Green Edge
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WORKPACKAGES
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The scientific program will be partitioned into a total of 6 work packages (WP).

Workpackages :

  • WP.1 Coordination and communication
  • WP.2 Spring bloom dynamics
  • WP.3 Carbon transfer through the food web and towards the bottom
  • WP.4 Contribution of spring bloom to primary production at pan-Arctic scale, and current trends
  • WP.5 Spring bloom in the past
  • WP.6 Spring bloom in the future
  • WP.7 Local knowledge about environment and harvested food

WP1 will encompass the coodination, management and promotion of the Green Edge project. A series of web-based educational modules is currently being developed. An hour-long TV documentary will follow the project from its conception through its various campaigns in the Arctic.

The objective of WP2 is to fully understand the dynamics of the PSB in Arctic, from its onset under the ice-pack to its conclusion in open waters. The results of this WP will significantly improve the coupled physical-biogeochemical models used WP6. WP2 includes 4 major activities: a) 4-month field campaigns in 2015 and 2016 conducted from an ice-camp near Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut, b) An oceanographic misssion in 2016 aboard the research icebreaker CGCS Amundsen along a quasi-zonal transect in central Baffin Bay c) A 3-D survey of the Arctic Ocean's physical and biogeochemical properties, a well as its microbial stocks at different spatial and temporal scales using various autonomous platforms, d) Laboratory-based ecophysiological studies of key phytoplankton species isolated during the field campaign in Baffin Bay, to provide the main parameters for a growth model that will account for the effect of light, temperature and nutrients.

The overarching goal of WP3 will be to track the fate of the PSB in the marine ecosystem using a suite of multi-methodological measurements. This framework will be based on: (1) the assessment of top-down regulation by planktonic grazers and the subsequent impact for the food web; (2) monitoring of bloom decline and sedimentation from the surface to the deep ocean; and (3) the quantification of organic matter pulses at the seafloor using benthic bioarchives and trophic markers. These three sub-objectives will directly feed into the modelling effort of WP6 by providing an in-depth analysis of the Arctic food web structure and function from plankton to vertebrates.

WPs 4, 5 and 6 will study, at the pan-arctic level, the phytoplankton spring bloom in the present using remote sensing approaches (WP4), in the past using pale oceanographic proxies (WP5) and in the future through fully coupled physical-biogeochemical models (WP6).

WP7 objective is to foster connections with local communities with the aim of gauging the social and health issues related to changes in marine resource availability and quality. We would like to show the complementarity of scientific and Inuit knowledge, along with a co-designating, co-producing and co-analysing approach and with people in the communities of Kanngiqtugaapik (Clyde River), Pangniqtuuq (Pangnirtung) and Qikiqtarjuaq (Broughton Island).