Bangor scientist returns from Greenland ice.

Professor David Thomas from Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences has just returned from Nuuk in Greenland where he was part of an international team of scientists studying the role of sea ice in regulating oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere and surface waters.

“The microbiology that lives in sea ice, as well as some fundamental chemical
reactions that take place as seawater freezes results in the ice having a key role in controlling the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and underlying water” says Thomas.

Clearly the understanding of such processes are a major consideration for our understanding the role of the Arctic Ocean in controlling the transfer of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, and therefore central to the climate change debate. "The Arctic Ocean is experiencing well documented dramatic changes in annual extent, and the work we have done will be fundamental for understanding how important such changes are."

The 18 strong team included scientists from Greenland, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Wales, Scotland and USA. They were working close to a small settlement, Kapisillit, about 100 km north of Nuuk. The expedition was the inspiration of Prof. Søren Rysgaard of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. He led the two week campaign that was a pioneering study to simultaneously measure properties in the air, ice and water: Every day of the campaign close to 100 physical, chemical and biological parameters were measured.

The team was based on a small chartered boat which was anchored to the ice. They could simply walk off and make their measurements and return samples to an improvised laboratory on board. “One of the things about polar research is learning to make do with less than ideal working conditions” says Thomas. “We established our cramped laboratory on a deck that never got above 4°C. It is hardly motivating to get out of your bunk at 4am every morning to filter water samples in a fridge. However, the opportunity for such rare samples more than made up for the discomfort.”

It will be a few months before the team can analyse their samples and interpret their data. However, the mood on the return voyage to Nuuk was vibrant and the team is positive about the way instruments worked and the number of samples they were able to take in a relatively short study.

“The key thing to do will be to integrate and interpret all the measurements into a coherent theory, says Thomas, however, the unique nature of such a data set will clearly inspire the team to rapidly work this up.