Meta-database: environmental and societal drivers of change in Arctic fjord ecosystems
Robert Schlegel
08 March 2021
Last updated: 2021-03-08
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Knit directory: FACE-IT/
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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| html | dc5dbf5 | robwschlegel | 2021-03-04 | Formatted all of the tables |
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| html | 4a20757 | robwschlegel | 2021-03-04 | Added FACE-IT logo to top of each page |
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| Rmd | f853627 | robwschlegel | 2021-03-02 | Playing with page and table margins. |
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| Rmd | 37be6e6 | robwschlegel | 2021-03-02 | Re-built site. |
| Rmd | a89dfa3 | robwschlegel | 2021-03-02 | Moving away from a single smart meta-data functions towards more user input |
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| Rmd | 665719d | robwschlegel | 2021-03-01 | Scraping convoluted date meta-data logic chain |
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| Rmd | 7d2db83 | robwschlegel | 2021-03-01 | Re-built site. |
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| Rmd | bd0919b | robwschlegel | 2021-02-16 | The metadatabase Rmd file |
Introduction
This document is designed to satisfy D1.1 and eventually D1.2 for the Horizon2020 project FACE-IT. The text and static tables in this document are a report on the key drivers of change in Arctic fjord biodiversity (D1.1). The interactive tables contain the meta-database for the data identified as key drivers of change (D1.2). The text and meta-data from this document will be used for the completion of a review article on past and future changes of key drivers in and around the FACE-IT study sites (D1.3). This document begins with a review of known drivers of change in the European Arctic before focussing in on each individual FACE-IT study site to discuss any differences from the broader Arctic. Each of the following sections for each region/study site contain tables that show a summary of their key drivers and meta-data. There is no central table for all of the drivers or meta-data.
European Arctic
Many physical processes are known to drive biodiversity in the Arctic. Unsurprisingly, the presence of sea ice is one of these controlling factors (Pavlova et al., 2019). The cryosphere, of which sea ice is a part, is one of the defining characteristics of the Arctic that sets it apart from neighbouring climatic regions (e.g. boreal and cold temperate). It is therefore safe to assume that changes to the Arctic cryosphere will lead to fundamental changes in the biodiversity found there. The cryosphere itself however is not the primary driver of change in the Arctic. This is because changes in the cryosphere are themselves being driven by the primary driver of climatic change that defines the anthropocene: increases in CO2 emissions that are primarily responsible for global increases in temperature. It is this relatively rapid increase in temperature that is having a profound effect on the Arctic cryosphere (Meredith et al., 2019). Therefore, as with almost any study of biodiversity, high-quality spatiotemporally complete temperature data are crucial. The longer the complete time series the better.
There are however many more important variables to consider, such as photosynthetically available radiation (PAR), ultraviolet radiation (UVR), and turbidity (Hop and Wiencke, 2019). Many of these important drivers are known from research conducted further south. Where datasets are easier to build, and time series are longer. For this reason one may find that the drivers of change in Arctic are more often inferred than they are ‘known.’ This is because historically there has been a paucity of data in the Arctic (Bischof et al., 2019b). Many international projects, in coordination with many established Arctic research institutions, have been very busy to close this knowledge gap and the holes in our knowledge are being filled rapidly. FACE-IT is one of these projects that seeks to better understand biodiversity changes, while contributing to and drawing from this expanding body of knowledge.
In addition to knowing what it is that may cause changes, it is necessary to identify the fonts of biodiversity that may be affected by these drivers. There are many taxa/species etc. that have been identified as important for monitoring throughout the Arctic. Foremost of these are the kelps, brown macroalgae that often function as ecosystem engineers along the cool temperate coastlines of the world or cooler (Bischof et al., 2019a). The prevailing hypothesis is that as the Arctic warms, the retreating coastal sea ice and increased temperatures will be more hospitable to kelp forests, and everything that comes with them. But there’s a catch. As temperatures warm, glaciers melt more rapidly, releasing more runoff into coastal zones that increases turbidity (Bischof et al., 2019a). This means that benthic organisms, like kelps, will not receive the levels of PAR that they would like, potentially inhibiting their growth. One benefit of this is that the kelps are exposed to lower levels of UVR, which may help them to some extent. More research and longer time series are required to say conclusively how this situation will play out. It will also differ between sites and so this issue is addressed again below where appropriate.
Consider that even if global temperature rise is limited to 2°C, this will mean a +4°C increase in the Arctic (Overland et al., 2019). Land ice melt is also projected to continue regardless of emission reductions due to internal lags, meaning that continued sea level rise throughout the century is a certainty. One must also keep in mind that the disproportionately larger surface heat fluxes into the Arctic may inhibit the stabilisation of the global climate even if an effective emissions reduction strategy is implemented (Overland et al., 2019).
NB: This is one option for how to show tabular information. I’ve put the tables behind these buttons so that only one is shown at a time. Lower down in this document all tables are shown together. I’m curious to know what people prefer.
Tables
Drivers
| Category | Driver | Why | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cryosphere | Sea-ice cover | ||
| Cryosphere | Glacial melt | ||
| Cryosphere | Permafrost thaw | ||
| Physical | Air temperature | ||
| Physical | SST | ||
| Physical | Precipitation | Affects the amount of fresh water runoff into coasts. | |
| Physical | Freshwater runoff | Delivers carbon and nutrient rich freshwater to coast. | Delpech et al. (2021) |
Meta-data
Svalbard
While not a study site itself, there are a lot of studies and data products that focus on Svalbard broadly, rather than individual study sites within this region. Therefore this geographical region has it’s own meta-data table. The primary drivers of change for each site are still listed in their own tables.
| Category | Driver | Why | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
Kongsfjorden
Much of the solar magnetic radiation going towards earth is focussed around Ny Alesund. This can have a knock on effect to air temperature when there are strong auroras: up to 4°C! Unfortunately models currently capture this effect very poorly.
Land terminating glaciers around Kongsfjorden have been retreating linearly over the last decades. Water terminating glaciers retreat less linearly as there are occasions when the water terminating edge may surge forward, making it look like the terminating edge has improved. This is generally due to a destabilisation of the glacier that means an overall decrease in the glacier mass balance. 2020 was a record breaking warm year that has led to record breaking melts. Smaller glaciers are more susceptible to the increase in melt driven by climate change as they have smaller areas to accumulate ice etc. during the cold period of the year.
Up until 2007 the fjord tended to be frozen 100% until February (Pavlova et al., 2019). Since 2007 the fjord has been having less and less surface freezing. This is in part due to Atlantic water encroachment. These waters are higher in aragonite and pH. These are also less turbid, allowing for more light for use with plankton etc. The plankton do respond to this with Atlantic species favoured in warmer years.
As to the influence of light, this has been increasing both due to increased melt and less ice cover throughout the year, in addition to increases in tourism. Besides increases in light pollution, longer times and broader areas of exposed sea surface also allows for a greater accumulation of positive downward heat flux. Of the four heat flux terms, it appears that increases in long wave radiation (Q_lw) over time are the leading cause of change to the cryosphere (Bischof et al. (2019b)). Following this, short wave radiation (Q_sw) is also increasing at a worrying rate, due in part to a decrease in cloud cover over the summer months (Bischof et al., 2019b).
Because the higher trophic levels of Arctic ecosystems, including Kongsfjorden, are dominated by migratory species, such as sea birds, these will be less exposed to the build-up of contaminants in a given area. Such as those sources identified on Svalbard and around the Kongsfjorden area (Granberg et al., 2017). However, lower trophic level populations have shown the capacity to adapt rapidly enough to changes in local contamination that they are still able to carry contaminants up the food web (Bischof et al., 2019b).
A large priority area of Kongsfjorden research moving forward must be the processes of exchange between the neighbouring fjords of Kongsfjorden and the Atlantic ocean (Bischof et al., 2019b). Progressing from this regional analysis, the work being done in the other areas of western Svalbard should be upscaled so as to provide the basis across which modelling work could connect these areas into a single integrated region. The understanding of the effects of physical drivers on ecosystems, with a focus on primary and secondary producers, is a particularly important area of focus (Bischof et al., 2019b). Ultimately, one of the main goals of identifying these drivers is to better enhanced the predictive capabilities of science in the region.
A study conducted in situ compared biomass records from 2012-2014 against those from 1996-1998 and found that biomass had increased by 8.2 fold at the shallower depth of 2.5 m (Bartsch et al., 2016). These findings are similar to other macroalgae research throughout the Arctic that show a general increase in biomass accompanied by a shift to shallower depths. The physical processes that explain these observations are that increasing coastal sea-ice leads to less ice scour at these shallow depths, while less PAR is penetrating to the deeper range of macroalgae (Bartsch et al., 2016).
The distribution, abundance, and species composition of pelagic macro zooplankton are very sensitive to oceanic changes. It was found that the warming occurring in the Kongsfjorden ecosystem is having a dramatic positive effect on the abundance of euphausiids and amphipods (Dalpadado et al., 2016). This is of particular importance as these are key prey species for target fishery species such as capelin and polar cod.
| Category | Driver | Why | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cryosphere | Sea-ice cover | Affects pelagic and benthic production. | Bischof et al. (2019a) |
| cryosphere | Land glacier mass balance | An indicator of the change to other drivers | Pavlova et al. (2019) |
| Cryoshpere | Runoff | Alters salinity, nutrients, and turbidity of surface waters. | Bischof et al. (2019a) |
| Physical | Longwave radiation (Q_lw) | Primary driver of warming waters. | Bischof et al. (2019b) |
| Physical | Shortwave radiation (Q_sw) | Secondary driver of warming waters. | Bischof et al. (2019b) |
| Physical | Turbidity | Prevents light to benthic producers. | Bischof et al. (2019a) |
| Physical | Circulation | Allows for more encroachment of Atlantic waters. | Hop and Wiencke (2019) |
| Chemistry | Acidification | Affects pelagic primary production. | Hop and Wiencke (2019) |
| Biological | Benthic macroalgal biomass/production | Changes where coastal ecosystems will be found and at what scale. | Bartsch et al. (2016) |
| Biological | Macro zooplankton | Top down pressure on phytoplankton and a source of food higher up. | Dalpadado et al. (2016) |
| Social | Ship traffic | Indicative of direct anthropogenic disturbance. |
Isfjorden
Changes to the abundance of euphausiids and amphipods have been noted in Isfjorden, but not to the same extent as Kongsfjorden (Dalpadado et al., 2016). This is attributed primarily to the fact that the thermal regime of Isfjorden is not changing as rapidly as Kongsfjorden. Likely because Isfjorden does not experience as much encroachment from the Atlantic.
Atlantic inflows of water in the late summer can create pelagic microbial communities more similar to periods of summer stratification (Delpech et al., 2021). On the other end of the fjord, high riverine inputs can have a different effect on the expected microbial community for the time of year.
Fast ice, e.g. sea-ice attached to the coast, has decreased significantly in the fjord (Muckenhuber et al., 2016). The shift appears to have been most pronounce from 2006. Fast ice coverage correlates well with remotely sensed SST and and in situ air temperatures, meaning that these could perhaps be used as proxies where no ice cover data are available. As fast ice cover began to decrease more rapidly, there was an observed uptick in the heat content of the fjord in Autumn (Muckenhuber et al., 2016). The authors allude to, without concluding that, changes in sea ice cover must have a discernible connection to changes in heat flux into the ocean. Likely in both strength and phenology.
| Category | Driver | Why | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cryosphere | Fast ice cover | Decreasing (fast) ice cover can have a range of ecological effect. | Muckenhuber et al. (2016) |
| Biological | Microbial communtiy | Affects the decomposition of material. | Delpech et al (2021) |
| Social | Fish landings | Alters top down trophic pressure. | |
| Social | Tourism arrivals | Increases to a range of pollutants from light to chemical. |
NB: This is just a place holder until Isfjorden data are added.
Inglefieldbukta
Greenland
See the EU Arctic figure above for where the Greenland sites are located. They are too spread out to be shown here in a single figure with any better precision than the full study area.
Young Sound
Disko Bay
Nuup Kangerlua
Norway
Porsangerfjorden
References
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