One of the key aims of this year’s expedition was sampling and ground-truthing the soils and streams of the coastal tundra plain that run through the landscape.

A couple of weeks ago the rebirth of our research vessel “Christine” allowed us to sail in the Herschel Basin (50-60 m water depth), southeast of the Island, to test the seismic imagery system.

Losing track of time and space, we only just realized that it has already been one week on Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island).

Quvianaqtusi qaigapsi, Wilkommen, Welkom, Bienvenue, Välkommen, Bem vinda, Welcome to the 2018 Nunataryuk field campaign blog of the Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island) and the Yukon Coast Expedition!

Information and consultation meetings with local communities from the early stages of the project ensures stakeholder involvement, which is an important element of the NUNATARYUK research design.

Ilulissat is situated in the Disko Bay area at the mouth of the Ilulissat Icefjord. The Icefjord was included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. The population of Ilulissat was 4 555 as of 2017 (Greenland Statistics), and since 2001 the city has increased in size by about 200 people.

Around 40 Nunataryuk participants are gathered in Vienna to discuss the upcoming work in the project.

The researchers drilled frozen permafrost beneath the Arctic Ocean in Eastern Siberia and identified microorganisms capable of decomposing methane at low temperatures and without oxygen.

WP1 coordinator Dr. Gustaf Hugelius from Stockholm University is one of the co-authors of the new study, which has discovered that climate change caused permafrost thaw has major implications for the global mercury (Hg) cycle.