A month in Svalbard

Liz Bagshaw, Roo Perkins, and Jen Pinnion from the Cold Climate Research Theme at Cardiff University, working with Lisa Mol (UWE) and Marian Yallop and Maggie Gamble (Bristol) have been in Svalbard where they were investigating sediment transport and algal activity in polar glaciers. They spent a month at Longyearbyen collecting samples of suspended sediment, cryoconite and ice algae to study how the algae adapt to their environment and where their nutrients come from. Part of the work continued on from earlier findings in Greenland which showed the importance of ice algae in altering the albedo, and hence the melting, of the ice sheet. They were guests of UNIS, and funded by the Svalbard Science Forum, Royal Geographical Society and British Phycological Society.  For more information about Cold Climate research at Cardiff, contact Liz at bagshawe@cardiff.ac.uk or @cardiffcoldclim.