It started with Stig Falk-Petersen and Anette Wold who participated in a cruise in the Amundsen Gulf (Canada) onboard the Canadian icebreaker CCGS Amundsen. They collected data that we will compare with those we obtained during our seasonal study in Rijpfjorden (Nordaustlandet) in 2007. Shortly after, Eva Leu, Angela Wulff and Wojtek Moskal went to Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard) to carry out a number of experiments in Kongsfjorden. The aim of these experiments was to investigate the effect of solar radiation on food quality and growth of microalgae. At the same time, Janne Søreide went with a group of five once more to Rijpfjorden in order to take more samples from this high Arctic fjord during the productive season in spring that is of key importance for the successful reproduction of herbivore zooplankton. The sampling was carried out in the end of April/beginning of May, exactly the same time as one of our stays in 2007. The conditions turned out to be very different, though. After her return to Longyearbyen, she performed a 9 weeks experiment to look at the development of Calanus glacialis under different food conditions. She carried out these experiments together with Daria Martynova, who earlier this spring had been studying the ecology of this zooplankton species in the Hvite Sea (Russia). Of the three cruises that were planned to go to Rijpfjorden this summer, only one reached its destination, since the ice conditions north of Svalbard were quite severe. Stig and Anette were onboard the British icebreaker James Clark Ross that managed to get to Rijpfjorden take some samples, measure the bottom topography of the fjord, and – probably most important of all – retrieved the mooring with our autonomous sea observatory that had been collecting background data for our project since autumn 2007.

First results of the project will be presented during the annual meeting of the Norwegian Marine Researchers in Tromsø (nov), the Arctic Change Conference in Quebec (Canada) in December, and the Arctic Frontiers Conference in Tromsø in January 2009.