Project period: March 1, 2013 - February 29, 2016

Contact: Dr. Heidemarie Kassens

The joint Russian-German research project „Laptev Sea System" aims to assess how climate change will affect the highly sensitive Arctic environment and in how far the changes will be of consequence for Europe. The main objectives are to investigate:

• the changes in oceanic transfer of energy, matter and momentum in the Transpolar Drift system as a result of climate change;
• the ecological consequences of climate change in the region of the Transpolar Drift Stream;
• regional changes of the atmosphere/sea ice/ocean system in the Arctic;
• the stability of the Arctic climate system: history of the Transpolar Drift Stream.

Research areas are the Laptev Sea as the most important area of sea-ice production and the Fram Strait as the only deepwater and intermediate water connection between the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean (and, therefore, the World Ocean). The Transpolar Drift Stream connects both regions. At the same time, the Russian partner institution, the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, implements multidisciplinary investigations in the Central Arctic Ocean as the key research topic of their research program „Arctic Basin Cluster".

Project partners:

• Subproject 1: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
  Subproject 1a: Transpolar Matter Fluxes
  Subproject 1b: Coordination
• Subproject 2: Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven
• Subproject 3: Mainz Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature
  Subproject 3A: Arctic Halocline
      Subproject 3B: History of the Transpolardrift

• Subproject 4: Trier University
• Subproject 5: Kiel University

For further information please refer to www.transdrift.info