scholarly journals Prevention of microbial species introductions to the Arctic: The efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships

NeoBiota ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 37-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine B. Rumpf ◽  
Inger Greve Alsos ◽  
Chris Ware
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Microbial Growth ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Cruise Ship ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Operational Conditions ◽  
Cruise Ships ◽  
Before And After

Biosecurity measures are commonly used to prevent the introduction of non-native species to natural environments globally, yet the efficacy of practices is rarely tested under operational conditions. A voluntary biosecurity measure was trialled in the Norwegian high Arctic following concern that non-native species might be transferred to the region on the footwear of travellers. Passengers aboard an expedition cruise ship disinfected their footwear with the broad spectrum disinfectant Virkon S prior to and in-between landing at sites around the remote Svalbard archipelago. The authors evaluated the efficacy of simply stepping through a disinfectant foot bath, which is the most common practice of footwear disinfection aboard expedition cruise ships in the Arctic. This was compared to a more time consuming and little-used method involving drying disinfected footwear, as proposed by other studies. The two practices were evaluated by measuring microbial growth on paired footwear samples before and after disinfection under both conditions. Step-through disinfection did not substantially reduce microbial growth on the footwear. Allowing disinfected footwear to dry, however, reduced the microbial burden significantly to lower levels. Thus, the currently adopted procedures used aboard ships are ineffective at removing microbial burden and are only effective when footwear is given more time to dry than currently granted under operational conditions. These findings underscore results from empirical research performed elsewhere and suggest the need to better relay this information to practitioners. It is suggested that footwear should minimally be wiped dry after step-through disinfection as a reasonable compromise between biosecurity and practicability.

Monitoring Svalbard’s environment and cultural heritage through citizen science by expedition cruises

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Poulsen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Science Program ◽  
Cruise Ship ◽  
Cruise Ships

<p><strong>Monitoring Svalbard’s environment and cultural heritage through citizen science by expedition cruises</strong></p><p>Michael K. Poulsen1, Lisbeth Iversen2, Ted Cheeseman3, Børge Damsgård4, Verena Meraldi5, Naja Elisabeth Mikkelsen6, Zdenka Sokolíčková7, Kai Sørensen8, Agnieszka Tatarek9, Penelope Wagner10, Stein Sandven2, and Finn Danielsen1</p><p>1NORDECO, 2NERSC, 3PCSC, 4UNIS, 5Hurtigruten, 6GEUS, 7University of Oslo, 8NIVA, 9IOPAN, 10MET Norway</p><p><strong>Why expedition cruise monitoring is important for Svalbard. </strong>The Arctic environment  is changing fast, largely due to increasing temperatures and human activities. The continuous areas of wilderness and the cultural heritage sites in Svalbard need to be managed based on a solid understanding.</p><p>The natural environment of Svalbard is rich compared to other polar regions. Historical remains are plentiful. The Svalbard Environmental Protection Act aims at regulating hunting, fishing, industrial activities, mining, commerce and tourism. Expedition cruises regularly reach otherwise rarely visited places.</p><p><strong>Steps taken to improve environmental monitoring. </strong>A workshop for enhancing the environmental monitoring efforts of expedition cruise ships was held in Longyearbyen in 2019, facilitated by the INTAROS project and the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators  (https://intaros.nersc.no/content/cruise-expedition-monitoring-workshop) with representatives of cruise operators, citizen science programs, local government and scientists. They agreed on a pilot assessment of monitoring programs during 2019.</p><p><strong>Results show the importance of cruise ship observations. </strong>The provisional findings of the pilot assessment suggest thatexpedition cruises go almost everywhere around Svalbard and gather significant and relevant data on the environment, contributing for example to an improved understanding of thestatus and distribution of wildlife. Observations are often documented with photographs. More than 150 persons contributed observations during 2019 to eBird and Happywhale. iNaturalist, not part of the pilot assessment, also received many contributions. The pilot assessment was unable to establish a useful citizen science program for testing monitoring of cultural remains.</p><p><strong>Conclusions relevant for monitoring and environmental management. </strong>Cruise ships collect environmental data that are valuable for the scientific community and for public decision-makers. The Governor of Svalbard isresponsible for environmental management in Svalbard. Data on the environment and on cultural remains from expedition cruises can be useful for the Governor’s office. Improved communication between citizen science programs and those responsible for environmental management decisions is likely to increase the quantity of relevant information that reaches public decision makers.</p><p><strong>Recommendations for improving the use of cruise ship observations and monitoring.</strong></p><ul><li>1) All cruise expedition ships should be equipped with tablets containing the apps for the same small selection of citizen scienceprograms so that they can easily upload records.</li> <li>2) Evaluation of data that can be created and how such data can contribute to monitoring programs, to ensure that data is made readily available in a form that is useful for institutions responsible for planning and improving environmental management.</li> <li>3) Clear lines of communication between citizen science program participants, citizen science program organizers, the scientific community and decision makers should be further developed.</li> <li>4) Developing expedition cruise monitoring is of high priority in Svalbard, but is also highly relevant to other polar regions.</li> <li>5) Further work is necessary to fully understand the feasibility and potential of coordinated expedition cruise operator based environmental observing in the Arctic.</li> </ul>

scholarly journals Contrasting molecular diversity and demography patterns in two intertidal amphipod crustaceans reflect Atlantification of High Arctic

2019 ◽  
Vol 166 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Grabowski ◽  
Aleksandra Jabłońska ◽  
Agata Weydmann-Zwolicka ◽  
Mikhail Gantsevich ◽  
Petr Strelkov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Operational Taxonomic Unit ◽  
Molecular Study ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Amphipod Species ◽  
Distribution Analysis ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Postglacial Expansion ◽  
Northern Atlantic ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract The distribution of two common intertidal amphipod species Gammarus oceanicus and Gammarus setosus was studied along the coast of Svalbard Archipelago. Genetic analysis showed geographical homogeneity of G. oceanicus with only one molecular operational taxonomic unit (MOTU) and much higher diversification of G. setosus (5 MOTUs) in the studied area. Only two MOTUs of G. setosus are widespread along the whole studied Svalbard coastline, whereas the remaining three MOTUs are present mainly along the northern and eastern parts of archipelago’s largest island, Spitsbergen. Distribution analysis indicates that the demographic and spatial expansion of G. oceanicus in the northern Atlantic has started already during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ca. 18 ka), while G. setosus seems to be a long-persistent inhabitant of the Arctic, possibly even through the LGM, with slower distribution dynamics. Combining the results of our molecular study with previous field observations and the knowledge upon the direction of ocean currents around the Svalbard Archipelago, it can be assumed that G. oceanicus is a typical boreal Atlantic species that is still continuing its postglacial expansion northwards. In recent decades it colonized High Arctic due to the climate warming and has partly displaced G. setosus, that used to be the only common gammarid of the Svalbard intertidal zone.

scholarly journals 40 years High Arctic climatological dataset of the Polish Polar Station Hornsund (SW Spitsbergen, Svalbard)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Wawrzyniak ◽  
Marzena Osuch
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Data Series ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Atlantic Sector ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago

Abstract. The article presents the climatological dataset from the Polish Polar Station Hornsund located in the SW part of Spitsbergen - the biggest island of the Svalbard Archipelago. Due to a general lack of long-term in situ measurements and observations, the high Arctic remains one of the largest climate‐data deficient regions on the Earth, so described series is of unique value. To draw conclusions on the climatic changes in the Arctic, it is necessary to analyse the long-term series of continuous, systematic, in situ observations from different locations and comparing the corresponding data, rather than rely on the climatic simulations only. In recent decades, rapid environmental changes occurring in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic are reflected in the data series collected by the operational monitoring conducted at the Hornsund Station. We demonstrate the results of the 40 years-long series of observations. Climatological mean values or totals are given, and we also examined the variability of meteorological variables at monthly and annual scale using the modified Mann-Kendall test for trend and Sen’s method. The relevant daily, monthly, and annual data are provided on the PANGAEA repository (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.909042, Wawrzyniak and Osuch, 2019).

scholarly journals The influence of cruise ship emissions on air pollution in Svalbard – a harbinger of a more polluted Arctic?

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8401-8409 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Eckhardt ◽  
O. Hermansen ◽  
H. Grythe ◽  
M. Fiebig ◽  
K. Stebel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Data ◽  
Warning Signal ◽  
Cruise Ship ◽  
Ship Emissions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Local Pollution ◽  
Cruise Ships ◽  
Pollutant Concentrations ◽  
Arctic Conditions

Abstract. In this study we have analyzed whether tourist cruise ships have an influence on measured sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), Aitken mode particle and equivalent black carbon (EBC) concentrations at Ny Ålesund and Zeppelin Mountain on Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic during summer. We separated the measurement data set into periods when ships were present and periods when ships were not present in the Kongsfjord area, according to a long-term record of the number of passengers visiting Ny Ålesund. We show that when ships with more than 50 passengers cruise in the Kongsfjord, measured daytime mean concentrations of 60 nm particles and EBC in summer show enhancements of 72 and 45%, respectively, relative to values when ships are not present. Even larger enhancements of 81 and 72% were found for stagnant conditions. In contrast, O3 concentrations were 5% lower on average and 7% lower under stagnant conditions, due to titration of O3 with the emitted nitric oxide (NO). The differences between the two data subsets are largest for the highest measured percentiles, while relatively small differences were found for the median concentrations, indicating that ship plumes are sampled relatively infrequently even when ships are present although they carry high pollutant concentrations. We estimate that the ships increased the total summer mean concentrations of SO2, 60 nm particles and EBC by 15, 18 and 11%, respectively. Our findings have two important implications. Firstly, even at such a remote Arctic observatory as Zeppelin, the measurements can be influenced by tourist ship emissions. Careful data screening is recommended before summertime Zeppelin data is used for data analysis or for comparison with global chemistry transport models. However, Zeppelin remains as one of the most valuable Arctic observatories, as most other Arctic observatories face even larger local pollution problems. Secondly, given landing statistics of tourist ships on Svalbard, it is suspected that large parts of the Svalbard archipelago are affected by cruise ship emissions. Thus, our results may be taken as a warning signal of future pan-Arctic conditions if Arctic shipping becomes more frequent and emission regulations are not strict enough.

scholarly journals Effects of Arctic Warming on Microbes and Methane in Different Land Types in Svalbard

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 3296
Author(s):  
Fang Zhang ◽  
Han Zhang ◽  
Shaofeng Pei ◽  
Liyang Zhan ◽  
Wangwang Ye
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Deep Soil ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Annual Variations ◽  
Climate And Environmental Change ◽  
Coastal Marine ◽  
Irreversible Effects ◽  
Land Types

Climate change is having a profound impact on Arctic microbiomes and their living environments. However, we have only incomplete knowledge about the seasonal and inter-annual variations observed among these microbes and about their methane regulation mechanisms with respect to glaciers, glacial melting, snow lakes and coastal marine water. This gap in our knowledge limits our understanding of the linkages between climate and environmental change. In the Arctic, there are large reservoirs of methane which are sensitive to temperature changes. If global warming intensifies, larger quantities of methane stored in deep soil and sediments will be released into the atmosphere, causing irreversible effects on the global ecosystem. Methane production is mainly mediated by microorganisms. Although we have some knowledge of microbial community structure, we know less about the methane-correlated microbes in different land types in the Svalbard archipelago, and we do not have a comprehensive grasp of the relationship between them. That is the main reason we have written this paper, in which current knowledge of microorganisms and methane-correlated types in High Arctic Svalbard is described. The problems that need to be addressed in the future are also identified.

scholarly journals A distributed time-lapse camera network to track vegetation phenology with high temporal detail and at varying scales

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frans-Jan W. Parmentier ◽  
Lennart Nilsen ◽  
Hans Tømmervik ◽  
Elisabeth J. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Vegetation Phenology ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Near Surface

Abstract. Near-surface remote sensing techniques are essential monitoring tools to provide spatial and temporal resolutions beyond the capabilities of orbital methods. This high level of detail is especially helpful to monitor specific plant communities and to accurately time the phenological stages of vegetation – which satellites can miss by days or weeks in frequently clouded areas such as the Arctic. In this paper, we describe a measurement network that is distributed across varying plant communities in the high Arctic valley of Adventdalen on the Svalbard archipelago, with the aim to monitor vegetation phenology. The network consists of ten racks equipped with sensors that measure NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), soil temperature and moisture, as well as time-lapse RGB cameras. Three additional time-lapse cameras are placed on nearby mountain tops to provide an overview of the valley. The vegetation index GCC (Green Chromatic Channel) was derived from these RGB photos, which has similar applications as NDVI but at a fraction of the cost of NDVI imaging sensors. To create a robust timeseries for GCC, each set of photos was adjusted for unwanted movement of the camera with a stabilizing algorithm that enhances the spatial precision of these measurements. This code is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4554937 (Parmentier, 2021) and can be applied to time series obtained with other time-lapse cameras. This paper presents an overview of the data collection and processing, and an overview of the dataset which is available at https://doi.org/10.21343/kbpq-xb91 (Nilsen et al. 2021). In addition, we provide some examples of how this data can be used to monitoring different vegetation communities in the landscape.

scholarly journals Differentiation of coarse-mode anthropogenic, marine and dust particles in the high Arctic Islands of Svalbard

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Congbo Song ◽  
Manuel Dall’Osto ◽  
Angelo Lupi ◽  
Mauro Mazzola ◽  
Rita Traversi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Sea Spray ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Coarse Mode ◽  
Arctic Haze ◽  
Natural Aerosol

Abstract. Understanding aerosol-cloud-climate interactions in the Arctic is key to predict the climate in this rapidly changing region. Whilst many studies have focused on submicron aerosol (diameter less than 1 μm), relatively little is known about the climate relevance of supermicron aerosol (diameter above 1 μm). Here, we present a cluster analysis of multiyear (2015–2019) aerodynamic volume size distributions with diameter ranging from 0.5 to 20 μm measured continuously at the Gruvebadet Observatory in the Svalbard archipelago. Together with aerosol chemical composition data from several online and offline measurements, we apportioned the occurrence of the coarse-mode aerosols to anthropogenic (two sources, 27 %) and natural (three sources, 73 %) origins. Specifically, two clusters are related to Arctic haze with high levels of black carbon, sulfate and accumulation mode (0.1–1 μm) aerosol. The first cluster (9 %) is attributed to ammonium sulfate-rich Arctic haze particles, whereas the second one (18 %) to larger-mode aerosol mixed with sea salt. The three natural aerosol clusters were: open ocean sea spray aerosol (34 %), mineral dust (7 %), and an unidentified source of sea spray-related aerosol (32 %). The results suggest that sea spray-related aerosol in polar regions may be more complex than previously thought due to short/long-distance origins and mixtures with Arctic haze, biogenic and likely snow-blowing aerosols. Studying supermicron natural aerosol in the Arctic is imperative for understanding the impacts of changing natural processes on Arctic aerosol.

scholarly journals A 40-year High Arctic climatological dataset of the Polish Polar Station Hornsund (SW Spitsbergen, Svalbard)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 805-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Wawrzyniak ◽  
Marzena Osuch
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Data Series ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Atlantic Sector ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago

Abstract. The article presents the climatological dataset from the Polish Polar Station Hornsund located in the southwest part of Spitsbergen – the biggest island of the Svalbard archipelago. Due to a general lack of long-term in situ measurements and observations, the High Arctic remains one of the largest climate-data-deficient regions on the Earth. Therefore, the described time series of observations in this paper are of unique value. To draw conclusions on the climatic changes in the Arctic, it is necessary to analyse and compare the long-term series of continuous, in situ observations from different locations, rather than relying on the climatic simulations only. In recent decades, rapid environmental changes occurring in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic are reflected in the data series collected by the operational monitoring conducted at the Hornsund station. We demonstrate the results of the 40-year-long series of observations. Climatological mean values or totals are given, and we also examined the variability of meteorological variables at monthly and annual scale using the modified Mann–Kendall test for trend and Sen's method. The relevant daily, monthly, and annual data are provided on the PANGAEA repository (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.909042, Wawrzyniak and Osuch, 2019).

scholarly journals Atmospheric composition in the European Arctic and 30 years of the Zeppelin Observatory, Ny-Ålesund

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Platt ◽  
Øystein Hov ◽  
Torunn Berg ◽  
Knut Breivik ◽  
Sabine Eckhardt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Observation System ◽  
Research Station ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
European Arctic ◽  
Norwegian Polar Institute

Abstract. The Zeppelin Observatory (78.90° N, 11.88° E) is located on the Zeppelin Mountain at 472 m above sea level on Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago. Established in 1989, the observatory is part of the “Ny-Ålesund Research Station” and an important atmospheric measurement site, one of only a few in the high Arctic and as a part of several European and global monitoring programs and research infrastructures, notably the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP), the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW), the Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure (ACTRIS), the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) network, and the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS). The observatory is jointly operated by the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), Stockholm University and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU). Here we detail the establishment of the Zeppelin Observatory including historical measurements of atmospheric composition in the European Arctic leading to its construction. We present a history of the measurements at the observatory and review the current state of the European Arctic atmosphere, including results from trends in greenhouse gases, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), other traces gases, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals, aerosols and Arctic haze, and atmospheric transport phenomena.

Plant community responses to disturbances in the western Canadian Arctic

1972 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1097-1109 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. C. Bliss ◽  
Ross W. Wein
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Plant Cover ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Grass Species ◽  
Early Recovery ◽  
Available Nitrogen ◽  
Surface Disturbance

Data are presented on several current studies being conducted in the Mackenzie Delta and the Arctic Archipelago in relation to oil and gas exploration. Tundra fires destroy most of the aboveground plant cover and result in significant increases in depth of the active layer. Fire stimulated the growth and flowering of Eriophorum vaginatum subsp. spissum and Calamagrostis canadensis. The recovery of dwarf heath shrubs from rhizomes was relatively rapid while lichens and mosses showed no early recovery. Crude oil spilled in different plant communities killed the leaves of all species, yet regrowth occurred on some woody species the same summer and more species showed regrowth the second summer. Oil spilled in early winter (October) and in wet sedge communities in summer appeared to be most detrimental.Percentage plant removal has been significantly reduced with changed seismic technology in the past 6 years. Native species, often from rhizomes, reinvade all lines though recovery on peats and by native grasses appears most rapid. Winter roads of compacted snow were less detrimental to wetland sedge communities than to upland dwarf shrub – sedge – heath ones. Upland sites, which were dry in summer, were more difficult to revegetate. The revegetation studies indicated that 100 kg/ha of elemental nitrogen and 200 kg/ha of phosphorus treatment was best and that early spring or late fall seeding was essential. About five perennial plus two annual grass species in varying mixtures grew best in the reseeding trials. The supply of available nitrogen appears to strongly limit plant growth of native species while phosphorus does not. Most of these nutrients are retained in the organic mat, thus any disturbance that destroys this mat will seriously modify normal nutrient cycling and greatly increase the need for fertilizer in revegetation.In the High Arctic most soils are wet during snow melt and thus subject to surface disturbance by vehicles. In the polar deserts, silty and sandy soils dry rather rapidly and show less evidence of disturbance later in summer. Lowland areas where there is a more complete cover of plants on wet shallow peats or silty soils are subject to rutting throughout the summer as in the Low Arctic. With surface disturbance there is much less thaw of the permafrost than occurs in the Delta.The different plant community – topographic – soil – ground ice landscape units or systems respond differentially to the different surface disturbances tested to date. This is true in both the Low and High Arctic.

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