Three researchers from the iC3 Polar Research Hub – Lucie Goraguer, Fanny Cusset and Philipp Assmy – are taking part in a year-round scientific effort to understand how Arctic fjords are responding to climate change.

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Picture: Lucie Goraguer (left; credit Karoline Barstein), Fanny Cusset (center; credit Allison Bailey) and Philipp Assmy (right; credit: Philipp Assmy).

The initiative, called the International Kongsfjorden Year 2024–2025, brings together experts from around the world to study the marine environment of Kongsfjorden in Svalbard across all seasons.

By embedding themselves in this ambitious programme, iC3 scientists are making key contributions to research on contaminants, plankton dynamics and ecosystem change.

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Year-round science in a warming fjord

Kongsfjorden is one of the most studied fjords in the European Arctic, with scientific monitoring going back over 30 years. 

However, scientists have recently realised that crucial information about the base of its ecosystem is lacking. This is because seasonal fluctuations in phyto- and zooplankton are poorly resolved due to the lack of high temporal resolution data. 

The International Kongsfjorden Year (IKY) aims to change this with year-round sampling from summer 2024 to summer 2025.

Image: Details of the weekly monitoring and seasonal transects throughout IKY 2024-2025 (credit: Allison Bailey).

The programme includes weekly sampling at a mid-fjord station led by the German Alfred Wegener Institute (PI Clara Hoppe) and seasonal cross-fjord transects led by the Norwegian Polar Institute (PI Allison Bailey) in an interdisciplinary collaboration involving national and international partners from UiT The Arctic University of Norway, the US, India, Italy and Poland. Throughout last year and this year, scientists have been collecting physical, chemical and biological data to understand the seasonal bottlenecks of fjord ecosystems in a rapidly warming Arctic.

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Collecting seasonal data

Philipp Assmy, an iC3 researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), is part of the team leading the plankton monitoring effort. “The phytoplankton spring bloom is a major energy boost for the whole food web,” says Philipp. “But many different factors determine its timing, how big it gets, what species of algae dominate, and whether zooplankton can feed on it. That makes it really hard to predict how much energy will actually move up the food chain.” 

By collecting detailed seasonal data, Philipp and his colleagues aim to improve our understanding of these dynamics – and help to better understand how Arctic marine ecosystems may respond to continued warming.

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Investigating invisible contaminants

Fanny Cusset, a postdoctoral researcher at iC3, is part of IKY through the METALLICA project. Her focus is on how metals and other contaminants build up in zooplankton – the tiny animals that form the base of the Arctic food web.

“Zooplankton are key to understanding contaminant transfer,” says Fanny. “We’re focusing on how metals are accumulating in the biota and if we actually see differences between different locations in the fjord, whether they are close to glaciers or outside the fjord, and between seasons.”

Picture: Fanny using a net tow to sample zooplankton (credit: Allison Bailey).

Following the fjord

Lucie Goraguer, a PhD candidate with iC3, is also contributing to IKY. Her research focuses on the ecology of phytoplankton. In Kongsfjorden, she is investigating how the interplay between Atlantic and Arctic waters and glacier run-off influences phytoplankton communities, and how climate change affects species composition and carbon cycling.

Lucie’s work combines field sampling, laboratory analysis and microscopy. Her strong background in taxonomy allows her to precisely identify phytoplankton species, helping to assess the state of the ecosystem and how it is changing. Through IKY, she is building a clearer picture of seasonal and spatial variability in phytoplankton dynamics across the fjord.

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Wider relevance of fjord science

The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on Earth. This warming affects sea ice, glacier melt, nutrient flows and marine life. Understanding these changes is crucial not just for Arctic ecosystems, but for global ocean systems and food webs.

Kongsfjorden, with its mix of Atlantic and Arctic waters, land- and marine-terminating glaciers and the excellent research infrastructure of the Ny-Ålesund Research Station, provides a natural laboratory for these questions. The contributions of iC3 researchers to IKY are strengthening our ability to understand and respond to change.

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Fanny Cusset works with the iC3-affiliated METALLICA project at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø, the capital of Arctic Norway. To find out more about her work, please check out her list of publications, or contact her by email or on LinkedIn.

Lucie Goraguer is a PhD student with iC3 at both the Norwegian Polar Institute and the UiT the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. To find out more about her work, please check out her list of publications, or contact her by email.

Philipp Assmy is an iC3 senior researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute, specializing in phytoplankton ecology, sea ice biology, and ocean biogeochemistry. To find out more about his work, please check out his list of publications, or contact him by email.

Read here about the International Kongsfjorden Year 2024-2025.

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Picture: Kongsfjorden in January 2025 (credit: Ceslav Czyz).