Changes in the Arctic Prompt Researchers how the Ecosystem of the Baltic Sea Formed after the Ice Age

The said bay is surrounded by a glacier on one side, by arctic tundra, hills, and marshes on the other, and separated by  a narrow gravel-sand spit from the sea. In the water body, which does not yet have an official place name and is called the conditional name of Eidembukta Bay, the researchers performed bottom topographic measurements using acoustic methods, measured the main water characteristics (salinity, temperature, etc.), collected samples of plankton and bottom fauna, and filmed the bottom with a remote underwater camera . Environmental DNA and gas exchange studies have also been carried out using modern molecular and biogeochemical methods.

The main goal of the project is to understand and describe in detail how the formation of new arctic lagoon ecosystems takes place. According to the team leader prof. Sergej Olenin, MRI KU researchers went to Eidenbukta for the third time. "In 2019, we noticed this water body for the first time, while carrying out other works; in 2021, we conducted the first studies; and this year, in 2022, we started a new project Formation of  of a Novel Coastal Lagoon Ecosystem Following Glacier Retreat Eidembukta, in Svalbard Arctic. By observing the speed at which changes are taking place there and by systematically conducting research, we accumulate invaluable knowledge and, one might say, check our understanding of how the Baltic Sea ecosystem was formed, because after the end of the Ice Age, similar processes took place here as well", says prof. Sergej Olenin. It was the 6th expedition for him and the 3rd for other colleagues: dr. Andrius Šiaulys (marine biologist, bottom habitat research specialist), dr. Aleksej Shashkov (marine cartographer, hydrologist), and dr. Tobia Politi (biogeochemist).

A group of seven researchers lived in a tent for a week. The team members took turns to be on duty every night, keeping an eye out for polar bears, the real hosts of those places. Team leader prof. Sergej Olenin says he is grateful to God for seeing  the white hosts only on the last day of the expedition and at a safe distance.

Part of the research material collected during the expedition has already been brought to MRI KU and is being prepared for laboratory analysis, while another part is still being transported to Gdańsk, to the IO PAN,  by the vessel Oceania and will reach the Institute at the end of September.