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On the West Greenland Shelf (64.7-70.6 °N), Atlantic derived water flows northwards. This water gradually cools and becomes fresher at the surface, while it mixes with cold Baffin Bay Polar Waters (BBPW) at depth. We conducted a field study in August 2021 and investigated potential effects of these lateral changes in the water masses on the pelagic system. In particular, we studied how it affects the concentration of nitrate, suspended chlorophyll a (Chl a) and particulate organic carbon (POC), as well as the downward flux of POC and the protist community. We investigate here how the plankton communities and the quality and quantity of the downward carbon flux is linked to different water masses on the West Greenland Shelf. This helps to better understand how intensified Atlantic influence may change the system.

The SUMMER project will explore recent findings that suggest that the global ocean’s mesopelagic zone contains 90 % of the planet’s fish biomass. Even if this is correct by only a fraction of this value, the exploitation potential in fishmeal production, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals is enormous. However, as the role of mesopelagic fish in pelagic ecosystems is not well understood, it is necessary to first establish methods to accurately estimate their biomass, taxonomic/functional diversity, contribution to the global carbon cycle and potential as a sustainable fishery. Using state-of-the-art tools (e.g. eDNA, acoustics and gut analysis), SUMMER will also investigate environmental repercussions of such exploitation, and quantify the impact of commercial extraction on pelagic ecosystems. This deliverable reports on the outcomes of Task 1.2: “Assemble relevant research outputs from research”. It addresses the second objective of Work Package 1, which is to compile background knowledge suitable to contributing to the scientific objectives of the SUMMER project. In total, 160 literature and 200 data references were identified, covering topics on mesopelagic resources with a focus on taxa specific biomass and community composition. The references and links are provided as Excel table and reference database in .ris format in open access. Ca. 1 TB of historical echosounder, abundance and biomass data were published in open access under this task via the databases PANGAEA and NMDC.

Community mobility, or the act of moving around within the community, can be thought of as an occupation, but also as a means to occupation, because it is essential for people to have opportunities to participate in society. People with mobility impairments do not have the same opportunities as other people to move around because of multiple challenges in the environment. This research aimed to enhance understanding of how services, systems and policies shape community mobility of people with mobility impairments in the town of Akureyri in northern Iceland. This dissertation further raises awareness about human rights, occupational rights and occupational justice issues regarding the relationship between these infrastructure factors and community mobility for this group. Case study methodology was used, which includes using multiple methods for data collection. Two focus group interviews were conducted with people with mobility impairments, and one with service providers working within the disability sector. Based on findings from these focus groups, two policy areas were identified that are essential to support community mobility, that is transportation services and accessibility. Those policy areas were then explored further with a review of publicly available policy documents. The overall findings of this case study highlight key areas that could improve community mobility of people with mobility impairments if taken into consideration in all policy development in Iceland. Those areas are regarding (1) Users’ involvement in policy development; (2) Clarity and consistency of policy texts; (3) Monitoring of the system as a whole; and (4) Occupational right and justice values in policies. The findings indicate that current policies are not sufficiently congruent with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and people with mobility impairments are subject to occupational injustices and violation of occupational rights, which originates at the system level. This work points to the need to reconsider the way policies are developed and has implications not only for people with mobility impairments, but also policy makers, service providers, and researchers in the field.

This projected was originally applied for in 2016 under the program Fiskeri, natur og miljø EHFF. The project was granted from 01-04-2016 to 05-08-2018, and extended to 31-12-2018 (in an application from 14-12-2017).The scope of the project was to improve the biological advice on soles in Skagerrak, Kattegat, the Belts and Western Baltic. Sole is a small but very valuable fish important to fisheries. Therefore, the stock assessment on sole is important for the commercial fisheries. In the autumn of 2015, a benchmark for the sole stock in the Danish waters was carried out improving the precision of biomass estimates and estimates of fisheries pressure. Based on this revised assessment, it also became clear that knowledge on spawning areas and areas for juvenile sole is sparse and may introduce a potential error in the assessment. Furthermore, regional differences in growth rates and mortality are not well-known. In order to minimize these potential errors, this project was set up to include analyses of extended surveys, new initiatives to collaborate directly with the fishermen as well as include results of using new fishing gear technology. The intention was to improve not only stock assessment but also improve the basis for the fisheries management.The report presented in this document is a direct outcome of the project documenting the achieved goals. The results are to be included in the on-going ICES working group on sole (WGBFAS) and be used in the forthcoming benchmark process.

Lipid-fuelled overwintering by copepods can be a regionally important contribution to carbon sequestration in the deep oceans. Here, we estimate the contribution for Calanus hyperboreus, found in abundance in the northern reaches of the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean. Estimates for regions with high overwintering populations, Fram Strait, Greenland Sea and Iceland Sea lie between 3.5 gC m22 yr21 and 6.0 gC m22 yr21 at depths of 1000–3000 m, comparable to the flux of detrital organic carbon at commensurate depths. Apart from the variation in the abundance of overwintering populations, these estimates are most sensitive to mortality rates. We present a general model based on metabolic theory and isomorphism that can be used to constrain estimates for data poor species in other parts of the global ocean

Every autumn across the North Atlantic, large numbers of zooplankton copepods migrate from the surface waters into the ocean’s interior to hibernate at depths of 600–1,400 m. Through this migration, they actively transport lipid carbon to below the permanent thermocline, where it is metabolized at a rate comparable to the carbon delivered by sinking detritus. This “lipid pump” has not been included in previous estimates of the deep-ocean carbon sequestration, which are based on either measurements of sinking fluxes of detritus, or estimates of new primary production. Unlike other components of the biological pump, the lipid pump does not strip the surface ocean of nutrients, and decouples carbon sequestration from nutrient replenishment, a process we term the “lipid shunt.&rdquo

Here we present a new, pan-Atlantic compilation of data on key mesozooplankton species, including the possibly most important copepod, Calanus finmarchicus. Distributional data of ten representative zooplankton taxa, from recent (2000–2009) Continuous Plankton Recorder data, are presented, along with basin-scale data of the phytoplankton colour index. Then we present a compilation of data on C. finmarchicus including observations of abundance, demography, egg production and female size with accompanying data on temperature and chlorophyll. This is a contribution by Canadian, European and US scientists and their institutions. http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.820732, http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.824423, http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.828393.

The population of Calanus finmarchicus in the North Sea is replenished each spring by invasion from an overwintering stock located beyond the shelf edge. A combincation of field observations, statistical analysis of Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) data, and particle tracking model simulations, was used to investigate the processes involved in the cross-shelf invasion. The results showed that the main source of overwintering animals entering the North Sea in the spring is at depths of greater than 600m in the Faroe Shetland Channel, where concentrations of up to 620m -3 are found in association with the overflow of Norwegian Sea Deep Water (NSDW) across the Iceland Scotland Ridge. The input of this water mass to the Faroe Shetland Channel, and hence the supply of overwintering C. finmarchicus, has declined since the late 1960s due to changes in convective processes in the Greenland Sea. Beginning in February, animals start to emerge from the overwintering state and migrate to the surface waters, where their transport into the North Sea is mainly determined by the incidence of north-westerly winds that have declined since the 1960s. Together, these two factors explain a high proportion of the 30-year trends in spring abundance in the North Sea as measured by the CPR survey. Both the regional winds and the NSDW overflow are connected to the North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAO), which is an atmospheric climate index, but with different time scales of response. Thus, interannual fluctuations in the NAO can cause immediate changes in the incidence of north-westerly winds without leading to corresponding changes in C. finmarchicus abundance in the North Sea, because the NSDW overflow responds over longer (decadal) time scales.