A vast ocean current, commonly known as the Gulf Stream, stretches from the Gulf of Mexico, across the Atlantic Ocean, and into the Nordic Seas. The warm current flows up the Norwegian coast, and after it passes by us in Tromsø, it continues northward, extending its longest branch into the Arctic Ocean itself. In this short talk, you will hear about how researchers are tracking the pathways of the warm Atlantic Water into the cold and icy polar ocean.

A white, frozen desert, ice reaching as far as the eye can see. Even though the Arctic might look lifeless on first glance, it is actually worth to take a second look. During this talk you will dive into a world full of secret wonders and hidden beauty four kilometers below our feet.

Anthropogenic stressors such as ocean acidification (OA) and ocean warming (OW) are negatively impacting marine ecosystems all over the world. Arctic ecosystems are among the most sensitive ecosystems to these stressors: some of the fastest rates of acidification have been reported in the Arctic, warming is happening at faster rates in the Arctic than elsewhere, and the volume of sea ice is declining from year to year. These negative impacts are being exacerbated by other stressors already present in coastal ecosystems, such as pollution or freshening. In this talk, I will briefly explain how I investigate the responses of the arctic marine ecosystems to these stressors through experimental approaches.

Planktic foraminifera are popcorn-shape organisms living in the water column. They are smaller than a millimeter and cannot swim but they are food for bigger organisms. In addition, they have a shell that is sensitive to changes in the water, for example temperature. That is why these organisms are used to study the actual ocean warming and ocean acidification. When they die, they sink to the sea floor. Because their sensitivity to changes in the water, we use the shells of the dead organisms that are found deep in the sediment to study how was the ocean when they were alive.

Every year, over 10 billion tons of carbon are removed by sinking particles in the ocean. This is as much as the CO2 emissions of about 2500 coal-fired power plants per year. An important part of these sinking particles is poop from tiny, but numerous small animals.

Come meet some of the unique animals that inhabit the seafloor of the Northern Barents Sea and deep Arctic Ocean. How do they live? What is their role in the ecosystem? You will also learn how scientists collect these animals and study their diets using stable isotope analysis.