Author: mes008

The high-resolution ocean laser-spectrometer demonstrates major technological advances in water column measurements. A new study published in Ocean Science details its first use at a site with vigorous methane release.

Text: Jessica Green

In October of 2015, Pär Jansson and his team from the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrates, Environment, and Climate (CAGE) at UiT The Arctic University of Norway joined forces with Jack Triest, Roberto Grilli and Jerome Chappellaz  from IGE at  University of Grenoble Alpes in France, to examine the continental slope west of Svalbard aboard the R/V Helmer Hanssen. This wasn’t just any research cruise; they were testing out a new fast-response underwater membrane-inlet laser spectrometer sensor capable of revealing decametre-scale (10-meter) changes in methane concentrations over a 400 m deep methane seepage site.

Former misconceptions addressed

Standard measurements of the past did not allow for such specific results, so there were some inaccurate assumptions made about methane seep areas. One of these was that the concentration of methane throughout a seep was uniform, making it unnecessary to take multiple samples at various depths.

Thanks to the information obtained by Jansson et al. using the new spectrometer, we now know that methane concentrations can vary wildly across very short distances in seep zones, and many samples must be taken in order to get a complete picture of methane seepage activity.

New findings supported by further testing

The acquired measurements proved to be repeatable, and were reconstructed with a new numerical model for bubble dissolution. They were also confirmed through discrete sampling and acoustic surveys. Such technology can provide better insights into the processes that influence methane distribution, potentially affecting our oceans and climate, and may also be able to detect gas leaks for the fossil fuel industry.

For a full account of the study, see Jansson et al.’s article in Ocean Science entitled, ‘High-resolution underwater laser spectrometer sensing provides new insights into methane distribution at an Arctic seepage site.’

 

Recommended reading: Grilli, R. et al. Sub-Ocean: Subsea Dissolved Methane Measurements Using an Embedded Laser Spectrometer Technology

The state-of-the-art icebreaker RV Kronprins Haakon is currently deployed to the Arctic – Atlantic Gateway to collect data on methane release from the ocean floor. Along for the ride is coring equipment that will, for the first time, acquire up to 25-meter-long sediment samples in the study area.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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The project, called INTPART AKMA (Advancing Knowledge on Methane in the Arctic), is shared between the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate in Tromsø Norway and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts USA.

It aims to advance the collective knowledge surrounding methane activity in the ocean in Arctic regions. These regions are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and methane has the potential to drastically accelerate those effects if left unchecked.

The primary objectives of AKMA are to develop a long term, multidisciplinary education and research collaboration focused on Arctic methane sources, processes, ecosystems and geological history to provide exceptional training to become the next generation of experts in Arctic Marine sciences and greenhouse gas phenomena.

AKMA offers scientific and technical exchanges between partners and students, as well as dedicated research expeditions on the R.V. Kronprins Haakon focusing on student training in methods, data acquisition and analysis. There will also be intensive courses in Arctic cold microbe biogeochemistry and webinars/seminars pertaining to the scientific topics.

For more information contact project manager Giuliana Panieri.

Text: Kate Waghorn

Professor Mienert has dedicated his scientific pursuits to the response of polar continental margins to climate change, becoming a leading expert in the field. He retires from a long, internationally acclaimed career.

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Emmelie Åström was the first author on the article in Limnology and Oceanography, exploring Arctic methane cold seeps as biological oases.

Former CAGE PhD Candidate Emmelie Åström was pleased to discover that her 3rd PhD article entitled ‘Methane cold seeps as biological oases in the high-Arctic deep sea‘ was one of the most downloaded papers amongst articles published in Limnology and Oceanography between January 2017 and December 2018.

In line with Norway’s interest in moving toward a full open-access model for public research results, the article was made openly available for download without a journal subscription. ‘This highlights even more the benefits and recognition achievable through open access publishing and good scientific outreach,’ says Åström.

She successfully defended her thesis on April 20th, 2018.

For more information on her research, read the CAGE press release here.

Text: Jessica Green

The discovery was made at 800 meters below the surface in two small canyons on the continental slope outside Lofoten.

‘When we the found fresh water leaking from the seabed, we were very surprised,’ explains scientist and marine geologist Wei-Li Hong at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and CAGE.

A remote-controlled vehicle, deployed from research vessel G.O. Sars, collected and measured the water during an expedition in 2017. The leakage likely originated from a large pocket of fresh water, otherwise known as an aquifer, hidden beneath the sediment of the seabed.

Remnants of the last Ice Age

‘Fisherman in Nordland county have told us that they also found fresh water in the sea, so pure that it could even be used for coffee. This was in Nordbreigrunnen, a few kilometers outside the town of Meløy,’ Hong claims.

This phenomenon probably began during the last Ice Age. The thick ice caps that enveloped Norway pushed down on the crust of the Earth with tremendous force, squeezing large amounts of meltwater down through cracks in the seabed.

‘This is a geological process that began millions of years ago when the water became trapped under the sediment. Only now is it finding its way through the cracks and faults again,’ Hong says.

The water was found around a kilometer below the seabed, but the aquifer itself could be deeper, and scientists at NGU are unsure how much fresh water remains.

Similar conditions found in the United States

Scientists from Columbia University in New York and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts recently found fresh water in the Atlantic Ocean as well, along the east coast of the United States.

‘It’s the exact same phenomenon that we have here in Norway,’ comments project manager and CAGE co-director Jochen Knies.

The Atlantic Ocean aquifer extends along the coast from the southern tip of New Jersey to the northern end of Massachusetts. According to CNN, researchers estimated that it contains enough water to fill 1.1 billion swimming pools. This makes it the largest underwater freshwater aquifer found on Earth.

A possible resource

The findings in Norway and the US suggest that there may be other such aquifers elsewhere in the world.

‘Such large pockets of fresh water could be a potential resource in areas with no drinking water on land,’ Knies points out.

The research performed in Norway is under the umbrella of the project «Norwegian margin fluid systems and methane-derived carbonate crusts» (NORCRUST), which is funded by the Research Council of Norway through the Petromaks 2 program.

The results were recently published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters. The article can be viewed here. 

Ref.: Hong, W.‐L., Lepland, A., Himmler, T., Kim, J.‐H., Chand, S., Sahy, D., et al (2019). Discharge of meteoric water in the eastern Norwegian Sea since the last glacial period. Geophysical Research Letters, 46.

 

Written by: Gudmund Løvø, NGU

Translated to English by: Jessica Green, CAGE

New research shows that episodes of methane emission from the seabed off western Svalbard correlate with changing ice volumes in the Arctic.

Ice sheet dynamics of the past likely induced fault movements in the Earth’s crust, thereby facilitating seabed methane release in ~1200 m water depth offshore Svalbard.

– Our results show similar patterns over the last two ice ages, from 160,000 years ago through today. The new data suggest a link between changing continental ice volumes and deep-sea methane emission in the Arctic, says Tobias Himmler, researcher at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) in Trondheim.

Seabed and sub-seabed samples reveal the past

Researchers from NGU and the Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate (CAGE) at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø participated in two research expeditions connected to this project in the summer of 2016.

During the first expedition aboard research vessel R/V G.O. Sars, samples were collected from the seabed at the Vestnesa Ridge off western Svalbard at ~1200 meter water depth using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Ægir 6000 (Fig. 1).

A second expedition to the same location took place some weeks later aboard research vessel R/V Maria S. Merian, bringing with it the MARUM-MeBo70 deep sea drilling rig. This time, researchers were able to obtain several 10+ m long sediment cores for further study (Fig. 2).

Seep carbonates were collected from the seabed with the help of the ROV, while more were also found within the MeBo core samples drawn from below the seabed (Fig. 2). The seep carbonates resulted from the sediment cementation that occurred when methane migrated up from deep below and became oxidized by methane-consuming microbes near the seabed.

– Seep carbonates serve as geological archives of past seabed methane emissions, says Himmler.

Multiple episodes of methane emission revealed

After measuring the amounts of radioactive isotopes uranium and thorium found in the seep carbonates, scientists at the British Geological Survey were able to calculate the ages of the carbonate pieces. This data reveals three separate 10,000- to 20,000-year long methane emission episodes over the last 160,000 years. Methane was released when thick ice sheets moved in to cover Svalbard and the Barents Sea area, and later after the ice diminished.

– During ice sheet growth, the extra weight of the ice presses the Earth’s crust downward. Following the melting of the ice, the crust rises again. Our data indicate that methane off western Svalbard emanated from the seabed primarily when ice sheet movements activated faults. How much methane was emitted, however, we don’t know, explains Himmler.

Previous research has shown that methane emissions have occurred consistently since the last ice age, beginning about 23,000 years ago. Scientists from NGU and CAGE have now managed to -literally- drill further back in time using the MARUM-MeBo70 sea floor drill rig. The drilled seep carbonate samples reveal that there have been at least two older methane emission episodes in the past, between about 160,000 to 133,000 years and 50,000 to 40,000 years ago.

– Ice sheet dynamics is a new factor when considering the natural drivers of deep-sea methane release in the Arctic, says Tobias Himmler.

The research project “Norwegian margin fluid systems and methane-derived carbonate crusts” (NORCRUST) is funded by the Norwegian Research Council through the Petromaks2 program. NORCRUST is led by NGU and the research was carried out in collaboration with CAGE, the MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Science, and the British Geological Survey.

The study was published in the scientific journal Science Advances.

Original text in Norwegian: Gudmund Løvø
Translated to English by: Jessica Green

Ref:

A 160,000-year-old history of tectonically controlled methane seepage in the Arctic. Tobias Himmler, Diana Sahy, Tõnu Martma, Gerhard Bohrmann, Andreia Plaza-Faverola, Stefan Bünz, Daniel J. Condon, Jochen Knies, and Aivo Lepland. Science Advances 5, eaaw1450. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw1450

The location and microbial composition of recently found biofilms are challenging beliefs about methane diffusion

When Friederike Gründger and her team cracked open the long, heavy cylinders of black sediment drawn from the ocean floor, they were surprised to find pockets of yellowish-green slime buried within two of the samples. The average person may not consider the appearance of such unseemly goo as a cause for celebration, but the biologists knew that this slime, otherwise known as biofilm, was a highly unusual find in this particular location, and could even play a role in terms of climate change.

This group from the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrates, Environment, and Climate (CAGE) at UiT The Arctic University of Norway set out to investigate the microscopic and macroscopic organisms living in or around cold seep sites such as Gas Hydrate Pingos (GHP) in the Svalbard area. These dome-like, geological structures leak methane gas into the ocean water with the potential to travel to the surface and enter our atmosphere, possibly advancing climate change.

Underwater organisms thrive on deadly greenhouse gas

Some of the organisms living at these sites are relevant to this process, as they have adapted to live off the methane and convert it into harmless compounds such as carbonate and water. This activity is called anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) and has a global impact on the diffusion of underwater methane. The most relevant entities contributing to this process are methanotrophic archaea (ANME -1, -2, and -3) and sulphate-reducing bacterial (SRB), two microorganisms usually found living co-dependently in colonies. It is still unclear, however, where they can be reliably found and how involved they are in such methane control.

Slimy biofilm coats microbial communities; provides protection

Biofilms are glue-like substances that encase clusters of microbes to provide extra protection against the elements. They can be found all throughout nature, even on the human body; biofilms can lead to complications in wound care and adhere to your teeth as plaque. But they are also found on the ocean floor, protecting the microbial communities that set up shop near areas of methane accumulation. Where they are not usually found, however, is within the cracks and crevices of seabed sediment – at least, not as far as we know. But Gründger et al.’s research may be showing us once again how the ocean is constantly capable of surprising us.

Research findings surprise scientists

Here are the highlights from the recently published article from Gründger et. al. in Scientific Reports:

• This is the first case of biofilms, visible to the naked eye, found in the cracks of methane-rich sediment in Arctic waters. It could prove to be a common occurrence of which we were previously unaware.
• Both biofilm samples found were shown to have a very unique microbial composition with ANME-1 as the dominating group. This has only been seen once before, as reef-forming microbial mats in the Black Sea.
• Although ANME-1 and SRB microbes usually help one another to absorb methane, there was no direct cell-to-cell contact between the two in these particular biofilms. This leads our scientists to wonder if ANME-1 could filter the methane without the presence of the SRB, something previously thought impossible.

For more details on the background, methodology, and results of this exciting study, see the recently published article entitled ‘Methane-fuelled biofilms predominantly composed of methanotrophic ANME-1 in Arctic gas hydrate-related sediments.’

Text: Jessica Green

STEM students explore Norway

For the second year in a row, students from the U.S. Naval Academy’s LREC (Language & Cultural Exchange) Program visited CAGE scientists at UiT The Arctic University of Norway to learn about the centre and discuss some of our most exciting projects.

The visit was part of a larger educational trip to Norway in late May/early June, organized and executed by the Academy. It is expected to be an annual event with a threefold objective: to explore topics within Polar RTD&E (research, development, test & evaluation), to become acquainted with the government and military of the host country, and to enjoy new cultural experiences.

This year, four lucky students were chosen to accompany military officers and instructors Commander Keith Thompson and Commander Russ Ingersoll to various cities around Norway, including Tromsø, Oslo, Bergen, and Longyearbyen in Svalbard. While oceanography majors at the Naval Academy were prioritized in selecting candidates for the trip, those with other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) backgrounds and Polar RTD&E interests were also encouraged to apply. Ultimately, four of the students in attendance were oceanography majors (Abby Ebersole, Emily Doyle, and Ian Bramblett) while one was a robotics and engineering major (Luke Marino).

CAGE shares multidisciplinary perspectives

The agenda at CAGE was straightforward; after a warm welcome and introduction to the centre by assistant director Stefan Bünz, four of our scientists gave presentations and answered questions on some of our ongoing projects. These included:

• How does tectonic stress affect gas hydrate stability and methane release on Arctic continental margins?
  Andreia Plaza-Faverola, Researcher
• Reconstructing past glaciations of the Arctic
  Henry Patton, Researcher
• How microbes are mitigating the release of methane from the sub-seabed to the atmosphere
  Dimitri Kalenitchenko, Post Doc
• Bubble-derived methane in the water column
  Pär Jansson, Researcher

There was time after the presentations for a quick lunch and tour of the lab, provided by research engineer Matteus Lindgren, after which the attendees were whisked away to their next appointment. Other places in Tromsø that the group planned to visit were the Centre for Sami Studies and the Department of Engineering and Safety (and its Ship Navigation Simulator) at UiT, as well as the Arctic Institute and the Arctic Council at Framsenteret.

It was a treat for everyone involved to meet such friendly and inquisitive people as our visitors from the U.S. Naval Academy. We appreciate their interest and hope to welcome them again in the future!

Text: Jessica Green

The snow has melted, the grass has turned green, the flowers are blooming, and four new scientists have started their careers at CAGE UiT – all sure signs that springtime is here at the Arctic University of Norway!

Frances Cooke (PhD – UK)

Frances Cooke was the first to arrive to Tromsø on April 23rd, 2019. Originally hailing from the UK, Frances has made travel an integral part of her life in terms of both business and pleasure. Before coming to Tromsø, she lived and studied in a variety of places including Wales, Scotland, and three different parts of Australia, traveled to many remote locations such as Indonesia, Jamaica, and the Heard and McDonald islands in the sub-Antarctic, and participated in no less than 25 sea voyages on nine different ships. If you add in a Master’s Degree in Applied Geoscience, a second Master in Petroleum Geoscience, and 3.5 years work experience as a marine geophysicist, then Frances has been one busy lady.

The Seamstress Project (part of Work Package 1 and lead by Andreia Plaza-Faverola) will be Frances’ focus while she is at CAGE. The main goal of this project is to investigate the effects of stress placed on underwater seams in the marine areas west of Svalbard, operating under the assumption that regional processes such as plate tectonics contribute to the cracking of the sea floor and the release of deeply held methane gas reserves into the ocean. There are a number of techniques for examining this hypothesis further, including the use of high-tech scientific instruments such as the P-cable to collect seismic data. It will be Frances’ job to process and interpret this data with a primary focus on stress of the historic past.

Algorithms, calculations, and long strings of numbers may come to mind when one envisions data analysis. But what drew Frances to this particular field was exactly the opposite: it was the inherent beauty in the visual interpretation of such data; the flowing waves, the surprising shapes, the contrasting colors and the stories they tell. Frances feels that she has always had an innate artistic vision that guides her in life and in her career. This vision becomes especially tangible through her interest in video production/editing and photography. The idea of bridging the gap between art and science is one that deeply appeals to Frances, and may provide her with a unique outlook when it comes to data analysis. Who can predict what the eye of a scientist/artist might identify?

An example of seismic data made visual, from Vestnesa Ridge

 

Przemek Domel (PhD – Poland)

Przemek Domel of Poland is also working for the Seamstress Project, although while Frances is concerned with stresses of the past, he will be ‘listening’ for methane activity and earthquakes on the seafloor through the use of seismological instruments that will provide insight into stresses of the present. His views of the field could not be more different from those of his colleague. When he was evaluating his interests as a bachelor student and envisioning a future career, he knew that he would thrive in a discipline that relied heavily on numbers. However, the idea of sitting behind a desk all day was not his idea of a good time. This provided quite a dilemma: how could he use his natural talents while working in a field with hands-on tasks and visible, practical applications? That is when he decided to get his hands dirty and dive into the geosciences.

As the second employee starting at CAGE this spring, Przemek arrived on May 2nd at the tail end of the SAS strike – maybe not the warmest welcome to Norway. Regardless, having spent a semester abroad in Trondheim during his Master’s studies, he already knew that Norway was a place that he would enjoy. The high quality of life, pure natural resources, and abundance of outdoor activities (excluding skiing – ask him about the pillows!) mesh well for him with the reserved nature of Norwegians; a nature very complimentary to his own, he feels. The only thing that provides some pause is the constant light of the midnight sun – still, a small price to pay for three years of bliss doing what one loves in a place one appreciates.

Claudio Argentino (Postdoc – Italy)

Our third new employee is also part of Work Package 1, but rather than being associated with the Seasmstress project, postdoctoral fellow Claudio Argentino is under the supervision of Giuliana Panieri and Stefan Bünz for a project connected to Aker BP. His responsibilities have little to do with seismology, holding an entirely different twofold focus. This includes:

(1)    Analysing the geochemistry of pore fluids and sediments affected by the methane seeps, including characterization and quantification of the hydrocarbon fraction

(2)    Investigating the location and composition of seabed habitats based on video taken of the seafloor

Claudio arrived to Tromsø from his homeland of Italy on May 26th with his Chinese wife Shuning in tow, but like Przemek, this was not his first experience with Norway. He visited Tromsø in June of 2017 as a PhD candidate participating in the AMGG Bubbles International Training School sponsored by CAGE, an experience that drew an overwhelmingly positive response from Claudio. As he spoke about his first impressions of the wilderness and uncontaminated nature of Tromsø, his eyes became faraway and dreamy. It is clear that he is still in disbelief that he has been lucky enough to get this opportunity and live in this beautiful place.

Students of the Bubbles School 2017.

Participating in Bubbles was also lucky for Claudio in other ways. It was there that he learned about CAGE and met a number of the scientists contributing to CAGE research. In fact, UiT became his top choice for further education after this memorable trip. This bit of networking has proven invaluable, and goes to show what a powerful impact it can have on a young, emerging scientist’s career path.

Griselda Anglada-Ortiz (PhD – Spain)

The final new employee joining the ranks of CAGE this spring is Griselda Anglada-Ortiz, coming from the sprawling metropolis of Barcelona, Spain. Like Frances, she also has two Master’s degrees – one in Oceanography and Marine Environmental Management and the other in Education of Natural Sciences, proving that our new colleagues are very well educated! For the past three years, she served as a research assistant at the Autonomous University of Barcelona studying the abundance of planktic calcifying organisms in the North Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. This, alongside her previous degrees, has gone a long way in preparing her for her new tasks at CAGE.

Griselda is working with the multi-disciplinary Nansen Legacy Project, which aims to predict the future status of the rapidly changing Barents Sea in an effort to improve sustainable resource management. She will be working under the supervision of Kasia Zamelczyk and Tine L. Rasmussen as part of Work Package 6. Griselda’s specific task will be to measure ocean acidification (both past and present) and hypothesize on how it has affected foraminifera and pteropods, two species of micro-zooplankton that preserve their history in the chemical makeup of their shells.

Although she had never stepped foot in Norway before May 2nd, Griselda had heard the stories of academic life in Norway, and they held an almost fairytale-like quality. Norway was, as far as she was concerned, ‘university heaven.’ Not only was the quality of education high in the north, but the opportunities were plentiful. In other countries, many PhD positions go unpaid, and students are forced live off air, sunshine, and the love of science. From Griselda’s perspective, in Norway the funding is plentiful, the equipment is new, and atmosphere is positive.

Welcome to all!

Clearly our four new friends at CAGE have big expectations of UiT, of Norway, and most of all – of themselves. We wish them luck in the years to come and look forward to many work-related collaborations, social events, and successes. Check the website again in August for information on an ADDITIONAL two new employees joining us this summer!

Text: Jessica Green

The feature documentary ICE ON FIRE highlights cutting-edge research driving today’s climate science. Oscar®-winner Leonardo DiCaprio produced and narrated the film, which includes scientists from CAGE, a centre of excellence at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

Text & Photos: Maja Sojtaric

ICE ON FIRE is directed by Leila Conners and will premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Wednesday May 22, and on HBO June 11.

“My partners and I made ICE ON FIRE to give a voice to the scientists and researchers who work tirelessly every day on the frontlines of climate change,” says producer and narrator Leonardo DiCaprio in a statement.

Features voices on the forefront of Arctic science

Some of the scientists included in ICE ON FIRE can be found at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. The crew visited UiT’s Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate (CAGE) to highlight the research on a very specific, but potentially globally significant, gas.

CAGE investigates the release of methane – a greenhouse gas far stronger than CO2 – from the Arctic seafloor and permafrost. Vast amounts of methane are trapped at shallow depths below the seafloor as gas hydrates, ice-like mixtures of gas and water. The abrupt release of even a small fraction of these methane stores could profoundly change the nature of the Earth’s biosphere, rapidly accelerating global warming and giving rise to sea levels.

“The ice covers of our planet are tremendously vulnerable to climate change, and they control complex systems for methane release,” reports CAGE director Karin Andreassen. “We welcome any initiatives that can shed light on the specific research that we do, because it is a part of the global conversation to which we all have to contribute.”

ICE ON FIRE investigates solutions; aims for hope

Cathrine Lund Myhre, senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and CAGE collaborator, appears in ICE ON FIRE together with professor Jürgen Mienert and researcher Pavel Serov from CAGE.

“The dissemination of knowledge about role of methane in climate change, and what we see in the Arctic, is important,” says Myhre. “We need better understanding of the sources, and the ratio of natural and anthropogenic emissions of the greenhouse gas. The recent increase of methane in the atmosphere does not seem to be explained purely by emission from human activities, but it is only the human emissions that can be controlled by mitigation strategies and abatement control.”

The documentary provides insight into technological innovations aimed at reducing carbon in the atmosphere, which could assist in reversing some of the damage done to our environment.

“We wanted to make a film that depicts the beauty of our planet while highlighting much-needed solutions across renewable energy and carbon sequestration. This film does more than show what is at stake if we continue on a course of inaction and complacency – it shows how, with the help of dedicated scientists, we can all fight back. I hope audiences will be inspired to take action to protect our beautiful planet,” says Mr. DiCaprio.

Continued research crucial for future

Arctic areas are remote, making them notoriously difficult to access. This leads to research that is both expensive and time-consuming. Regardless, more groundwork is necessary to inform the experimental models climate scientists rely on to make sound interpretations of climate systems.

According to professor Andreassen, “The Arctic is a complicated place that offers complex insights. But we must endure and continue to push for high scientific activity in the area. Our understanding of these systems is crucial for the future of the planet.”

---

CAGE and affiliated scientists participating in the film:

Jürgen Mienert:

Professor – CAGE, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

Email: jurgen.mienert@uit.no

Phone: +47 99794063

 

Cathrine Lund Myhre:

Senior scientist – Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU)

Project leader for the MOCA-project and for the Norwegian Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Program.

Email: clm@nilu.no

Phone: +47 48221353

 

Pavel Serov:

Researcher – CAGE, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Email: pavel.russerov@uit.no

Phone: +47 99867350

 

Other requests:

Karin Andreassen:

Director – CAGE, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Email: karin.andreassen@uit.no

Phone: +47 46929027

 

Maja Sojtaric:

Senior communications advisor – CAGE, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Email: maja.sojtaric@uit.no

Phone: +47 91845151

Giuliana Panieri reaches career goal, years after unconventional entrance into the field

Humanity strives to piece together as much of the past as possible, but it is difficult to get a clear picture of what our Earth and its oceans were like in geological history. Such information can help us to predict possible environmental changes of the future, a topic that has always held a certain fascination for Giuliana Panieri of the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment, and Climate (CAGE) at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway.

Giuliana has recently been promoted to full professor at UiT, a position that has always been a dream in her academic career. Growing up with entrepreneurs as parents, she was inspired to pursue such dreams through hard work and determination. Despite choosing a male-dominated field, she forged ahead to lift the veil on the past by studying micropaleontology as it applies to climate, environment and methane release from the Arctic Ocean.

Microfossils help researchers reconstruct geological history

One way that scientists peer into the past is by examining foraminifera, a certain class of microorganism found in almost all marine environments. Foraminifera are special, as they exist in very large quantities and have been around since the earliest Cambrian (beginning approximately 540 million years ago). Their remains make up the majority of marine sediment deposits on the ocean floor, and by examining these fossils we can paint a picture of how the Earth may have looked at various points in geological history, especially in terms of climate changes and ocean acidification. They are also important for locating hydrocarbons in oil exploration. It is through such studies that Giuliana has made a name for herself in the scientific community – although her interest in the field started with a misunderstanding.

A false impression leads to a career

It all began when she took a course on methane release in marine environments while studying geology at the master level at the University of Bologna in Italy. Despite much searching, it seemed that no one else was using micropaleontology in methane hydrate research. Little was known about methane hydrate at the time as it was still an emerging field, so such a scenario was entirely plausible. Complicating matters further, this was before mass access to the internet, which made thorough information-gathering that much more challenging. She poured through scientific journals at her university library, searching for evidence that the topic was being explored. Despite much effort, she initially found none. This knowledge kindled her interest, and she decided to investigate further.

Eventually she discovered that she had been mistaken – there was, in fact, a research group involved in methane/micropaleontology studies at that very moment, as well as a 1994 paper published on the topic. Despite this unconventional introduction, her destiny had been determined. She continued to dig into this line of research, making her way through PhD and Post Doc positions in micropaleontology with a focus on gas hydrate. She later spent time at multiple universities as a visiting scientist, worked as a consultant to oil companies in oil exploration, was hired by the Institute for Marine Science at the Italian National Research Council, and had an adjunct position at the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), USA. Finally, she ran into Jürgen Mienert, a professor for Arctic Marine Geology and Applied Geophysics at UiT.

A professional acquaintance recognizes talent

Jürgen, founding director of CAGE, was putting together a dream-team to run a Norwegian Research Council-funded Centre of Excellence (CoE) based at UiT. He had already included several top scientists with whom he had previously collaborated on the well-respected Continental Slope Stability (COSTA) project. Giuliana and Jürgen were acquainted from PERGAMON, an EU project with a focus on understanding methane emissions in the Arctic. He knew that she would be the perfect choice to lead the establishment of both the mass spectrometry laboratory and the scanning electric microscope (SEM) laboratory at CAGE, with a research focus on reconstructing methane emissions in geological history. Later, she was also asked to lead UiT’s Trainee School in Arctic Marine Geology and Geophysics (AMGG).

In 2013, Giuliana came to live in Tromsø with her husband and the two children, having never before set foot in the Arctic. Despite a period of adjustment in terms of climate, UiT was like a dream university; a place where they put emphasis on scientific research, hired like-minded individuals to share the journey, and supported their employees in achieving their goals. In fact, the OPRIK project at UiT was a big help when it came to achieving hers.

University program assists female employees in reaching career goals

Organized by the Resource Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (RESULT), OPRIK is a program specifically designed to assist female scientists in reaching the next step in their careers. For Giuliana, that was becoming a full professor. The organization provides pedagogic courses, supervising courses, and a network of useful contacts for guidance. Every two years, a handful of participants from the project are selected to move forward in their careers, and in 2019 Giuliana was one of them.

It has not been an easy journey for Giuliana and her family, and it is surely far from over. But she has managed to achieve very much in a short period of time by working hard, working smart, and being determined. Giuliana would like to thank UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the Faculty of Science and Technology, her colleagues at the Department of Geology, her PhD and Post Doc mentees at CAGE, and her external collaborators for helping to contribute to her success. We look forward to seeing what such an inspiring woman can achieve in the future!

Text: Jessica Green

Photo: Torger Grytå

Review this year’s highlights

CAGE’s highly-anticipated annual report, recapping core activities of the centre in 2018, is now available to view or download.

You can find all of CAGE’s annual reports, from 2013 to 2018, here.

The legacy of his contribution stands the test of time some 14 years later

In April of 2000, the idea that offshore landslides could cause life-threatening disasters such as tsunamis was still an emerging topic. Scientists were aware that these geohazards had such potential, but there were still many questions to be answered in order to understand the mechanisms behind such occurrences.

This was when the Continental Slope Stability (COSTA) project began, a research effort funded by the European Commission through March of 2004. The overarching goal was to improve our understanding of rapid and transient changes in continental slope stability.

“One of the most important questions we had to ask was what is triggering these events? Why are certain areas of the seafloor prone to failure, while nearby areas remain undisturbed? And what is the role of gas hydrates in slope stability?” Jürgen told communications advisor Maja Sojtaric in a 2018 interview.

The project led to a special issue of Marine Geology entitled, COSTA – continental slope stability: major aims and topics, in which Jürgen served as guest editor. The issue was comprised of 20 articles written by the top scientists in the field, many of which were deeply involved in the project. It is still considered one of the most groundbreaking works of its time, and continues to be referenced to an impressive degree. The 2004 COSTA issue shares the award as one of the two best-cited special issues of Marine Geology in 2017-2018, right after winning the same award shared between three issues in 2016-2017.

Jürgen has even mentioned that this special issue was a major stepping-stone in the creation of the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrates, Environment, and Climate (CAGE). In fact, some of the contributing members to this special issue remain at CAGE today, furthering scientific advancement in this field.

Many scientists believe that their work is of great significance, but rarely does one receive such tangible confirmation of their beliefs. Congratulations to Jürgen; may his work continue to inspire scientists of future generations.

Text: Jessica Green

CAGE data manager Fabio Sarti partners with IT experts to enable easy access to what was formerly a frustrating and time-consuming experience

Traditionally, there has been a trend towards secrecy when it comes to revealing the details of accumulated data and data analysis at universities and research institutions. This applies not only to restricted academic journals that require large fees for access, but also to raw data collected through research projects and never published.

There has been a movement in recent years, however, supporting the idea that publically funded research in Europe should be more easily accessible. It is not only fair to give the public access to something that it has paid for, but open access to research also encourages better-informed and more groundbreaking results. The Norwegian government heavily endorses this movement, and The Research Council of Norway is at the helm in assuring that Norwegian universities and research institutions accept and comply with these new standards.

In 2016, the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment, and Climate (CAGE) decided to start a pilot project at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in developing software that would allow easy access to our raw research data. This mostly includes data from Arctic cruise expeditions, such as samples of the seafloor sediments and water, seismic survey data, observatory data, bathymetry mapping data, and image/video data. Fabio Sarti was hired as the project manager for the job in cooperation with the IT department at UiT and Avinet, a consultancy company specializing in map and database solutions.

At its most basic, this information is available in what amounts to hundreds of tables and potentially hundreds of thousands of lines of data. While quite comprehensive, navigating these spreadsheets is a time-consuming and frustrating way to find and analyze specific details. An alternate method in accessing the information is through a program that sorts the data into a filing system – an improvement to be sure, but still somewhat cumbersome for the average viewer.

Finally, Fabio and CAGE administration decided that a map interface for the tracking of individual cruise expeditions by illustration would provide the most user-friendly experience in exploring the data. These cruise navigation tracks show the journey of the CAGE scientific cruises from beginning to end, and can be selected at any point in its travels. The user then obtains further information about the cruise, such as surveys and activities, chief scientists, dates of the cruise, any associated publications, downloadable cruise reports, and more. This map and corresponding data are now accessible through CAGE’s new (as of February 2019) website.

Although we are well on our way in moving towards an open-access model at UiT, not all raw data collected by CAGE is currently available for public consumption. Data receives a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) before publication so that future scientists are able to give proper credit to the university or institution behind the research, and assigning these DOIs is a time consuming process.

In the meantime, CAGE data manager and project leader Fabio Sarti has been at the forefront of a major accomplishment. The CAGE map interface has inspired at least two other similar interfaces at UiT: the department of geoscience’s ‘Core Repository’, and the department of Arctic and marine biology’s ‘Whale Tracker’. We hope that this is only the beginning, and that our expedition into the world of data management will inspire other entities inside and outside of Norway to provide easier access to research results towards a better future.

Text: Jessica Green

Illustration: Torger Grytå/Colourbox.

The Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment, and Climate has recently decided to launch a completely redesigned and updated version of its website, with the technical support of gnist design in Tromsø. But the website has not only received a cosmetic upgrade; there are many new elements now available for viewers to explore. Listed below are some of the most exciting features that you simply can’t miss.

• Cruise Logs: Interested in where CAGE researchers have been collecting data, and what they have discovered? Browse over 30 cruise logs, organized by date with a short descriptive title. The link will lead you to a brief introduction, followed by a downloadable version of the report. And don’t miss the lovely photo(s) provided from each cruise!
• Cruise Navigation Tracks: This feature is related to the cruise logs, but is so unique that it deserves its own category on this list. Through the interactive map you can view CAGE cruise navigation tracks either individually by finding the link on the cruise log page, in groups sorted by date, or all at once. You can also use search keywords to find information on the type of cruise that interests you. Interested only in cruises investigating the water column? Search the keyword, and the software will suggest the cruises flagged with this specialty.
• Publication List: Our new searchable and sortable publication list provides access to every academic article, academic literature review, book review, chapter, and doctoral dissertation produced by CAGE members since its inception in 2013. You can sort the over 280 listings by title, author, publishing information (such as journal name), publication type, or year; in addition, it is possible to search by keyword, title, or author.
• Annual reports: Want to see research highlights from each year that CAGE has been operating? Download our annual report from 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and – coming soon – 2018, through the new website. Discover alongside us what we have learned, and the journey we took to get there.
• Photo of the month: Sometimes a finding is so interesting, you just have to see it for yourself. That is the purpose of our new Photo of the Month section – to provide the curious with an up-close and personal view of what our researchers are doing.
• Job openings: If you are interested in working for CAGE or know someone who is, be sure to keep an eye on our job openings page. PhD, PostDoc, and Research positions pop up throughout the year, so don’t miss out.
• People: Want to see the people behind the magic here at CAGE? Check out our newly updated personnel pages where you can browse all current employees by name or division.

In addition to these new features, you will also find old favorites such as news updates and press releases, descriptions of our research areas, our access to scientific infrastructure, information on the AMGG Trainee School, and more. Please browse and enjoy!

For questions or comments, please contact communications advisor and website coordinator Jessica Green.

The Amundsen Sea is an embayment of the Antarctic continent in the middle of West Antarctica, several hundreds of miles in either direction along the coast from any of the stations that provide research access to this remote continent. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is largely marine-based and thus highly sensitive to climatic and oceanographic changes. If completely melted, it could result in a global sea-level rise of potentially around 4 meters. The ice that is draining into the Amundsen Sea is considered to be some of the most vulnerable to rapid change in West Antarctica due to the extreme depth at the base of the ice and the incursion of warm ocean currents to the area.

International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 379 will sail from Punta Arenas, Chile, on January 23th, 2019, to the Amundsen Sea and return to Punta Arenas on March 20th. Work will be completed from the JOIDES Resolution, a scientific drill ship that has been used for research since 1985. During the cruise, an international group of 29 scientists will work to recover sedimentary records from the continental shelf and rise of the Amundsen Sea to determine how the ice in the region has behaved in the past in an area unaffected by other ice sheets and that also currently is experiencing the largest ice mass loss in Antarctica. Because of the extreme isolation of the region, even compared to other parts of Antarctica, these will be the first long drill cores ever obtained in the Amundsen Sea. Records of how the ice has behaved under past oceanographic and climatic temperature changes will be used to simulate in computer models of how the region may change in coming decades.

The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) is an international research collaboration that coordinates seagoing expeditions to study the history of the Earth recorded in sediments and rocks beneath the ocean floor. IODP is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and it’s international partners – the Australia-New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC), the Brazilian Coordination for Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Korea Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), and the People’s Republic of China Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). The JOIDES Resolution Science Operator (JRSO) at Texas A&M University operates the scientific drillship JOIDES Resolutionon behalf of the NSF. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

We are pleased to announce that our early career researcher within the sub-seabed work package here at CAGE, Mariana Esteves, will be participating as a sedimentologist on this exciting research expedition to Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica. Mariana recently completed her PhD in Marine Geology, which focused on reconstructing how and why the large ice sheet that once covered Barents Sea retreated and disintegrated since the Last Glacial Maximum (~21,000 years before present day). She hopes to continue her research on the Barents Sea Ice Sheet and combine it with new findings from her trip to West Antarctica.

NOTE: The deadline to apply for these positions has now passed.

Link to the first position

Link to the second position

Apply today!

Naima El bani Altuna helps to preserve a nearly-forgotten language while pursuing her dreams in Tromsø, Norway

The link between language and cultural identity is one of great importance for many people around the world with ethnic-minority origins. This especially holds true for populations where cultural identity has been traditionally suppressed by the majority population, such as in the case of the Basque people of northern Spain and southern France.

The Basque are an ethnic group whose origins are unknown, but have occupied the land separating Spain and France since long before the two countries had modern-day borders. Spanish and French ways of life began to push out the minority Basque culture due to sheer numbers and political influence, and the situation escalated in the 20th century. An entire generation of Basque lost their language or were forced to hide it when speaking the language was made illegal under the leadership of General Franco, the Spanish dictator who reigned from 1939 to 1975.

Since that time, there has been a major push for the preservation of the Basque language. Sharing a common tongue helps to unify these people, bringing them closer to a sense of their history, who they are, and where they come from. Such issues are close the heart of Naima El bani Altuna, a PhD candidate at the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment, and Climate (CAGE) UiT, inspiring her to share her research and other passions by creating an award-winning Basque-language Twitter account.

A mother’s history promotes cultural activism

El bani Altuna grew up in a multicultural household in Bilbao, a part of the Basque country in northern Spain. She was heavily influenced by the experience of her mother, a Basque-identifying Spaniard who lived through the oppressive regime of General Franco. As a young woman, El bani Altuna’s mother could only speak her native Basque language in secret in the confines of her own home, and was even required by the state to change her first name from ‘Ane’ to ‘Ana’ in order to appear less Basque. Although El bani Altuna was born well after this regime fell out of power, she still developed a well-earned respect for her culture and its roots in the minority language.

While working on her Master’s thesis in Oceanography at the University of Bordeaux in France, El bani Altuna had the opportunity to stay for 3 months in Alberta, Canada, studying an Arctic-variant of a planktonic foraminifera species she was researching in Europe. This trip opened her eyes to the unique beauty of life in the north, and the wealth of scientific data waiting to be uncovered in such remote areas.

After receiving a PhD position at CAGE UiT – The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, not only did El bani Altuna want to bring details of her research to her people in Basque Country, but she wanted to share with them the story of the Arctic, an area far removed from northern Spain in both distance and general knowledge. It was important to her that this information not only be accessible to other scientists, but also to the average person, and in the Basque language. But how?

Social media is the key to widespread access

Exact statistics vary, but Basque is one of the most-Tweeted minority languages in the world, a position that has skyrocketed since its humble introduction to Twitter in 2012.  Through this medium, El bani Altuna is able to bring easily-digestible tidbits of geological and Arctic issues to the Basque community in 280 characters or less. Although her Twitter account (@artikoan) has only been in existence since July of 2018, it has already acquired over 700 Basque-speaking followers – no small feat for a language with only 1 million speakers worldwide.

The contest that El bani Altuna won on Twitter was organized by the Basque Summer University (UEU) and unibertsitatea.net, a networking portal for the Basque-speaking university community. The challenge was for Basque-speaking PhD students to describe their research in 6 Tweets in Basque. There were two prizes for the most clear and understandable translation of research (500€ each) and one prize for the most original (300€). El bani Altuna was one of the winners in the ‘most clear and understandable’ category.

The Tweets, as translated by El bani Altuna to English for the purposes of this article, have been reproduced below. The first Tweet was required to be title of the research by the rules of the contest, while the last Tweet was to be the hypothesis. The original Tweets, in Basque, can be viewed here.

El bani Altuna’s success is already creating a lot of excitement in Basque Country in the media. She has had several Basque-language radio interviews, an interview for a Basque-language newspaper, and will even be featured on a scientific Basque TV program and in a prestigious Basque science magazine. And this may only be the beginning.

El bani Altuna’s research connects generations

Traveling to the north may not be an activity that is popular with many modern Basque people, but El bani Altuna is certainly not the first to make the journey. In the 16th and 17th century, whaling was an important way of life for many Basque, and they hunted in the areas around northern Norway and Svalbard. El bani Altuna follows in the footsteps of her ancestors as she continues to explore the north as they did hundreds of years before. It is quite poetic that she has also managed to bring her research and Arctic interests to the modern-day Basque people while honoring those of the past. Who knows – maybe somewhere in Basque Country there is a young girl dreaming of ice-covered mountains and shimmering northern lights that will one day be inspired to make the journey herself.

Text: Jessica Green
(References: Saving Eusakara, Keeping Basque Alive in Idaho, interview with Naima El bani Altuna)

The new capabilities of the vessel are making waves in the field of subsea geology

When the new ice-going research vessel christened Kronprins Haakon(KPH) departed the docks of Svalbard on October 22nd 2018, researchers aboard from the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment, and Climate UiT (CAGE) knew that they were in for an adventure. There was much to learn from this newly-built ship with its state-of-the-art sampling equipment, custom laboratories, and capabilities in a variety of weather and ice conditions. But what the scientists didn’t know was how much potential the vessel had to change subsea research in the high north forever.

The inaugural CAGE/UiT cruise on KPH had two main goals. The first was to determine what the vessel itself was capable of: how would it handle, where could it go, and what could it do?

The second goal was to use the ship to transport new, high-tech equipment to an area featuring active methane release systems in the northern Barents Sea. While this region has been well-studied in recent years, researchers from CAGE could now view and sample the seabed in ways that have never been possible before.

Dynamic positioning enables targeted sampling

The ship primarily used by CAGE researchers in the past, UiT’s Research Vessel Helmer Hanssen, was taken on many productive research expeditions over the years – but those expeditions were not without challenges. One of the largest problems facing previous cruises was the potential for the ship to be thrown off course by wind and waves. This made it difficult to keep the ship stationary over a specific area in order to collect samples or examine certain structures and organisms more closely.

A useful feature of KPH that significantly reduces this problem is its dynamic positioning system, allowing the ship to maintain one position in the sea. Therefore, when the research crew identifies something in the water that they want to sample, it is possible to remain in the same spot until the item has been collected. But wind and waves can cause other problems.

Balancing tanks combat rough waves; seasickness

Another major issue facing previous CAGE cruises was the instability of the previous ship when confronted with bad weather, which was a concern about 50% of the time.

It was not uncommon for rough waves to cause an epidemic of seasickness across the entire research team and operational crew – sometimes up to 75% of the passengers were ill for 4-5 days. This created a huge problem in terms of lost labor hours. It was often more time-effective to wait out rough weather in the calm waters of a nearby fjord, as a storm was sure to be shorter than the effects of illness.

This is another area where KPH shines. Balancing tanks built into the structure of the ship are designed to control the pitch and roll of the vessel caused by rough waves, nearly eliminating all risk of motion-induced seasickness. This means that the vessel can be used even against waves of 4-5 meters, a threat that other research vessels were incapable of handling. In fact, KPH will not only be capable of increasing the number of cruises that are viable in the fall, but will likely introduce research expeditions to the winter months – something that was impossible with other, less stable ships.

Moon pool protects delicate equipment – and personnel

Inclement weather doesn’t only affect the comfort and efficiency of passengers, but also the ability to deploy research equipment. If there is too much wind and rain and many high waves, it is difficult to lower equipment over the edge of the ship without the risk of damage to the instrument, or injury to the researchers themselves. That is where a moon pool comes in handy. A moon pool is a feature of some research or drilling vessels that allows equipment to be lowered through a hole in the bottom of the ship to the seabed below, protecting it from the potentially dangerous elements above the water.

The moon pool on KPH is the largest of any research vessel, allowing for deployment of much more advanced, large-scale equipment, such as an ROV.

ROV allows underwater areas to be seen in stunning detail

While the areas of interest in the northern Barents Sea have been the subject of much research in recent years, this voyage was different from those that came before. KPH was carrying a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named ÆGIR 6000 from the Norwegian Marine Robotics Laboratory at the University of Bergen. ÆGIR 6000 is an instrument that is revolutionizing what is known about deep sea areas. The combination of the ROV along with the safe deployment space provided by the moon pool made the first KPH CAGE cruise a very unique experience.

An ROV is an unmanned submersible tethered to the ship through the moon pool by a long cable. It is a piece of equipment capable of exploring the bottom of the ocean at close range while being remotely operated from the ship. The arms of the ROV, commonly called manipulators, are equipped with delicate pincers for taking targeted samples, and the unit contains seven cameras that help technicians see what is being grabbed. It also boasts a coring device to collect sediment, a gas sampler to catch gas bubbles, and a water sampler to collect water, making it a full-service deep-sea robot.

Perhaps most exciting is the mapping tool that is built into the ROV. For the first time, researchers can view the seabed at a resolution of 5-10 centimeters, as opposed to the 4-5 meters possible from more typical mapping systems, providing an overview of the terrain that has never before been achieved.

Next CAGE cruise aboard KPH excitedly anticipated

KPH is a vessel that is shared by several Norwegian-based entities; it is officially owned by the Norwegian Polar Institute, run and maintained by the Institute of Marine Research, and largely used by UiT. In December of 2018 it will begin a voyage to Antarctica led by the Norwegian Polar Institute and the Institute of Marine Research, returning in May 2019. The next two cruises with CAGE participation are scheduled for the fall, departing September 19th and October 19th respectively. Plans at CAGE are already taking shape for the upcoming cruise as researchers eagerly await their next voyage into the unknown.

(Text: Jessica Green)

Article from Science: “The scale of the investment and commitment is astounding,” says Victor Zykov, science director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute. An independent review process is being designed to determine how projects will be chosen for ship time.

Read more here.

When Andreia Plaza-Faverola was growing up in Venezuela, her father would take her snorkeling to a place that the locals referred to as ‘The Bubbles.’ This spot received its unusual nickname due to a natural phenomenon that allows methane gas to leak from the seabed and rise to the surface of the water.

Plaza-Faverola was completely unaware that her interest in this strange activity would coincidentally reappear as a major research focus in her career, ultimately securing her a Starting Grant from the Tromsø Research Foundation in the amount of NOK 11 million, plus an additional NOK 12 million contributed by the UiT Department of Geosciences/NT Faculty, and an additional NOK 3 million provided by the Norwegian government.

UNDERWATER CURIOSITY POTENTIAL FACTOR IN CLIMATE CHANGE

Her research project is appropriately called SEAMSTRESS, as it will investigate the effects of stress placed on underwater seams in the marine areas west of Svalbard. Her working hypothesis is that regional processes such as plate tectonics contribute to cracking open the sea floor and to the release of deeply held methane gas reserves into the ocean.

This underwater gas release is commonly referred to as methane seepage, and is more than just an underwater curiosity. Methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gasses driving climate change due to its effectiveness at absorbing heat, and scientists are trying to determine to what extent methane release from marine environments contribute to the change.

Methane seepage can occur on land, in lakes, in permafrost areas, as well as under the sea. Plaza-Faverola’s research focuses on that occuring in marine settings at continental margins, specifically in Arctic areas.

Geophysical data showing cracks in the sediments and the pathways where methane moves until reaching the seafloor. Text: Andreia Plaza-Faverola

 

NEW EXPERIMENTS AND MODELING COULD PROVIDE ANSWERS

To test the hypothesis, the SEAMSTRESS project begins with an experimental phase in which seismological, seismic, geomechanical and petrophysical data will be combined to get a quantitative idea of how much stress is exerted on the sediment and the amount of deformation experienced at present day. Those data will then lead to a second phase in which the total stress in the region will be modeled, accounting for various forms of stress and how they affect the properties of faults, fractures, fluids, and sediments.

If the project is successful, the plan is to use this approach in other areas to quantify Earth system interactions on a global scale.

The project starts with an experimental phase where geophysical and geomechanical data will be used to measure the forces deforming the sediment. Text: Andreia Plaza-Faverola

 

TROMSØ RESEARCH FOUNDATION SUPPORTS YOUNG, TALENTED RESEARCHERS

Plaza-Faverola is a young researcher at The Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment, and Climate (CAGE) at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and has worked there as a researcher since 2013. The Tromsø Research Foundation’s Starting Grant will secure her position as research manager for 4 years, and also cover the placement of one post-doctoral candidate. The Faculty of Science and Technology and the Department of Geosciences will also fund one PhD position each to work on the project. This is an important milestone for Plaza-Faverola, as leading a research group is a major stepping stone in academia.

Another benefit of the grant is that the university will release a permanent, tenured position in Plaza-Faverola’s field toward the end of the project, a move that could set her up for a long-term career in academia.

Text: Jessica Green

During the last ice age, there was an ice free corridor wedged between two large ice masses in the Arctic. This corridor, which spanned several hundred kilometres, provided habitats for highly adaptable marine life-forms.

(more…)

Newly appointed Indian ambassador to Norway, Hon. Krishan Kumar, recently visited a meeting at CAGE that highlights fruitful scientific collaboration between Indian and Norwegian climate scientists.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

(more…)

A new talent development program, AURORA Outstanding, will train selected young research talents to become future research leaders at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. One of the talents chosen for the program is CAGE researcher Andreia Plaza Faverola.

Text: Randi Solhaug/Maja Sojtaric. Photos: David Jensen

UiT The Arctic University of Norway aims to focus on young, talented researchers that have the potential, the will, and the ambition to become research team leaders and leading researchers in their fields. Therefore, the University created a new talent development program, called AURORA Outstanding. It offers a cross disciplinary, systematic follow-up for specially selected early-career scientists.

In total, 15 candidates from UiT’s four largest faculties have been invited to join the new program. One of those is CAGE researcher, geophysicist Andreia Plaza Faverola.

“These are very good candidates who are carefully selected from fields where they already have performed well. All candidates will receive assistance to identify what is lacking in their resumes, so as to be able to compete for external research funding in the future. In this program we will follow the candidates closely and provide them with the help they need to achieve their career goals “says Research Director, Pål Vegar Storeheier at the Department for Research and Development, UiT.

Aurora outstanding provides mentorship

AURORA Outstanding is a two-year program and will select new candidates bi-annually. Candidates who are selected will, among other things, choose one UiT mentor and one external mentor who will provide perspectives to the candidate´s career development plan.

Six workshops will be provided during the two years – the first one will commence in September 2018. The workshops will comprise of several intensive courses such as management, application writing, innovation, and open access and communication.

“In addition, they will be able to learn a lot from each other through discussions and networking,” says senior adviser Thorbjørg Hroarsdottir, one of the project managers who has worked on developing the new program and selecting the candidates.

“Very positive to the program”

Two of the candidates in AURORA Outstanding are Shona Wood from the United Kingdom and Andreia Aletia Plaza Faverola from Venezuela.

“I am pleasantly surprised that the university offers such a program. Getting extensive support early in one’s career is great.” says Faverola. She has been in Norway since 2013 as a part of the UiT’s centre of excellence in gas hydrate, environment and climate research.

“I also think it is incredibly good that the university supports its candidates in this way, and I am very pleased to have the opportunity to become part of the program. It is also a good forum for addressing issues that we are concerned with,” said Shona Wood, who has worked at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology (BFE) for 10 months.

Her goal is to become a professor and eventually lead her own research group with international standing.

“It’s also my goal for the future. The teaching aspect is also important to me,” adds Faverola.

A diverse group of international candidates

Ten out of 15 selected candidates for AURORA Outstanding are women.

“We discovered that the women were in the majority, after we had made our selection according to the scientific criteria. We hope that this means that we will see more women leaders in the sector in the future. It will be exciting to see the long-term effects of the program” says senior adviser, Theresa Mikalsen. She is also one of the project managers in the program.

The chosen candidates are also an international group – only one of the research talents is Norwegian, CAGE associated biologist Alexander Tøstdal Tveit. In total, 11 nations are represented in the group.

But how can UiT be sure that these candidates will be good leaders in Norway, and not return to their home country?

“If our best minds feel well taken care of, and get good support in their career development, then there is a greater chance that we will keep them. We hope that when they see the good opportunities here, it will not be as tempting to move away, “says Research Director, Pål Vegar Storeheier.

Aiming for Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe

For the university, AURORA Outstanding is also a part of an effort to obtain additional external funding, such as through EU Horizon 2020 framework program and, eventually, Horizon Europe. Therefore, the candidates are learning to write good applications to better compete in those programs.

“The dream outcome of the program is that the candidates in the future will become coordinators in EU projects.” say advisors Hroarsdottir and Mikalsen.

 

This article was first published in Norwegian at UiT The Arctic University of Norway’s website.