A meeting inaugurating a new project led by the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences was held in Kroczyce, Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska, on March 9-12, 2022.
The project, which full name is: “RAW – Retreat And Wither” – What is the influence of glaciers recession from tidewater to land-based on the marine biological production and biogeochemistry in the Arctic? is devoted to the issue of determining productivity changes in Arctic fjords as a result of glacier recession.
This topic is of great importance for understanding the role of coastal polar areas in the global carbon cycle of a future warmer and carbon-rich world. Because this productivity shapes the structure and state of the entire ecosystem, the results of the project will also provide the knowledge needed to assess the ecological consequences of climate change in fragile Arctic ecosystems.
The project is a collaboration between three scientific units: Institute of Geophysics PAS (leader) and Institute of Oceanology PAS and the West Norwegian University of Applied Sciences (partner institutions). During the meeting, which was attended by representatives of all project participants, administrative issues were discussed, as well as the preliminary research program for the upcoming summer period on Svalbard.