Due to the current situation of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Japan, the Symposium Organizing Committee of the ISAR-6 decided to cancel the meeting at the venue of Hitotsubashi Hall, Tokyo, to be held on March 2-6, 2020. More details will be announced.
Rapid changes are taking place in the Arctic that impact regional human and natural systems, and affect the global environment. The International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR) will meet for the sixth time since its first symposium in 2008 to identify changes in the Arctic environment and society, and to discuss possible future sustainable development.
Rapid warming in the Arctic is clear, however, the prediction of future climate change and environmental response is insufficient to guide sustainable development challenged by rapidly progressing resource utilization and economic activity.
In ISAR-6, we will discuss the progression of Arctic research during the past ten years and what research may be required for the next 10 years to address the needs of sustainable development.
On Wednesday 4 March, Gaëlle will present a talk on “The changing under-ice light field of the Arctic Ocean” at 17:45 in Room CHU4. This talk is part of Session S1: Challenges for the Fast Transitions of Atmosphere, Sea Ice and Ocean in the Arctic Systems.
Abstract
The changing under-ice light field of the Arctic Ocean
Changes in the light field under the sea ice is one of the main drivers that will affect large-scale ecosystem structure and biogeochemical functioning of the Arctic marine environment. Sea ice and snow is a major factor influencing the light field, but the Arctic sea ice is changing; it is melting earlier and forming later. In fact, the Arctic is no longer a region dominated by a thick multi-year ice (MYI), but it is a regime controlled by thinner, more dynamic, first year ice (FYI). This shift from MYI to FYI has consequences on the radiative transfer, as well as for changes in the ecosystem dynamics. To quantify the biological response to this changing Arctic, we need to better describe the complexity of the coupled physical-biological system.
Here, we describe the recent sea-ice and light in situ measurements from a dedicated Arctic sea ice programme and realised during two expeditions in August 2018 and 2019, as well as working efforts that are underway to see how well we are capable to map the under-ice light field on a Pan-Arctic scale using satellite data and modelling. The purpose of the whole study being to better understand how the changing light field will impact ecosystem dynamics in the future.
