The underwater life during polar night puzzles and delivers cues to understand the interactions between ocean and atmosphere in the winter. The ocean is not asleep at all in the darkness: the microorganisms migrate up and down regardless if the light is delivered or not. Several research groups from Norway and USA joined in an educational project (NORUS) combining science with newest underwater technology to find out what is really driving them and how it works.

NORU is a novel research-based programme with focus on impact of climate-induced changes on Arctic ecosystems. The project runs in partnership between several Norwegian and American universities facilitating and developing new technology for monitoring marine life underwater and gathering oceanographic data. The fieldwork takes place in Svalbard fjords: Rijpfjorden, Kongsfjorden and Isfjorden. The goal is not only to do the research but also to educate through the fieldwork.

In the summer 2009 the students depolyed two NORUS gliders that covered over 260 km track collecting water temperature and chlorophyll distribution/density data along the transect in Isfjorden. Another international NORUS group worked in Kongsfjorden in the winter 2009-10. They tested new underwater robots that could conduct sampling under the sea ice in the dark e.g. inspection robot Crawler equipped with a hyperspectral imager for mapping of the ocean floor, Automated Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), and remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs).

This equipment provides samples, videos and pictures that prove that marine life is active in the dark - an evidence contradictary to common beliefs of scientists for years until recently. Winter sampling stations deployed a few years ago in Svalbard fjords woke up a suspicion that there is a lot of knowledge missing in field of winter ecology. The marine microorganisms are highly sensitive to even small changes in light amount and intensity. It could be the moonlight or light coming from northern lights, and they do not need sunlight to start any activity. The stationary data are not been extended by use of the remotely controlled underwater vehicles.

New chapter in marine biology is being written in the darkness of the polar night.

Source: The climate watchdogs of tomorrow (UNIS news); NORUS website: Technology Development for Marine and Ocean Observation: An North America-Norway educational program; NORUS - Ny-Ålesund 2010 (blogg)

Contact: Geir Johnsen, NTNU/UNIS (geir.johnsen@vm.ntnu.no)

Relevant reading: Morgendagens miljøovervåkere (forskning.no - in Norwegian); Life in the dark (UNIS news); Unique data collection all year round (SSF archive news)

<< Return

Experiments on zooplankton response to light (photo: Sanna Markkula)

First deployment of IVER2 (photo: NORUS fieldwork 2010 blogg, Chris Clark and Scott Layton)

Fabellina sp descending to the bottom - first bottom landing picture of ROV on its 2nd dive in Kongsfjordem January 2010 (photo: NORUS fieldwork 2010 blogg, Chris Clark and Scott Layton)