Major Research Programs in the Norwegian Sea 1970-2000

1. Major Research Programs in the Norwegian Sea 1970-2000 Annette Samuelsen

2. Focus • Field experiment and measurement programs and the outcome of these. • There were numerous projects…I may have skipped some. • Modeling, laboratory work, and satellite observation will be treated in separate talks.

3. Timeline Mare Cognitum 1993-2001 Overflow ‘73 1973 NANSEN 1986-1989 The Norwegian Coastal Current1975-1980 Nordic WOCE 1993-1998 VEINS 1997-2000 International Decade of Ocean Exploration GLOBEC 1970 1980 1990 2000 JGOFS  Continuous Plankton Recorder  Station Mike 

4. Outline • Monitoring • Continuous plankton recorder • Station Mike and the Svinøy Section • Large field experiment programs • Overflow ‘73 • The Norwegian Coastal Current • NANSEN • Nordic WOCE • VEINS • Mare Cognitum

5. Monitoring

6. Continuous plankton recorder • Provides long time-series of a number of species of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and larvae. • Uses ships of opportunity. • In 1988 the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) decided to close the survey. • An international rescue operation led to the creation of the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) in 1990.

7. Continuous plankton recorder

8. Continuous plankton recorder Maximum number of samples in the early 70’s

9. Continuous plankton recorder Environmental monitoring was considered poor science by administrators

10. Continuous plankton recorder Number of samples increased again in the 90’s

11. Continuous plankton recorder-results- • Plankton Atlas for the North Atlantic (MEPS, 2004) • Enables studies of long term variability • Occurrences of harmful algae blooms has increased over the past four decades in Norwegian Costal Water (Edwards et al 2006).

12. Continuous plankton recorder-results- Edwards, 2006

13. Station Mike • Sampled since 1948. • daily CTD casts to 1000m. • Weekly casts to depth. • In certain periods: • phytoplankton • zooplankton • nutrients • Secchi depth • Chlorophyll a

14. Station Mike - results • Explanation of spring bloom dynamics and species succession in the Norwegian sea (Dale et. al. 1999) - based on a three years of measurements. Density Chlorophyll a

15. Station Mike - results • A depth dependent warming of deep water at Station Mike was detected from over 50 years of measurements (Østerhus & Gammelsrød, 1999).

16. Svinøy Section Mork and Blindheim, 2000

17. Svinøy Section • Hydrographic sections: • Winter: 1955-1970, 1971, 1973 • Spring: 1978-1983, 1986-1988, 1990-1996 • Summer: 1978-1996 • Samples of nutrients, chlorophyll, and zooplankton • Moorings with temperature sensors and current meters from 1995 to present.

18. Svinøy section - results • Studies of temperature, salinity, and volume transport (Mork and Blindheim, 1999). • Overall the transport has increased across this section from 1978-1996. • Increase is on the east side. • Transport is controlled by the large scale pressure system. • Biology???

19. ResearchPrograms

20. OVERFLOW 1973 • Part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration. • Objective: • “To investigate the details of the circulation between Greenland and Scotland”. • Extensive sampling, including hydrographic sections, moorings, XBT, and tide measurements. • Data are freely available online. Section Mooring

21. OVERFLOW ‘73 • Currents and transport in the Faroe-Shetland Channel is shown to be very variable (2-3 day variability) and closely coupled to wind conditions. • Water mass distribution is investigated • Eddies and instabilities were detected. • Transport of Arctic intermediate water to the channel by eddies.

22. Water masses along the Explorer section.

23. The Norwegian Coastal Current • National program in contribution to the International Decade of Ocean Exploration • Lead by Martin Mork • Lasted from 1975-1980 • Covered physical, biological and geological oceanography. • Employed cruises, modeling, and satellite observations

24. The Norwegian Coastal Current • Symposium in Geilo, Sept 1980 resulted in the books “The Norwegian Coastal Current” (Vol I&II) • Interesting reading, but infamous for their rather peculiar smell

25. The Norwegian Coastal Current-Results • Oscillations with between 2 and 10 day periods are found. • Temperature and current measurements suggest the existence of barotropic, topographic Rossby waves along the shelf (Koltermann) • Cod spawning areas in Lofoten is closely connected to the position of the thermocline and therefore to wind-conditions (Ellertsen et. al.) • Nutrient distribution and primary productivity is mapped (Føyn; Rey).

26. The Norwegian Coastal Current-Results • Spring bloom dynamics - Important factor are (Rey): • Position of the front between Coastal Water and Atlantic Water • Local wind conditions • Local hydrographical conditions. • Blocking events: Causes spreading of the coastal water and earlier spring blooms away from the coast. Mork, 1981

27. Norwegian Sea-exchanges- • Review by Hansen and Østerhus: North Atlantic–Nordic Seas exchanges. Progress in Oceanography 45 (2000) 109–208

28. NANSEN North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea Exchange • Lasted from 1986-1989 • Focused on the exchanges across the Iceland–Scotland ridge.

29. Nordic WOCE • 1993-1998 • Establish the transport of water from the Atlantic into the Nordic Seas and from the Nordic Seas into the Atlantic. • Evaluate the contribution of the different overflow components to the North Atlantic Deep Water

30. VEINS Variability of Exchange in the Nordic Seas • 1997-2000 • Focused on the exchanges across the Denmark strait and the Greenland Scotland ridge.

31. JGOFS Joint Global Ocean Flux Study Objectives: • To study processes controlling the time-varying fluxes of carbon in the ocean. • To develop a capacity to predict on a global scale the response to anthropogenic perturbations, in particular those related to climate change • Worldwide field programs/modeling

32. JGOFS-Norwegian Sea Scientific findings: • Norwegian Sea / North Atlantic is a large sink for atmospheric CO2. • CO2 inventory. • Improved understanding of primary production and spring bloom mechanisms. • Importance of the ‘microbial loop’ in carbon cycling.

33. Mare Cognitum 1993-2000 • PRO MARE (1984-1989) • MARE NOR (1990-1994) • GLOBEC-Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics • Objectives • Establish most important mechanisms responsible for variability in ocean and climate • To describe the structure and function of the ecosystem and quantify the mechanisms regulating the effects of climate variation on production and size of fish stocks e.g. herring and cod

34. Mare Cognitum 1993-2000 • Focused on describing the ecosystem as a whole including the physical environment. • Resulted in the book “The Norwegian Sea Ecosystem”

35. Mare Cognitum 1993-2000 • Better knowledge of the food-web.

36. Thank You!

37. References • The Norwegian Coastal Current (Vol. I & II). Ed. H. R. Skjoldal • The Norwegian Sea Ecosystem. Eds. R. Sætre and M. Mork • The Nordic Seas. Ed. B. G. Hurdle • The Nordic Seas - An integrated perspective. Ed. H. Drange, T. Dokken, T. Furevik, R. Gerdes, and W. Berger. • Progress in Oceanography. Volume 58, Achievements of the continuous plankton recorder survey and a vision for its future. Ed. by P. C. Reid, J. B. L. Matthews and M. A. Smith • Reid, P.C., Colebrook, J.M., Matthews, J.B.L. and Aiken, J., 2003. The Continuous Plankton Recorder: concepts and history, from Plankton Indicator to undulating recorders. Progress In Oceanography, 58(2-4): 117-173. • Richardson, A.J., Walne, A.W., John, A.W.G., Jonas, T.D., Lindley, J.A., Sims, D.W., Stevens, D. and Witt, M., 2006. Using continuous plankton recorder data. Progress In Oceanography, 68(1): 27-74. • Beaugrand, G., 2004. Continuous plankton records: Plankton atlas of the North Atlantic Ocean (1958-1999). I. Introduction and methodology. Marine Ecology-Progress Series: 3-10. • Barnard, R., Batten, S., Beaugrand, G., Buckland, C., Conway, D.V.P., Edwards, M., Finlayson, J., Gregory, L.W., Halliday, N.C., John, A.W.G., Johns, D.G., Johnson, A.D., Jonas, T.D., Lindley, J.A., Nyman, J., Pritchard, P., Reid, P.C., Richardson, A.J., Saxby, R.E., Sidey, J., Smith, M.A., Stevens, D.P., Taylor, C.M., Tranter, P.R.G., Walne, A.W., Wootton, M., Wotton, C.O.M. and Wright, J.C., 2004. Continuous plankton records: Plankton atlas of the North Atlantic Ocean (1958-1999). II. Biogeographical charts. Marine Ecology-Progress Series: 11-75. • Edwards, M., Johns, D.G., Leterme, S.C., Svendsen, E. and Richardson, A.J., 2006. Regional climate change and harmful algal blooms in the northeast Atlantic. Limnology and Oceanography, 51(2): 820-829.

38. References • Dale, T., Rey, F. and Heimdal, B.R., 1999. Seasonal development of phytoplankton at a high latitude oceanic site. Sarsia, 84(5-6): 419-435. • Osterhus, S. and Gammelsrod, T., 1999. The abyss of the Nordic seas is warming. Journal of Climate, 12(11): 3297-3304. • Osterhus, S., Gammelsrod, T., and Hogstad, R. Ocean Weather Ship Station M
(66｡N, 2｡E). The longest existing homogeneous time series from the deep ocean.http://www.fou.uib.no/fd/1997/f/406001/ • Orvik, K.A. and Skagseth, O., 2005. Heat flux variations in the eastern Norwegian Atlantic Current toward the Arctic from moored instruments, 1995-2005. Geophysical Research Letters, 32(14). • Mork, K.A. and Blindheim, J., 2000. Variations in the Atlantic inflow to the Nordic Seas, 1955-1996. Deep-Sea Research Part I-Oceanographic Research Papers, 47(6): 1035-1057. • Dooley, H. D. and Meincke, J. (1981) Circulation and water masses in the Faroese Channels during Overflow ‘73. Deutsche Hydrogr. Zeitschr., 43, 41-55. • http://www.ices.dk/OCEAN/PROJECT/data/ov73.htm • Mork, M., 1981. Circulation Phenomena and Frontal Dynamics of the Norwegian Coastal Current. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series a-Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences, 302(1472): 635-647. • About JGOFS: http://ioc.unesco.org/Oceanteacher/oceanteacher2/01_GlobOcToday/07_ProgAgen&Orgs/jgofs/AboutJGOFS.htm