ARCTOS network

Partners from the ARCTOS network applied for research funds from Tromsø Forskningsstiftelse, a newly established research fund at the University of Tromsø.

The application was successful and for the period autumn 2009 to December 2012 the project “Fate of organic material in the ocean: Controlling mechanisms in vertical flux regulation (CONFLUX)” will run.  The official applicant was Prof. Paul Wassmann at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, University of Tromsø, but Prof. Marit Reigstad will head the project at the same department.

The vision and ambition of CONFLUX are as follows:

CONFLUX targets fundamental regulatory mechanisms of the marine biogenic carbon flux that constitute central and critical parameters in ecosystem- and climate models. Understanding and quantifying processes defining pelagic production and vertical carbon export through the hitherto inadequately explored upper twilight zone are emphasised. CONFLUX improves parameterisation of a large-scale physical-biological coupled model predicting marine carbon flux for present and future climate scenarios in the European Arctic. Based on two decades of dedicated research at the University of Tromsø, CONFLUX intends to take the lead in biogenic carbon flux studies throughout the pan-Arctic domain, with ambitions to recruit some of tomorrow’s leaders in Arctic marine ecosystem science and to create a lasting legacy of the University of Tromsøs contribution to marine Arctic ecology.

CONFLUX has the following main objectives and sub-goals

Main objective

To comprehend, model and predict the contribution of key organisms and biological/physical processes that determine retention and acceleration of vertical biogenic matter export in the twilight zone of subarctic and Arctic marine ecosystems.

Sub-goals

1. To significantly advance the understanding of how turbulent mixing, grazing, and dissolution of organic matter regulate the magnitude and composition of vertical flux of organic matter in the surface and sub-pycnocline layers by performing targeted process experiments.
2. To improve parameterization of vertical flux regulation processes in a numerical model based on the new parameterization.
3. To provide improved estimates of how vertical export of biogenic matter in the European Arctic Corridor will be affected by changes in wind regime and/or ice conditions based on new model-runs and model evaluation through observations.

Based upon a total budget of 9.8 million NOK and period of 3 years the CONFLUX team wishes to contribute to essential, generic progress in vertical export regulation.  Further more, CONLFUX wishes to improve an existing physically-biologically coupled C flux model (SINMOD) from High North regions that basically covers the entire European sector of the Arctic Ocean.  By this CONFLUX attempts to contribute to the pending questions regarding probably the most challenging ecological question for the Northern Hemisphere: what will be the effects of climate change for the Arctic Ocean and adjacent regions?

CONFLUX started with an international workshop entitled Vertical flux regulation in the upper twilight zone that is described below. In order to prepare the CONFLUX team of the ARCTOS network for the workshop, an internal workshop was organised at the Skibotn Biological Station on the border to Finland, 28 to 29 of September. Here the participants discussed essential, recent publications, the contributions to be presented, and the international workshop in relation to the final goals of CONFLUX.

The kick-off meeting and international workshop of CONFLUX “Vertical flux regulation in the upper twilight zone” took place from 17/10 to 22/10 2009 at the Hotel "Kaštel" in the medieval hill town of Motovun, Istria, Croatia (Fig. 2). Twenty four key researchers in vertical export in the upper layers, physical oceanographers of the surface layers and process-orientated biologists and biogeochemists from all over the world were invited (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, UK and USA). The 9 “Norwegian” were in minority, and were also including Germans, Canadians, French, Italians! The result was 4 days of intensive, state-of-the-art presentations and discussions. Have a look at the participation list and the programme.