GoNorth 2024 Cruise Report

The climate in the Arctic is changing. Svalbard and the ocean areas around Svalbard are where the fastest changes are taking place. The sea-ice edge is moving steadily farther north, and an “atlantification” of the water masses in the Arctic Ocean is occurring. Changes in the ocean will in turn affect biological life and activity. The changes taking place in the eastern parts of the Fram Strait, where warm and salty Atlantic water flows into the Arctic Ocean, are also important for what happens in the western Fram Strait, where colder, fresher water flows out of the Arctic Ocean. In addition, increased inflow of Atlantic water into the fjords of northeast Greenland may contribute to melting and retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s outlet glaciers where they terminate in the ocean. How quickly this will happen also depends on the morphology of the fjord floor, which is poorly mapped. Predictions show that the Arctic Ocean will be ice-free in September around the middle of the 21st century, under low or intermediate emission scenarios. The projections provide indications of what may happen in the future, but by reconstructing the climatic and environmental conditions in the Arctic Ocean as they were during earlier warm periods, we can obtain information about what changes can be expected in the future. Over geological time, the Arctic Ocean has undergone major changes. From having been an isolated freshwater basin, over millions of years it has opened up to become an open basin with exchange of water masses with the Atlantic Ocean through the Fram Strait, the Barents Sea and the Nares Straits, and with the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait. When and how the development from a closed to an open basin took place is still poorly understood, primarily due to a lack of geological and geophysical data. Obtaining material and data that tell us about the Arctic Ocean’s past is challenging. The area is difficult to access. Getting there requires specially built, ice-going research vessels with advanced equipment. GoNorth’s objective is to increase knowledge about the Arctic Ocean. Initially, three cruises with R/V Kronprins Haakon were planned. This is the third of these three cruises. The first was conducted in 2022 and the second in 2023. It has been an objective that all cruises should be multidisciplinary, and that a range of different scientific disciplines and projects should take part. The same data can form the basis for different types of studies, and new synergies can also be discovered and developed along the way during the cruise. The cruise thus provides a framework for possible new collaborations and research directions. In this way, one gets a greater benefit from the cruise than if only one type of activity or a single project were to collect data. Research training is also important for GoNorth. On this year’s cruise, there were 5 PhD candidates on board, all at different stages of their doctoral work. This year’s cruise started in Longyearbyen on 29 August and ended in Longyearbyen on 19 September. Nineteen researchers and technicians from eleven different institutions took part in the cruise. We also had a person working with outreach and a nurse on board. During the cruise we collected sediment cores from the seafloor on the margins of Svalbard and northeast Greenland, in the Independence and Hagen fjord systems, further out from the fjords and down the slope of the northeast Greenland margin, the Fram Strait toward the Amundsen Basin, and the Yermak Plateau. In addition, continuous gravimetry and bathymetry measurements were carried out along the entire sailing route. Large parts of the areas have not previously been mapped in this way. Autonomous observations of sea ice were also carried out continuously along the way. Here we present those who took part in the cruise and the activities that were carried out. The material that has been collected will form the basis for important research for many years to come, and will greatly increase our knowledge of the Arctic, how the Arctic Ocean has developed, and how oceanography and biodiversity have changed over time. We had a fantastic crew on board R/V Kronprins Haakon, all of whom helped make this an excellent cruise. We greatly appreciate the positive attitude, the good collaboration, the good communication and the good catering that made it a very good experience to be on board.