Dimensioning of Norwegian Oil Spill Preparedness: Focusing on the Arctic North Norway and the Barents Sea

2008 ◽  
pp. 289-289
Author(s):  
J. M. Ly
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
North Norway

To Cooperate or Not? Why Working Together is Essential in the Arctic

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 1146-1165
Author(s):  
Johan Marius Ly ◽  
Rune Bergstrøm ◽  
Ole Kristian Bjerkemo ◽  
Synnøve Lunde
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Response Analysis ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Second Year

Abstract The Norwegian Arctic covers Svalbard, Bear Island, Jan Mayen and the Barents Sea. 80% of all shipping activities in the Arctic are within Norwegian territorial waters and the Exclusive Economic Zone. To reduce the risk for accidents, the Norwegian authorities have established several preventive measures. Among these are ship reporting systems, traffic separation schemes in international waters and surveillance capabilities. If an accident has occurred and an oil spill response operation must be organized - resources, equipment, vessels and manpower from Norwegian and neighboring states will be mobilized. In 2015, the Norwegian Coastal Administration finalized an environmental risk-based emergency response analysis for shipping incidents in the Svalbard, Bear Island and Jan Mayen area. This scenario-based analysis has resulted in a number of recommendations that are currently being implemented to be better prepared for oil spill response operations in the Norwegian Arctic. Further, a large national oil spill response exercise in 2016 was based on one of these scenarios involving at sea and onshore oil spill response at Svalbard. The 2016 exercise, working within the framework of the Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response in the Arctic between Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the USA (Arctic Council 2013), focused on a shipping incident in the Norwegian waters in the Barents Sea, close to the Russian border. Every year, as part of the Russian – Norwegian Oil Spill Response Agreement and the SAR Agreement in the Barents Sea, combined SAR and oil spill response exercises are organized. These are held every second year in Russia and every second year in Norway. There is an expected increased traffic and possible increased risk for accidents in the Arctic waters. In order to build and maintain an emergency response system to this, cooperation between states, communities, private companies and other stakeholders is essential. It is important that all actors that operate and have a role in the Arctic are prepared and able to help ensure the best possible emergency response plans. We depend on one another, this paper highlights some of the ongoing activities designed to strengthen the overall response capabilities in the Arctic.

scholarly journals A 30-Year Probability Map for Oil Spill Trajectories in the Barents Sea to Assess Potential Environmental and Socio-Economic Threats

Resources ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Victor Pavlov ◽  
Victor Cesar Martins de Aguiar ◽  
Lars Robert Hole ◽  
Eva Pongrácz
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Probability Map ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Oil Spill Response

Increasing exploration and exploitation activity in the Arctic Ocean has intensified maritime traffic in the Barents Sea. Due to the sparse population and insufficient oil spill response infrastructure on the extensive Barents Sea shoreline, it is necessary to address the possibility of offshore accidents and study hazards to the local environment and its resources. Simulations of surface oil spills were conducted in south-east of the Barents Sea to identify oil pollution trajectories. The objective of this research was to focus on one geographical location, which lies along popular maritime routes and also borders with sensitive ecological marine and terrestrial areas. As a sample of traditional heavy bunker oil, IFO-180LS (2014) was selected for the study of oil spills and used for the 30-year simulations. The second oil case was medium oil type: Volve (2006)—to give a broader picture for oil spill accident scenarios. Simulations for four annual seasons were run with the open source OpenDrift modelling tool using oceanographic and atmospheric data from the period of 1988–2018. The modelling produced a 30-year probability map, which was overlapped with environmental data of the area to discuss likely impacts to local marine ecosystems, applicable oil spill response tools and favourable shipping seasons. Based on available data regarding the environmental and socio-economic baselines of the studied region, we recommend to address potential threats to marine resources and local communities in more detail in a separate study.

scholarly journals Phylogeography of the Brittle Star Ophiura sarsii Lütken, 1855 (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from the Barents Sea and East Atlantic

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Evgeny Genelt-Yanovskiy ◽  
Yixuan Li ◽  
Ekaterina Stratanenko ◽  
Natalia Zhuravleva ◽  
Natalia Strelkova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Haplotype Diversity ◽  
Brittle Star ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Coi Gene ◽  
High Genetic Diversity ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Mitochondrial Coi ◽  
The Barents Sea

Ophiura sarsii is a common brittle star species across the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions of the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Ophiurasarsii is among the dominant echinoderms in the Barents Sea. We studied the genetic diversity of O.sarsii by sequencing the 548 bp fragment of the mitochondrial COI gene. Ophiurasarsii demonstrated high genetic diversity in the Barents Sea. Both major Atlantic mtDNA lineages were present in the Barents Sea and were evenly distributed between the northern waters around Svalbard archipelago and the southern part near Murmansk coast of Kola Peninsula. Both regions, and other parts of the O.sarsii range, were characterized by high haplotype diversity with a significant number of private haplotypes being mostly satellites to the two dominant haplotypes, each belonging to a different mtDNA clade. Demographic analyses indicated that the demographic and spatial expansion of O.sarsii in the Barents Sea most plausibly has started in the Bølling–Allerød interstadial during the deglaciation of the western margin of the Barents Sea.

Arctic Freshwater in CMIP6: Declining Sea Ice, Increasing Ocean Storage and Export

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Zanowski ◽  
Alexandra Jahn ◽  
Marika Holland
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Freshwater Flux ◽  
Bering Strait ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Late 21St Century ◽  
Freshwater Export

<p>Recently, the Arctic has undergone substantial changes in sea ice cover and the hydrologic cycle, both of which strongly impact the freshwater storage in, and export from, the Arctic Ocean. Here we analyze Arctic freshwater storage and fluxes in 7 climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) and assess their agreement over the historical period (1980-2000) and in two future emissions scenarios, SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5. In the historical simulation, few models agree closely with observations over 1980-2000. In both future scenarios the models show an increase in liquid (ocean) freshwater storage in conjunction with a reduction in solid storage and fluxes through the major Arctic gateways (Bering Strait, Fram Strait, Davis Strait, and the Barents Sea Opening) that is typically larger for SSP5-8.5 than SSP1-2.6. The liquid fluxes through the gateways exhibit a more complex pattern, with models exhibiting a change in sign of the freshwater flux through the Barents Sea Opening and little change in the flux through the Bering Strait in addition to increased export from the remaining straits by the end of the 21st century. A decomposition of the liquid fluxes into their salinity and volume contributions shows that the Barents Sea flux changes are driven by salinity changes, while the Bering Strait flux changes are driven by compensating salinity and volume changes. In the straits west of Greenland (Nares, Barrow, and Davis straits), the models disagree on whether there will be a decrease, increase, or steady liquid freshwater export in the early to mid 21st century, although they mostly show increased liquid freshwater export in the late 21st century. The underlying cause of this is a difference in the magnitude and timing of a simulated decrease in the volume flux through these straits. Although the models broadly agree on the sign of late 21st century storage and flux changes, substantial differences exist between the magnitude of these changes and the models’ Arctic mean states, which shows no fundamental improvement in the models compared to CMIP5.</p>

scholarly journals Suitable habitats of fish species in the Barents Sea

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bérengère Husson ◽  
Gregoire Certain ◽  
Anatoly Filin ◽  
Benjamin Planque
Keyword(s):  
Fish Species ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
Widespread Species ◽  
Species Response ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Suitable Habitats

AbstractMany marine species are shifting their distribution poleward in response to climate change. The Barents Sea, as a doorstep to the fast-warming Arctic, is experiencing large scale changes in its environment and its communities. This paper aims at understanding what environmental predictors limit fish species habitats in the Barents Sea and discuss their possible evolution in response to the warming of the Arctic.Species distribution models usually aim at predicting the probability of presence or the average abundance of a species, conditional on environmental drivers. A complementary approach is to determine suitable habitats by modelling the upper limit of a species’ response to environmental factors. Using quantile regressions, we model the upper limit of biomass for 33 fish species in the Barents Sea in response to 10 environmental predictors. Boreal species are mainly limited by temperatures and most of them are expected to be able to expand their distribution in the Barents Sea when new thermally suitable habitats become available, in the limit of bathymetric constraints. Artic species are often limited by several predictors, mainly depth, bottom and surface temperature and ice cover, and future habitats are hard to predict qualitatively. Widespread species like the Atlantic cod are not strongly limited by the selected variables at the scale of the study, and current and future suitable habitats are harder to predict. These models can be used as input to integrative tools like end-to-end models on the habitat preference and tolerance at the species scale to inform resource management and conservation.

scholarly journals Assessment of initial seismic impacts on the northern part of the Barents Sea shelf (Novaya Zemlya region) for the purpose of seismic microzoning in the areas of prospective hydrocarbon mining

2019 ◽  
pp. 38-47
Author(s):  
I. G. Mindel ◽  
B. A. Trifonov ◽  
M. D. Kaurkin ◽  
V. V. Nesynov
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Arctic Shelf ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Russian Arctic ◽  
Seismic Microzoning ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
National Task ◽  
Seismic Impacts

In recent years, in connection with the national task of developing the Arctic territories of Russia and the perspective increase in the hydrocarbon mining on the Arctic shelf, more attention is being paid to the study of seismicity in the Barents Sea shelf. The development of the Russian Arctic shelf with the prospect of increasing hydrocarbon mining is a strategically important issue. Research by B.A. Assinovskaya (1990, 1994) and Ya.V. Konechnaya (2015) allowed the authors to estimate the seismic effects for the northern part of the Barents Sea shelf (Novaya Zemlya region). The paper presents the assessment results of the initial seismic impacts that can be used to solve seismic microzoning problems in the areas of oil and gas infrastructure during the economic development of the Arctic territory.

scholarly journals New species of Scolelepis (Polychaeta, Spionidae) from the Norwegian coast and Barents Sea with a brief review of the genus

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Sikorski ◽  
Lyudmila Pavlova
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Kola Peninsula ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Identification Key ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Atlantic Sector ◽  
Norwegian Coast ◽  
The Barents Sea

<p>The species <em>Scolelepis finmarchicus</em> sp. nov. is described from the Norwegian and Barents Seas along the northern Norwegian coast and Kola peninsula. The occurrence of this species in the Kola Bay could be seen as a sign of climate warming in the area. Taxonomic issues existing in the genus <em>Scolelepis</em> within the area along the Norwegian coast and in the Barents Sea are briefly touched upon. Seven species belonging to <em>Scolelepis</em> have recently been recorded from the Atlantic sector of the Arctic. <em>Scolelepis</em> (<em>S</em>.) <em>matsugae</em> Sikorski, 1994 is newly synonymized with <em>S</em>. (<em>S</em>.) <em>laonicola</em> (Tzetlin, 1985). This article provides a brief review of <em>Scolelepis</em> together with an identification key for the genus from the Atlantic sector of the Arctic</p>

scholarly journals Virio- and bacterioplankton of the Barents Sea in the autumn

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-2021) ◽  
pp. 45-53
Author(s):  
M.P. Venger ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Quantitative Composition ◽  
Autumn Period ◽  
Late Autumn ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Cell Volumes

In the autumn period 2011, 2015 in the waters of the Barents Sea, the communities of viruses and bacteria were studied, their quantitative composition was determined, and the nature of their distribution was studied. It was shown that the distribution of both virio- and bacterioplankton had pronounced zoning presumably due to increased concentrations of organic matter in more productive coastal and Atlantic waters compared to the Arctic. In September 2011, the number of viruses varied from 0.6 to 46.7 million particles/ml, exceeding the abundance of bacteria by 5 times an average. The quantity of bacterioplankton varied within 0.3–2.9 million cells/ml, biomass – 4.1–35.1 mg C/m3, with a range of mean cell volumes of 0.030–0.115 μm3. In November–December 2015, the abundance of viruses was 0.3–6.4 million particles/ml and quantitatively exceeded their bacterial hosts by 18 times an average. The quantity and biomass of bacteria varied within 0.02–0.3 million cells/ml and 0.3–2.7 mg C/m3, with a range of mean cell volumes of 0.013–0.068 μm3. It was found that the level of development of virio- and bacterioplankton significantly decreased by the late autumn period.

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