishes use to respond to changes in ocean conditions. Specifically, the project will examine energetic trade-offs between key developmental processes in the context of environmental change.

Scientific scuba divers use bright lights and cover lots of terrain in search for pycnogonids to collect. Turtle Rock, Antarctica. Photo by Timothy R. Dwyer.

Cold-blooded animals in the Antarctic ocean have survived in near-constant, extreme cold conditions for millions of years and are very sensitive to even small changes in water temperature. However, the consequences of this extreme thermal sensitivity for the energetics, development, and survival of developing embryos is not well understood. This award will investigate the effect of temperature on the metabolism, growth rate, developmental rate, and developmental energetics of embryos and larvae of Antarctic marine ectotherms. The project will also measure annual variation in temperature and oxygen at different sites in McMurdo Sound, and compare embryonic and larval metabolism in winter and summer to determine the extent to which these life stages can acclimate to seasonal shifts. This research will provide insight into the ability of polar marine animals and ecosystems to withstand warming polar ocean conditions.

A Weddell seal and pup out on the sea ice near McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Photo by Alex Eilers.

Weddell seals are one of the best studied seals and a classic example of adaptation to the extreme Antarctic environment. A large body size and thick blubber layer help them to stay warm both on and under the ice. Their streamlined shape, body oxygen stores, and collapsible lungs allow them to reach dive depths of 600 meters (almost 2,000 feet!) and remain under water for over an hour. However, they do not begin life with these advantages. Weddell seal pups are born on the sea ice with a small body size and almost no blubber.

The question is: What does it take for a Weddell seal to survive and successfully make the transition between two extreme environments – above and below the Antarctic sea ice – in only a matter of weeks? To answer this, Cal Poly scientists and a marine mammal veterinarian will venture to Antarctica to study the development of thermoregulation and diving in Weddell seals.

Photo Courtesy of Mosaic

The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) will be the first year-round expedition into the central Arctic exploring the Arctic climate system. The project has been designed by an international consortium of leading polar research institutions, under the umbrella of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) and the University of Colorado, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).

MOSAiC will contribute to a quantum leap in our understanding of the coupled Arctic climate system and its representation in global climate models. The focus of MOSAiC lies on direct in-situ observations of the climate processes that couple the atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, bio-geochemistry and ecosystem. MOSAiC observations will be specifically designed to characterize the important processes within the atmosphere-ice-ocean system that impact the sea-ice mass and energy budgets. These include heat, moisture, and momentum fluxes in the atmosphere and ocean, water vapor, clouds and aerosols, biogeochemical cycles in the ocean and ice, and many others. The MOSAiC project has it's own website here.

A CTD (conductivity, temperature, and depth) instrument comes up from the depths of the Chukchi Sea. Aboard the USCGC Healy.

This is an observational research program evaluating changes in the Pacific Arctic ecosystem in response to sea ice declines and other climate related processes. The approach is to undertake repeat sampling of specific locations that are biologically diverse or rich in production to detect change, and also to use the capabilities aboard the USCGC Healy to undertake process oriented experiments that address specific issues such as ocean acidification, changes in biological productivity and other areas of sampling that can be addressed by shipboard sampling and experimentation.