Change and variability of Arctic systems Nordaustlandet, Svalbard (KINNVIKA)
Leadership: Start of the project: 2005
End of the project: 2010
• Veijo Pohjola, (Chair) Uppsala University
veijo.pohjola at geo.uu.se
• Paula Kankaanpää (Vice Chair), Arctic Centre, Univ. of Lapland
paula.kankaanpaa at ulapland.fi
• John Moore (Scientific Leader) Arctic Centre, Univ. of Lapland
john.moore at ulapland.fi
Research group: Global change
Project is funded by Nordic Council, Academy of Finland and other Finnish and international funders. The Arctic Centre is running the largest single project: Ice core drilling on Vestfonna.
Overview
This project is run jointly from University of Uppsala, Sweden and Arctic Centre. It is the largest terrestrial Nordic IPY project and represents the about 20 different projects and some 50 scientists. Kinnvika is one of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 projects.
The Kinnvika project will re-open an old research station from the previous polar year to study Arctic Warming and Impact Research. The spectrum of projects from geosciences to the humanities, investigates how the environmental and anthropogenic dynamics have changed recently in comparison with past records of change from existing expedition logs and photographs, proxy climate data from ice-, lake- and sea-sediment cores, and dynamic studies both on terrestrial as marine ice. This is a major multi-national multi-disciplined project involving 26 working groups and more than 80 Principal Investigators. There are over 70 partners from 15 countries.
General scientific approach
• to provide a new site for monitoring of parameters indicative of global and environmental change.
• to fill the gap of a northern component in the Svalbard Archipelago and provide a southern link to efforts focused over the Arctic basin.
• to provide a base for the study of the full bandwidth of Polar Issues.
• to provide a nucleous for research over the scientific borders.
• to bring science on-line to schools and the public audience.
The main Kinnvika building and research gear. Photo: John Moore
Expected outcomes from the IPY/Nordaustlandet initiative
• five year record of measured climatic variability and environmental parameters from the high Arctic.
• improved knowledge of the history of climatic and environmental variability using various archives.
• better understandment of processes active in the Arctic.
• enhanced picture of the history of human activity in the region.
• assessment of the state of global change in the Arctic (endorsing guidelines given by IASSA, IASC, IPA, WMO).
Key participants
• Piotr Głowacki, Polish Academy of Science; glowacki at igf.edu.pl (Polish Polar Station)
• Carl Egede Bøggild, UNIS The University Centre in Svalbard; carl.egede.boggild at unis.no
• Urban Wråkberg, The Swedish Programme for Social Science Research in the Polar Regions; urban at spkp.se
• Jon Ove Hagen - Oslo University; j.o.m.hagen at geo.uio.no
More information
KINNVIKA project homepage
Director Paula Kankaanpää
Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
firstname.surname@ulapland.fi
Senior Scientist John Moore
Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
firstname.surname@ulapland.fi